Sony finally decides to sell PSP in RP market

SONY has finally decided to make the Playstation Portable (PSP) available in the Philippines almost a year after it was launched in Japan.
PSPs sold in the country are parallel imports brought in by local retailers.

"Many local customers are demanding for it," Hiroaki Kobayashi, president and chief executive officer of Sony Philippines, told INQ7.net in an interview.

Sony Philippine is, however, offering limited supplies of the PSP in the market, making it available in only three Sony stores in Metro Manila, the executive said. This is meant to test the Philippine market for Sony's popular mobile gaming console, he said.

Due to issues of parallel importation and game software piracy, Sony Philippines has been hesitating to push its gaming products in the country, admitted Kobayashi. It currently does not sell the Playstation gaming console in the country due to rampant proliferation of pirated copies of Playstation titles.

"We want to provide better service to our Playstation customers. But we have to contend with the game software piracy issue," he added.

The local subsidiary expects to sell 3,000 to 4,000 PSP units a month, with demand expected to shoot up during the months leading to the Christmas season in the Philippines. Worldwide, Sony has shipped 5 million units as of June 2005.

The Sony PSP will sell for 18,999 pesos in the country. It will also come with one free Sony game title.

Meanwhile, Kobayashi said that Sony Philippines has also decided to beef up customer support for its Playstation product.

Filipino customers who have bought Playstation products from the gray market can now expect faster and better services from more than 30 customer service centers of the Japanese company, Kobayashi said.

Local customers, however, cannot claim the product warranty that comes with the Playstation consoles bought from other countries, including those sold in the Philippines, he said.

"They still have to pay for our services," the Sony executive said.

Sony Philippines will also push Sony Playstation accessories in the local market, hoping to halt the proliferation of fake Sony Playstation accessories.