The Nintendo 3DS, now out in Japan, has received some criticism over there for its suggested retail price of 25,000 yen (about $305). The way some devs are talking about the potential MSRP of Sony’s recently-announced PSP successor, they’d see a 25,000-yen NGP as practically giving the thing away.
“We’re at an age where brand-new mobile phones go for 50,000 yen or more, so I think [the NGP price] is a bit hard to predict,” Sega game producer Toshihiro Nagoshi told Famitsu magazine in this week’s issue. “Being cheap would be great, of course, but I’m definitely looking forward to the announcement.” Jiro Ishii, game designer at indie developer Level-5, was slightly more hopeful: “I’d like it to be around 25,000 yen, though that’s more of a hope than a prediction. I’d really like it to go on sale at a cheaper price range than current home consoles.” (The cheapest 160GB PlayStation 3 model currently retails for 29,980 yen in Japan.)
Sony has so far been coy about the NGP’s potential price range worldwide, although they have publicly spoken of hardware features that they “had to set aside to remain on target” in order to keep the price reasonably decent. The system features a wide variety of technology being engineered into a single device for the first time, but many devs Famitsu spoke to still expressed hope that Sony prices the system in the same range as Nintendo’s 3DS. “I think getting the price below 30,000 yen would make a really great impression on a lot of people,” said Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi. “It’s a device with a lot of attention-grabbing features, but I’m still focused on the fact that this is a game device, first and foremost. If they set up the right infrastructure for the 3G network, there’s a chance that the system will completely change the distribution channels for games. I’m hoping that helps expand the game experience for users.”
