UK Retailers Cut Price Of PSP Go Shortly After Launch

Major UK retailers including Amazon UK, Game, Gamestation, and HMV have cut the price of Sony's newly-released PSP Go hardware from £224.99 to £199.99, consumer site GameSpot reported. The retailer-initiated discount is unusual as it comes less than a week after the disc drive-less PSP Go launched on October 1 in the UK. Sony released the sleeker handheld to sell alongside the older UMD-equipped PSP-3000 model, which sells for £139.99. UK retailers including Zavvi and Tesco.com, however, maintained the original price for the hardware, GameSpot's report noted. The PSP Go represents a stronger focus on digital distribution for Sony Computer Entertainment. Along with the launch of the PSP Go, Sony released 100 games on the PlayStation store as paid downloads, nearly doubling the previous count. The launch of the PSP Go boosted sales of Sony's portable platform 120 percent week over week in the UK -- "in line with expectations," according to the company. The PSP Go also launched in the U.S. on October 1, and is still selling for $249.99, or just $50 less than the recently-introduced, cheaper, slimmed down PlayStation 3 home console.