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Starting Sunday, the nearly two and a half-year-old PSP-3000 will get a $40 price cut to just $130—but is it a bargain worth scooping up, given that Sony's next-generation gaming handheld is waiting in the wings?
Sony announced the deal on the official PlayStation blog Friday, along with a series of price cuts for such popular PSP titles as Assassin's Creed Bloodlines, Dissidia Final Fantasy, LittleBigPlanet, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (now $20 each), as well as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Daxter, Killzone: Liberation, and SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fire Time Bravo ($10 each).
Sony says it will also chop the price of its PSP Entertainment Packs (which come bundled with disc-based UMD games) to $160, down from about $200.
The price drops will take effect Sunday, February 27, according to the PlayStation blog.
The slider-style, UMD-less PSP Go already saw a price drop back in October, from $250 to $200—and it'll still cost $200 come Monday.
The news comes about a month after Sony unveiled its long-awaited, next-generation gaming handheld, which (for now) goes by the code name "NGP," for (natch) Next-Generation Portable.
Set for release this coming holiday season, the NGP promises to eclipse the old PSP in just about every way imaginable, with the new handheld slated to arrive with a five-inch touchscreen, dual analog joysticks, a secondary rear touchpad, embedded 3G data support, and a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor.
The NGP is also sure to surpass the existing PSP in the price department, although Sony has yet to announce any pricing details.
So, with the NGP about six to seven months away, is there any point in snapping up a bargain-priced PSP-3000?
Nope, argue the gamers at Kotaku, who note in their newly updated shopping guide that while the PSP was once a "great system" that "had lots of good games," the aging console (the original PSP-1000 debuted about six years ago) and its all-but-abandoned UMD disc format is "about to be sent to the yard."
There are also other new portable gaming options to consider, Kotaku continues, such as the soon-to-be-released, 3D-enabled Nintendo 3DS ($250, on sale March 27 in the U.S.), as well as the burgeoning selection of games for iOS and Android devices. There's also the existing and ever-popular Nintendo DS Lite, which sells new for $130.
Of course, bargain hunters dead-set on getting a PSP could always save even more by buying a second-hand console on Amazon or Ebay; prices seem to be hovering around $100, and they may sink even lower once Monday's price drop kicks in.
Personally, I'm waiting for the NGP (or whatever it ends up being called), but make no mistake—it won't be cheap, with the general consensus being that the upcoming, turbo-charged handheld will cost anywhere from $250 to $300.
Sony announced the deal on the official PlayStation blog Friday, along with a series of price cuts for such popular PSP titles as Assassin's Creed Bloodlines, Dissidia Final Fantasy, LittleBigPlanet, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (now $20 each), as well as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Daxter, Killzone: Liberation, and SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fire Time Bravo ($10 each).
Sony says it will also chop the price of its PSP Entertainment Packs (which come bundled with disc-based UMD games) to $160, down from about $200.
The price drops will take effect Sunday, February 27, according to the PlayStation blog.
The slider-style, UMD-less PSP Go already saw a price drop back in October, from $250 to $200—and it'll still cost $200 come Monday.
The news comes about a month after Sony unveiled its long-awaited, next-generation gaming handheld, which (for now) goes by the code name "NGP," for (natch) Next-Generation Portable.
Set for release this coming holiday season, the NGP promises to eclipse the old PSP in just about every way imaginable, with the new handheld slated to arrive with a five-inch touchscreen, dual analog joysticks, a secondary rear touchpad, embedded 3G data support, and a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor.
The NGP is also sure to surpass the existing PSP in the price department, although Sony has yet to announce any pricing details.
So, with the NGP about six to seven months away, is there any point in snapping up a bargain-priced PSP-3000?
Nope, argue the gamers at Kotaku, who note in their newly updated shopping guide that while the PSP was once a "great system" that "had lots of good games," the aging console (the original PSP-1000 debuted about six years ago) and its all-but-abandoned UMD disc format is "about to be sent to the yard."
There are also other new portable gaming options to consider, Kotaku continues, such as the soon-to-be-released, 3D-enabled Nintendo 3DS ($250, on sale March 27 in the U.S.), as well as the burgeoning selection of games for iOS and Android devices. There's also the existing and ever-popular Nintendo DS Lite, which sells new for $130.
Of course, bargain hunters dead-set on getting a PSP could always save even more by buying a second-hand console on Amazon or Ebay; prices seem to be hovering around $100, and they may sink even lower once Monday's price drop kicks in.
Personally, I'm waiting for the NGP (or whatever it ends up being called), but make no mistake—it won't be cheap, with the general consensus being that the upcoming, turbo-charged handheld will cost anywhere from $250 to $300.
