Sony's newly revealed NGP looks impressive, but the one crucial question on the minds of gamers everywhere is, "How much will this thing set me back?" Some believe the NGP will be competitively priced with Nintendo's 3DS at $249, but then there are others who have indicated a much higher possible MSRP for the portable. The OLED screen itself no doubt cost Sony a pretty penny.
"NGP kicks ass. The games and online gaming features demoed, along with the OLED display, chipset and motion and touch controls make NGP a must have for gaming enthusiasts who want to go portable," M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon enthused to IndustryGamers.
"$299 would be a great launch price, but the components in the NGP aren't cheap, so I could see it going as high as $399 to start. It will sell out at either price, as dedicated gaming hardware supply is typically constrained at launch," he continued. If you want a good chuckle, GameStop is listing NGP for $999 (which is obviously just a placeholder).
Interestingly, Pidgeon doesn't see the iPhone or smartphones sector having a major impact on either 3DS or NGP for several years. "I think NGP will do well in the mid to long term as well, and with NGP and 3DS in the market, the dedicated portable gaming market is set for another five to seven year cycle. Convergent portable devices such as smartphones and tablets can't compete with either NGP or 3DS on performance, game quality or online capabilities and are unlikely to do so for at least five years," he said.
He also added that Sony's "PlayStation Suite will improve the current gaming experience and will even the playing field on convergent handhelds, giving third party Android 2.3+ devices a significant edge against iOS devices."
While Pidgeon believes a $399 price point would work out just fine for Sony, DFC Intelligence's David Cole doesn't necessarily agree. Because the hype train for Nintendo 3DS is so big right now and Nintendo has always dominated the handheld market, Sony needs to be more careful in their NGP pricing assessment.
"There are still a lot of unknowns about the NGP... I think its direct competition will be the Nintendo 3DS which means price could be crucial. I think a price of $300 is needed to be competitive in that respect," Cole told us. "They should have a very strong software lineup and I think that should definitely help in the competition. Overall we are looking for a pretty strong revitalization of the dedicated portable market over the next few years. While we had been looking at much of the growth in games for phones and other non-dedicated game devices (tablets), now we are redoing our estimates to up our forecasts for the dedicated devices. The main question is how the NGP will fare against the 3DS."
As much as we'd like to see the NGP priced at $250, we think there's a good chance it'll be much higher - certainly for the 3G version (remember, there will be multiple SKUs).
