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Sony PSP gets $30 price cut

The price for the Sony PSP dropped to $169.99 today.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
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David Carnoy
2 min read
Spring sale on the the PSP. Any takers? CNET Networks

After failing to keep up with Nintendo's DS juggernaut, Sony promised it would do a better job marketing the PSP, and now it appears that push is fully underway with a $30 price cut to the PSP Core Pack, the base system. That brings the PSP's MSRP to $169.99, or $80 less than the system's launch price of two years ago.

According to a press release that went out today, Sony's also modified the pricing structure for the system's software, with "first-party PSP software priced using a new tiered model--$39.99 (premium titles), $29.99 (basic titles), and $19.99 (Greatest Hits titles)." To a certain degree, this pricing isn't really new, but Sony seems to be signaling that there will be more $30 titles available on store shelves in 2007.

For Nintendo fanboys who argue that the price drop is too little, too late for the PSP, don't be so cocky. Today's move pulls the PSP's price tag within $40 of the DS Lite's, and the PSP has an impressive software library (Sony claims it has shipped close to 25 million units worldwide, but that doesn't mean it has sold that many PSPs). Now, if Sony would stop touting the whole UMD movie thing and figure out a way to shorten up load times with a memory buffering system that's similar to the PS3's, it might really give Nintendo a run for its money.

What do you think? Is the PSP a bargain at $169 or should we all wait for it to drop to $149?