This article is more than 1 year old

Sony aims to quadruple PS2 output

More boxes, cheaper prices

Sony has revised build targets upwards for Playstation 2 consoles to 2.2 million units per month, from earlier announced targets of 1.4 million units per month.

Sony does not say when it expects to reach the two million per month milestone - right now, it pumps out 500,000 units per month. But more production will mean lower prices - in Japan, the PS2 retail price is currently Y39,800 - the company says.

But it does not say how much lower or when it will cut prices, although spokesman Kochiro Katsurayama does deliver a broad hint.

Sony will launch a cheaper version of the PS2 from the year to March 2002 at the earliest - ie. March 2001 is the first possibility - he says, financial newswire AFX reports.

Katsurayama cites PS1 pricing as a guideline for future PS2 price cuts. One year after launch, the PS1 price was chopped by Y10,000 to Y29,800.

Sony is to spend Y125 billion ($1.1 billion) on ramping up production for the CPUs which power the PS2. It says it will use these processors to power other appliances.

Sony says it has sold two million PS2s, since launching the gaming platform in March. At their peak, PS1 sales hit two million units per month. ®

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