RF Generation Message Board

By Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0211e938-ee13-11db-8584-000b5df10621,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0211e938-ee13-11db-8584-000b5df10621.html&_i_referer=)
Published: April 19 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 19 2007 03:00

Sony is reconsidering its pricing strategy for the PlayStation 3 in an effort to ignite sluggish sales in Japan and the crucial US market.

Ryoji Chubachi, Sony's president, said yesterday: "We are re-examining our [PS3] budgeting process in terms of pricing and volume. Sales assumptions change and the market is competitive. We are in the midst of revisiting our strategy for the PS3." Mr Chubachi also said he thought Sony had hit its bullish shipment target of 6m consoles at the end of March.

Good news for all of us. :D

Sony should of learned from history. But it is good news.

I doubt Japan will get that cut.  They already have it at a much lower price at Â¥59,980 (US$505) compared to the USA's $599 or Britain's whopping £425 (US$696).

Where have you been? The exchange rate was at £1/$1.99 the other day. So £425 is more like ~$850.

Edit: In fact there are now $2 per £1.

Thank god they listened to me :D

Update

Sony has moved to deny reports that the company is considering an early price cut for the PlayStation 3 in North America and Japan, despite comments by Sony president Ryoji Chubachi which appeared to suggest just such a move may be forthcoming.

Chubachi was originally interviewed by British newspaper The Financial Times, in which he stated, "We are re-examining our [PS3] budgeting process in terms of pricing and volume. Sales assumptions change and the market is competitive. We are in the midst of revisiting our strategy for the PS3."

Despite the relatively unambiguous nature of his comments, Sony has moved quickly to refute the story, with spokeswoman Mami Imada saying in a statement that, “PS3 prices and shipment plans for the future should be determined by market trends and competition. Sony currently doesn't have any specific plan to cut the PlayStation 3's price”.

The high price of the PlayStation 3 console has been widely blamed as the primary reason for a perceived lax demand for the hardware. However, the current high cost of manufacturing the console has previously been seen as a serious obstacle to an early price cut by Sony.

Elsewhere, Sony has recently been indicating that its global game group operations may see more 'streamlining measures' such as those recently proposed by SCEE which threatened to cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce.

SCE spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka spoke to Reuters, indicating that "....other regional operations, such as those in the United States and Japan, could also take some streamlining measures," though he adds that "nothing has been decided."

from Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13596)

Wow that is some big news.

That doesn't look good.

It's never a good thing when jobs are cut.

Maybe we should give the Sony people that lose their jobs T-shirts saying "Will work for a Blu-Ray player"...oh wait, that's what's going to cost them their jobs in the first place!

That job cut's just the machines taking over.

Anyways, Sony is so fucking retarded I have no pity for them. They released a kickass system with no games...WTF? Now, to get back in the market, they should cut prices by AT LEAST $100 in coordination with some popular game releases, if they can get the systems sold they'll make the money, but there's currently no reason to have one for the fanboys of either SONY or the selective games.

It's interesting to note that no company has dominated for three straight generations of systems in a row. Also that the system with the most potential as far as hardware goes tends to underperform and undersell.

In the face of that even Sony's huge fanbase isn't helping them much. As you said it's the no games that's killing them, even more than the price. The price only hurts so much as it makes it seem unreasonable to spend that kind of money without games to play.

It's a shame that they have to bank as much money on Blu-Ray and the PS3 as much as they do.  I used to really like Sony products back in the day.  Give me the Walkman!!  Anyways, their HD televisions are pretty sharp, and I would bet if they hadn't stopped caring as much about the portable music market they could have beat the ipod to the punch. 

Even all this "bad news" isn't driving me away from PS3. I'm still getting one this fall for Ratchet and Clank Future, and nothing will change that fact.

That's fanboy vision at its best.

Maybe so. Maybe so. But still. PS3 is looking to be the right console for me this time around. I really don't see much, if anything on 360, and I've always liked Sony's first party titles the most.

I'm getting one along with GTA: 4. Started allotting $5 of my paycheck a week towards it.

In 1-2 years you will be set! ;)

Hehe, well it's just so i have a chunk of change by the time october rolls around, not the whole bundle.

I really feel bad for Sony.

One because I like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy and both new games are PS3 games, but that isn't enough to make me drop 600 bucks on a PS3.

Two because they are retarded not to look at their own doing and say "Hey, maybe if we cut the price of PS3 to compete with, maybe, the Wii, the most popular system out there, we might not continue to cripple ourselves."

But hey, what do I know.

Reminds me of a 32bit venture in the 90's that went south.  They released the biggest, baddest thing around with a whopping price tag and no big name games.  Then the system price was cut so many times that it was affordable.  By then though newer, more powerful system's had come out and it was too late.  Maybe sony will look back on a guy named Trip and wonder if they should slash now before something better comes along in the next couple of years.

You're right. They're playing a very dangerous game right now. The initial release rush/sell out was good for the bottom line and for the hype machine, but the recent stats show it dead last in next gen console sales per April's report. A trend likely to continue at least through the summer months.

They really need to hope that MGS4 and/or FF13 don't cross-platform. Ninja Gaiden: Sigma and Lair may help. But it's still not likely to convince casual gamers to buy a $600 machine when the Wii and 360 are on the market at much lower prices.

The other aspect that I agree with is that technology is still advancing (and rapidly!) to the point that if we look 4 yrs down the road (2011), there will likely be a new Microsoft system and possibly a new Nintendo system. If the PS3 price drop doesn't hit until 2009 (as rumored), they're still going to be in the precarious position of being the highest priced console (considering that Nintendo and Microsoft will likely also have price cuts in 2009) with only about 2 years or so left in this console generation to make up the ground it's lost to the competition (which may be getting ready to release it's next consoles).

