Sony pooh-poohs PS3 price cut
Save your cash for an Xbox 360
Sony has set in stone its position on PlayStation 3 pricing - and it’s not good news for cash-strapped gamers.
Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony’s CFO, told investors in Singapore that “our plan is not to reduce the price” of the PS3. Instead, the firm’s long-term strategy is to concentrate on profitability, rather than selling more PS3s.
In short, it wants to work on making the console cheaper to produce and so more profitable.
Sony’s got good reason for keeping the PS3’s price up where it is - for the time being at least. Over the past two fiscal years Sony’s PS3 pricing strategy has caused it to lose around $3bn (£1.5bn/€1.9bn).
The firm’s 2008 annual report revealed that Sony lost $2.1bn in fiscal year (FY) 2007 - the 12 months to 31 March 2007 – and a further $1.1bn in FY2008, as a result of subsidising the console's retail price.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has been slashing the Xbox 360’s price all over the world. Register Hardware recently reported that the cost of all Xbox 360 models is to be cut in Australia, following earlier cuts in the UK and US.
COMMENTS
Really, Mark?
My sources at Microsoft say the 360 is outselling the PS3, and that Ballmer is pretty well off, too.
Being sensible for a moment, I fail to see why Sony would announce any price cut in advance anyway. Nobody ever does. The price will come down when it comes down. I'll buy one when I can justify the expenditure.
No Necessary
The xbots are only happy about their price cut because they need to buy them more.
I'm good because i bought a PS3 on day one and don't need the price cut. My sources at Sony say they're outselling the 360 10 to 1 and we don't need the money anyway.
We're doing fine thanks.
Why do they need to?
For Sony, they don't need to, as it's outselling the 360 is Europe by massive amounts, and in the US by a reasonable amount.
For Gamers, why should they? Sure everything would be nicer, cheaper, but the PS3 even at the current price represents a massive bargain, you are getting more bang for buck than any other consumer device around.
I can understand why Microsoft are price cutting, desperation. However you only have to look at the last European 360 price cut (about 3 months back), which only provided a 2 week upwards blip in the otherwise sliding 360 sales.
