PlayStation phone prices plunge
The Nintendo effect?
Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play has followed in Nintendo's 3DS footprints, experiencing a dramatic drop in price with some online retailers lowering it by almost 50 per cent.
Expansys leads the way, bringing the PlayStation phone down in price from the standard £500 to £289. Other sites such as Play offer it for £299.
Top prices remain on the highstreet level, though, generally around the £500 mark.
The Xperia Play has a 4in touchscreen and handles 60fps video content. It packs a 1GHz CPU which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and comes with a selection of free games.
Slashing prices doesn't necessarily generate an increase in sales, though. Wide-spread reports suggest that since Nintendo's 3DS price cuts took effect in Japan, overall sales have dropped by half. Ouch. ®
COMMENTS
Have you checked the date?
The 3Ds price cut isn't due to take effect until August 12th... so it's not altogether surprising that sales have dropped!
(interestingly, second-hand sales in Japan have doubled, suggesting that people are trying to get one cheap so that they can get access to the free games Nintendo has promised to early adopters...)
Price drop?
I suspect it has less to do with the 3DS price cut and more to do with the fact that the phone is apparently a bit of a dog to play games on.
Bloody hell!
Doesn't that make it the cheapest high-end handset by a country fucking mile? That's incredible. I'd almost consider trading out my newly-Gingerbreaded & thus slightly borked Desire HD for that, as the hardware gaming keys are an emulator enthusiast's wet dream. Excuse me, need tissues...
Short version
Nobody is buying = huge stock backlog = desperate slashing of prices.
Simples.
Can I get an editor job El Reg?
Ironic really
Ironic that the Nintendo should force a price drop, when the single USP for me was being able to play Nintendo GBA games with a pad... Ho-hum. Advance Wars, anyone?
