PSP Go Price Restored To $199

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Just a few days ago, news broke that Sony had set the official MSRP of the PSP Go down to just $149. That’s $50 off the previous $199 price and it seems like Sony was giving the controversial all-digital handheld a price cut before the Sony NGP, which is supposed to be out in Japan before the end of the year. Now, just as inexplicably as it came, the official price of the PSP Go has been set back up to $199.

Just as before, Sony hasn’t given  any explanation as to why the price of the PSP Go was raised against. Speculation has it as some sort of sales experiment, accident, or something else. The PSP Go, with all due respect to Sony, has to be one of the most unsuccessful products the company has ever introduced to the market.

It was a smaller, all-digital version of the regular PSP that was much more expensive. With a lack of a UMD drive (meaning that even die-hard PSP fans couldn’t play their big collection of games on it) and the high price being introduced at just the wrong time in the PSP’s lifecycle, the PSP Go is believed to be an unmitigated sales disaster for Sony.

While Sony has never issued official sales numbers, analyst estimates show that the PSP Go isn’t exactly outselling anything. And we’ve even heard reports from folks who work in retail stores saying that Sony is even cutting back on the amount of PSP Go’s that they’re letting into the retail channel. Phasing out the device, perhaps?