PSP Go Struggles With Paltry Australia Sales

Sony's PSP Go is seeing meager performance in Australia, posting just slightly over 1000 units since it launched in the region on October 1. Calling it a "soft launch," Sony Computer Entertainment Director Michael Ephraim confirmed the rough figure to regional publication The Age, after sources inside Gfk Chart Track let the site know how grim the first-week picture looked. The PSP Go sells for $450 in Australia, and the absence of a UMD drive for the download-only platform appears to be meeting even steeper criticism in the region as it has elsewhere. Retailers -- especially those in the UK, including Amazon, HMV and Gamestation -- have had to implement $50 price cuts already to motivate customers, and some outlets in Australia, like EB games, refuse to stock the handheld entirely. "Clearly we haven't done massive numbers, but it's not something that we're concerned about ... because there are still some issues that we need to work through," Ephraim told The Age. Sony hasn't isolated the PSP Go's launch numbers in the U.S., but says that its American launch week elevated PSP platform sales as a whole 300 percent. On the other hand, the PlayStation 3 in Australia, which sells for just 50 percent more, has been selling steadily at 10,000 units per week in the region since it launched on September 1, according to the report.