The purpose of the PSP Minis was to have downloadable "bite sized" gaming on Sony's console, competitive with various selections on the iPhone. The first batch of PSP Minis have released and with prices ranging from $4.99 to $9.99, it makes the downloadable titles barely cheaper than legacy PSP titles on PSN and generally a few dollars more expensive than their iPhone counterparts. While this has struck some as unnecessarily expensive, SCEA's Director of PlayStation Network Operations Eric Lempel explained to Joystiq that it's not Sony's call.
"As far as pricing goes, the publisher of the title sets the pricing," he explained. When asked if publishers could make a Mini $1.99, he responded, "Yes, absolutely."
"I think they have to carefully look at that, carefully price their content. Minis was intended to be something a little different and we wanted to see a lot of different types of content through Minis," he continued. "If it's not priced correctly, consumers may be turned off at the proposition and say 'I'd rather just go for this kind of stuff instead of minis.'"
The Minis are a good idea for the PSP, but given the limitations imposed on them, $4.99 should be the ceiling and not the floor of their pricing.
