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How long til Sony cuts the PS3′s price?

March 16th, 2009 at 1:32 pm · 25 Comments

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Lazy re-use of images FTW!

Lazy re-use of images FTW!

The pressure’s building on Sony to cut the price of the PS3, a console which is, without a doubt, pretty frikkin’ expensive. It’s already seriously undercut by the 360 and the Wii and I’m willing to bet that the console would probably sell far better if it was just that little bit cheaper.

Sony are refusing to budge though…but for how long?

The rumors have been around for a good while that Sony were considering a PS3 price cut, but it’s only recently that we’ve seen some signs that everybody isn’t just gossiping about a price cut, but actively wanting one. Activision’s Bobby Kotick last week remarked that the PS3 wasn’t really at a market-friendly price and was suffering as a result.

Everybody”s following suit according to Bloomberg. Sales of the PS3 are going down, down, down, and have been for the past 3 months in the States. Activision made a point of the fact that the PS3 accounted for less than 20% of all of their revenue, while the Wii pulled in a third of their dough. Peter Moore put it bluntly: “You can’t ignore the guy who has half the market’.

The 360 pretty much doubled the PS3′s sales last Fall following the reduction in price to 200 bucks. That’s got to say something about how the price tag of a console affects the sales.

In essence then, the 360 is trumping Sony’s behemoth because it costs much less. Everybody seems to be in agreement, even if Sony isn’t. Understandably they’ll not be too keen on cutting the price because they’re still making a loss on each console sold, since Blu-ray diodes, Cell processors and everything is are super expensive to produce.

The PS3 is well and truly getting into its stride now, with Killzone 2 showing off, at last, how much ass the hardware can kick when it’s being used properly. We just need some more games – and a decent price cut – to get kick-started again.

How long til that happens though? A week? A month? Never? Sony won’t be keen to slash the price of their baby any time soon but it’s a classic Catch-22; they won’t sell as many consoles as they would if they pitched the console at a loss-friendly lower price. Perhaps the influx of game sales that would follow could change their mind?

What do you think? Would you buy a PS3 if it was cheaper? And will it even be cheaper at all any time soon?!

Source: GamesIndustry.biz




Related posts:

  1. Sony Runs Out of PS3s… Maybe?
  2. UK 360 Price Cuts Ahoy!
  3. Sony’s PS3 Price Cut
  4. Sony Says, “No PS3 Price Drop This Holiday Season”
  5. Wii price (might) go up in the UK

Tags: ·
Categories: Editorial · News · PlayStation 3

  • Gareth89

    Well you can get a 60gb pretty cheap at gamestation now.
    It’s still to much, but it’s more of a console you have to stretch your wallet for now, rather than something that you just can’t afford.

  • Chubbaluphigous

    Of course Sony is denying a price cut. They have to. If they were to say that they will cut the price next month, then the sales till then would be pitiful. They really aren’t loosing much money on each console sold. They are pretty close to breaking even. Enough people are expecting/hoping for a price cut that they aren’t going to buy one till it does drop.

  • http://www.GodsLabRat.com Aaron J. Bossig

    It’s too late for me, sorry. I do plan to pick up a few PS3s to give to family members as BluRay players, but as for a game console, the PS3 has jumped the shark. I’ve long since decided that the 360 was going to be my HD system of choice for this generation, and that’s mostly because Sony’s marketing department has been doing everything it could to actively discourage me from using it as a game system.

    The 360 is providing the same (in some cases, better) experience for a lot less mone. By the time Sony has enough PS3 exclusives to interest me, this generation will be over, and I’ll just get everything cheap on clearance.

  • Viking

    Yes, as said above, they have to deny.
    But again, you already get very much for the money. Everything I can hope for: cheaper games. Here in Norway Killzone 2 costs 80$ – 90$!! That is just insane.

  • yamstersbiggestfan

    I would yamster cause you said it would be a good idea and I think whatever you think on the price.

    YAMSTER’S THE GREATEST!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I LUB U YAMSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • UnderCoverCQC (can’t be bothered to log in)

    I got a ps3 AGGGEEESSS ago but it would be nice not to get called “rich” to have a PS3

  • Jezer

    I love how 360 fans say that by this time or later on… Buy this time you have already paid $200 in Xbox live subscriptions and not counting of what you paid for the system at launch.. Lets not even include what you’d have to pay for it to equal the PS3 feature wise.. Yea their going to cut the price down but when?? We dont know. All I know is that I already have one.

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Yamster

    @yamstersbiggestfan Who ARE you?!

  • yamstersbiggestfan

    Zomg Yamster Noticed me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yamster’s the greatest!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM YOUR FIRST HINT IS THE COLORS YELLOW, GREEN AND BLUE.

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Yamster

    Oh hey Zinc, thanks for the appreciation!