Doing the market share math, the last generation spelled out Sony with a 70% share with Microsoft and Nintendo splitting the remaining 30%. This new gen is starting out the exact opposite, with Nintendo and Microsoft having a combined 70% or so and Sony about 30%. Conclusion: Sony has pissed away 40% of the console market share; and with the most expensive of the 3 consoles, with limited exclusives, they've got a serious hill to climb if they're going to get some of that back.

The big question is: How much is Sony going to be willing to lose per console in order to get back into the game? Right now they're losing about $150 or so per console (attributable to the Blu-Ray player). Are they willing to go to $350 per console?

But that's the thing- they won't actually lose money by slashing the PS3 price, they'll make more money because they'll be selling more systems. It'll balance itself out in the longrun.

Another thing- Get rid of that damn Blu-Ray player. I don't know of anyone that has a regular Blu-Ray in their home, let alone only 1 person I know of that has a PS3. It's just not the market trend right now- Everything is still DVD.

The additional feature of DVD playback in the PS2 was a good move- because DVD was the next logical step from VHS. DVD to Blu-Ray, which is basically a glorified, more expensive DVD, is not a logical step. If they absolutely have to include it, make it optional.

Make more money by losing more per console?

Thats so genious, that it just might work?

But surely the next "logical step" is more storage space. The PS2 used DVDs not just for movies. Look where we've come since the days of CDs. Some games are filling DVD-9s, and that was the last generation.

I always get annoyed at people complaining about the PS3 having BluRay. If you don't want BluRay then the PS3 isn't aimed at you, so just leave it.


I'm sure Sony knows what they're doing more than anyone not working there.

EVERY PS3 game uses Blu Ray as the disc format. It allows for more space on one single disc. Blu Ray is in the system mainly as a means of storage and to avoid something like Blue Dragon on the 360 which is 3 DVDs.

Because that's such a horrible thing?

Sure is when you start filling up 50GB Blu Ray discs which will take up 6 dual layer DVDs.

Someone wake me up when we're back on topic...

 :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping:

Well apparently they don't know what they're doing because their product is sinking fast.

So the PS3 isn't aimed at me. But I want it to be. I don't wanna miss out on Metal Gear Solid 4 and both Final Fantasy XIIIs because Sony wants to push technology that the market and myself aren't ready to pay for. Sure, extra storage space is always a good thing, but it's the cost of putting this extravagant technology into the PS3 that makes it so expensive. So, to me at least, it would make sense to cut back a little bit to save your dying product.

Xbox 360 and PS3 are pure powerhouses, but the Wii has far surpassed both in terms of sales. Of course, the novelty of the WiiMote has a lot to do with that, but Nintendo priced the Wii quite reasonably. Graphics-wise, the Wii pales in comparison to the other two and runs on DVDs, but since it's a fresh, unique and inexpensive alternative, people are opting for that instead. Just going to your local game store and asking about Wii to PS3/360 availibility will tell you that much.

I'm not against change, but when you start to see that something isn't working, you've got to take a step back and look at the big picture.

What was the topic about again?

I know this thread is old, but is Sony still considering a price drop?

And guys?? Let's try and stay on topic and away from flaming or fanboytastic remarks.

Thanks!

I think they are going to have to do a price drop.
They officially announced they are going to be doigna price drop on their regular BluRay DVD players.

That was one of their original selling points was it not?
Thats the PS3 was a gaming system AND a bluray player that was cheaper than the other ones on the market at the time?

Well basically they drop the price soon or all is lost.
The longer they drag their feet on this one, the further behind the PS3 library gets.
Eventually no one is going to care too much how cheap it is if it still hasn't got more than two handfuls of games in a years time.

It's past the lie about your system and it'll sell stage.
If you listened to game stores here, there were meant to be 50 titles on release... I knew that was bogus right away, but some may of feel for it. Now the system is out, and the truth is in plain sight for everyone.

Cutting the cost is the only saving strategy that will work at the moment. A system not selling well, means not many game sales, not many game sales means game developers and publishers are less likely to even make games for it.

We have already seen most of it's exclusives go multi-platform, that should of been a wakeup call right there. Now may very well be their last chance to save the PS3.

Here's some of the latest pricing.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/categorylist.do?catOid=-16221&Ns=cust_rating_overall_avg

The problem with the HDDVD vs BluRay battle is going to be convincing the general public that they "need" to buy this media format. Back in the day, it's wasn't too difficult a sell to convince the public to move from VHS to DVD since DVD was becoming the industry standard. It's going to be tougher this time around because Joe and Jane Public are likely to ask: "Why do I need another DVD player?".

The next point is one that was brought up earlier regarding storage space. People are becoming more likely to be willing to download items to their hard drives rather than have another "thing" that they have to store in hard media format, taking up space in their homes; whether that's HDDVD or BluRay discs.

This becomes more of an issue for Sony since they've committed their PS3 system discs to the BluRay format. Therefore, if they don't issue a significant price cut (i.e. $200) before Holiday 2007, they're risking continuing to collect dust on store shelves unless some massive exclusives come their way that blow the doors off of anything Nintendo or Microsoft have planned; which is not likely at this point. And even if they do succeed in getting such software, they have to still be convincing to the general public that this format won't be dying out in a year or two to that of downloaded movie content if they're trying to still use BluRay as a selling tool.

Not an enviable position no matter how you slice it.

I agree 100% with Cobra Blade's assessment.