Sony Targeting A Younger Audience With Their New WiFi-Free PSP

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I have to admit, when Sony announced their budget-priced, Wifi-free PSP for PAL regions at Gamescom 2011, I was a little bit confused. It struck me as odd that Sony would release a watered down PSP so close to the launch of the PS Vita (at least we think it’s close to the Vita release), but luckily Sony Europe has claried some things for us.

As it turns out, Sony is targeting this new PSP at younger audiences, with SCEE boss Jim Ryan explaining their plans for this latest edition in an interview with MCV:

You will see the audience skew younger. At €99/£89 it will make a great Christmas gift. It’s a device to play UMD games. It’s all for the audience. If we are going to take PSP very young – teens and much younger – they are happy to just play the game. If taking wi-fi out is the price to pay, we’re happy to. The €99 price tag is a real barrier that we’ve got under which will help us lift off.

While he might be right when he says these “much younger,” gamers aren’t as interested in online play, my experience on Xbox Live seems to speak to the contrary. We’ll see if this PSP sells as well as SCEE is predicting when it launches sometime this fall in Europe.