He cites PSPgo sales, which caters to digital consumers, having not ‘cannibalised’ the UMD-based PSP-3000 much. It’s additive if anything.
”I think we were always fairly clear, as far back as the original announcements, that this wasn’t a replacement for the current PSP-3000 offering, and that it sits alongside that and packaged media,” SCEE president Andrew House told GamesIndustry.biz.
”The early sales numbers that we’ve seen bear that out - I don’t think there’s been a huge amount of cannibalisation, and I think those sales have come in and lifted overall PSP sales,” he continued.
”It’s clearly demonstrated that there is a consumer out there, and it’s validated that proposition in moving more towards a digital download as a preferred means of getting content.” Steam’s success is the PC’s own ‘validation’ of the digital consumer rising.
”Make no mistake, when you’re looking at PS3 games and you’re seeing the shift in the sheer size of the data that’s becoming available, the packaged media business is not going away any time soon,” stated House.
”I think there’s been an overstatement there potentially, and then a backlash to that - but I don’t think we were really responsible for that overstatement, so we’re not really part and parcel of the backlash, if that makes sense.”
”It has its place for those consumers - it comes back to offering people options, and it was the right option for us to offer.” The best option was price cuts, Mr House, as evidenced by the skyrocket in PS3 sales following the long overdue announcement.
Have you been shifting more toward digital, as opposed to packaged goods?
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