Sony ponders PS3 price cut
Hurry up, Howard
The chairman and chief executive of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, has said the company was attempting to "refine" how much it could afford to reduce the price of the PS3 console by, and has been quoted as saying there was "no question" consumers wanted the price to be lower. Duh.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Stringer admitted rival console the Nintendo Wii - which is far outselling the PS3 - was based on a good business model.
Sony fell short of its PS3 target in the 12 months to 31 March 2007 by 500,000 units. Market analysts are predicting the games division to incur a loss of around $488m in the current year, despite Sony's claim its has sold more than a million units in Europe and Australasia since the PS3's late March launch there.
Stringer said: "[Price cuts are] what we are studying at the moment. That's what we are trying to refine." He went on to say that he expected "energy [in PS3 sales] by Christmas, and then you will begin to see break-out games".
PS3 sales have been slow - to be honest, the world over - owing to its high price and slow, drip-feed supply of games, most of which have been PC game re-writes anyway. Apparently, the Japanese electronics giant has a target of shipping 11m console this year, and with production costs falling many believe Sony will cut prices by $100 before the crucial Christmas sales period.
COMMENTS
PS3 needs to drop price by $200 to compete
No one I know wants a PS3 right now and there are 2 reasons for this:
1. No great games.
2. Way too expensive.
They should have made the blu-ray player a $200 option like the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.
If Sony wants to push their proprietary format "Blu-ray" and is forcing us (PS3 buyers) to adopt their format, then they should eat the $200 cost of the blu-ray technology.
Once the price of the premium system drops to $399.99 like the Xbox 360 and they come out with some nice exclusive games. (Think: FF, MGS, GT5 to start with) then maybe they will have a shot. I stress maybe depending on how fast they drop the price and come out with games. (If this doesn't happen by Christmas then I feel Sony has officially lost. You have the Wii kicking the crap out of PS3 for the quirky "Japanese" controller and kid’s games and the 360 is mauling them with incredible mature games and a rock solid online network.
Sorry Sony, but you'll have either take a huge loss per console and drop the price or drop the built-in blu-ray disc production and make the PS3 a DVD system with an add-on Blu-ray player or just concede and drop the PS3 from your line-up (Stop the bleeding)
Break-Out ?
Oh, you mean like Arkanoid that I just downloaded for nothing on an Abandonware site ? Or maybe you mean Lode Runner, that I got for just as much in the same place ?
Sony would make me laugh if it didn't disgust me so much. I'm a PC gamer, and frankly, I see nothing in PS3 or 360 that could even remotely incite me to change.
On my platform, I can play extraordinarily good games, the latest out, the ones from five years ago, and even games from consoles via emulators.
Frankly, Sony gives me no incentive whatsoever to buy its product: It's expensive, has only a handful of games, can only play a handful more, and it doesn't look all that good either (no better than my 8800 GTS anyway).
PC gaming is far from dead, from my point of view.
'Drop Blu-Ray'
I wish people would stop being so daft and going on how Sony's biggest mistake was Blu-Ray! That's stupid! Yes, NO games are using the storage it offers right now, and 360's DVD capacity is ample, but in 2years time, just about all PS3 games will be using it. Look at PS2 games now, God of War is Dual Layer! Res 4, MGS 2 & 3, Gran Turismo 3 & 4, FFX & XII, etc. all of PS2's fantastic games couldn't have fit on the CD format that people said the PS2 should have used, because 'DVD is too expensive' and 'will never catch on' etc etc. And yet in reality, if Sony hadn't chosen the DVD format, the PS2 wouldn't have lasted the 7years it has and Sony would've had to have released a new console / solution a lot sooner.
It makes me laugh even more when the very same people saying this also say "And bring out MGS4!" - which Kojima has already said makes full use of Blu-Ray, and wont be released on 360 because of the lack of storage - his exact words were that it'd have to be "majorly stripped down."
I will get a PS3. Eventually. I can't justify spending anything more than £300 on a console. So what I'm gonna do is wait 'till it drops to $500 in the states, and import one, which should come to £300 with postage. That's what I did for PS2 :) American games are so much cheaper!
If Sony want to even get market-share they'll HAVE to drop the European price. £425 RRP? That's insane. Absoultely insane. 3DO anyone?
Expensive BR Player?
"I'd purchase a PS3 if it wasn't just a very expensive blu-ray player"
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I hate it when factual errors are made.
On the contrary, the PS3 is a relatively inexpensive way of owning a BR player.
With the newly released upscaling software, it matches high-end expensive players which have this facility.
It always takes a consul time to develop, while programmers learn how to use the new technology. Why does this culture demands everything now, and nothing less?
Chill out people.
Drop it now .. isn't it obvious it's too expensive ?
If they drop the price I will buy it, its that simple, if not I'll buy a 360 by next march.