  • Explosivo

    You are unlikely to see a price cut at all in the UK for the time being seeing as the wii price might get raised due to Sterling doing so poorly against the Yen… The way I see it sony has tried to extent the life of their console, coming out with a 10 year business plan that doesn’t seem to want to change despite the dreadfull state the economy is in. We probably will see a price cut soon, but then we probably would have seen one around this time anyway.

  • AssassinsClaw

    Im just waiting for a price drop to happen and then I’ll be straight off to buy one!

    Hurry up Sony!

    I want to spend my money on your console, so make it happen!!

  • Neverdizzle

    I believe we will hear about a $100 price cut at the beginning of GDC.

  • Mike

    I wonder how much one would be to buy by now, if they had made them without the bluray drive, just a dvd drive.

    Sony used the PoS3 to push the bluray tech forward and won the day with the format war, now they have to pay the price.

    Mike out.

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Yamster

    …But all the games are on Blu-ray.

  • consolerpgdude

    Anyone that buys a PS3 is screwed royally now anyway because there is no way if you buy it you’re getting the same machine you would have at the beginning. They already totally quit putting the chip in to play PS2 games so its not the same.

  • Viking

    My guess is that when Sony stops selling PS2, they’ll update the firmware on PS3 to play PS2 games trough emulation software. If the PS3 was backward compatible now, they wouldn’t sell any PS2s, a console they actually earn money by selling. Anyways, I think backwards compatibility comes back after 2 years or something.

    and removing the blu-ray drive is just stupid, it’s not going to happen. Not now, not ever.
    The only think I could see happen is to see a PS2,5, a machine which could play PS2 games, and download PSN games, but again, unnecessary.

  • bbqfox

    They’re really not that bad.
    40gb xbox’s 2years after release were around £220 here
    40gb ps3′s are now £240

  • AclayPS3

    Regardless of how much the gaming media voices a PS3 price cut, it’s not going to make Sony do anything prematurely, because as we saw last year, Sony didn’t budge one bit with a PS3 price cut and remained dedicated to their own plan and profitability

    As long as the PS3 sells 200K+ in the U.S. and/or Europe monthly, I think Sony will delay a price cut for as long as possible…. but at E3 I think a price cut announcement is going to happen.

    The PS3′s sales decreased slightly Year-Over-Year in the U.S. in the past 3 months, but what about other territories? The importance on the U.S. market by the gaming media is exaggerated too much to me, especially with PS3 sales. PS3 console sales are spread out more worldwide in comparison to the 360 because near half of the 360′s installbase is in the U.S…. the PS3′s installbase is much more spread out.

    The bigger question to me is what territory does Sony cut the PS3′s price in first?…or should they cut the price at the same time worldwide in all major territories?

  • Finch

    It is priced correctly. If you buy a 360 with a wireless internet adapter, and then a year of xbox live…the ps3 is cheaper.

    If you don’t have the money for one, then don’t buy it. But sony is giving you the most powerful system, with free online play, and a blu-ray player all in one.

    I use my PS3 for games, movies, internet, and music. I have CDs loaded on there, few movies, plus quite a few games. I watch Hulu shows on the internet browser all the time.

    Also Killzone 2′s online play is worth any dollar amount…

  • jule

    It sells for $699 here in Australia, usually with a free game, just like recently, $699 bundle with Killzone 2.

    If they do drop the price, then they would have to take at least $100 off, bringing it down to $599 but that is still very expensive, it’s basically a weeks pay, on average, plus a free game as well I guess thrown in….it won’t work, it’s still way to much.

    I’ll get one next year, if there is a next year….and that’s when God of War 3 comes out, funny that, I bought a slim PS2/GoW2 bundle last year for $180, well I think I did, dam I can’t remember now but traded that in for a Wii, got bored of that sold it bought drugs, then just recently I bought a 360, again sold it for drugs and mind you, the reason wasn’t specifically drug related, it was more like, meh, this ain’t next gen, the only thing I found next gen about the 360 was the fact that it had a wireless controller, it took me about a night to get use to this, I kept moving around as if it did have a cord.

    next GEn??? bah, the 360 is a piece of shit machine that does the job, it’s not next gen.

    Yea I love a good rant, cunts.

  • Mike

    I KNOW all the games are on bluray, I said what if they used dvd from the start! Silly Billy

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Yamster

    They couldn’t use DVD from the start. Many PS3 exclusives take full advantage of the space a dual-layer Blu-ray offers.

    Silly Billy indeed.

  • Dan

    This is so true Yamster…… as dupilicated audio data ala RFOM (and I am sure other games) on the same disc to off set read times for an archaic 2x blu-ray drive is really taking full advantage of what blu-ray offers…..hahahaha

  • fotios

    For what the ps3 offers its at a good price. Would a lower price be better? Yes. In terms of games (as of now) is there enough to warrent its purchase? No. Will there be games like this in the future? Maybe. But for price cuts i dont see it happening.