Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Sony's Harrison In No Rush to Lower PS3 Price

Posted by Zonk on Tue Feb 27, 2007 01:49 PM
from the out-of-reach dept.
Sony PlayStation (Games) The Almighty Buck
njkid1 passed on a link to a GameDaily interview they conducted at DICE with Phil Harrison, SCE WorldWide Studios President. Harrison stays mostly positive throughout the article, pointing out that the availability of consoles is a sign of a healthy supply chain. He denigrates rumble in controllers as a 'last generation' feature, and specifically discusses the company's decision-making process for lowering prices: "The PS3 technology, as with any of our platforms, starts off life at a high price and then we engineer cost out of it. And that process is an investment that you make to combine chips into a single chip or to reduce components or combine components and redesign things, and that investment is part of our planned R&D effort to reduce cost. At the appropriate time and when we can afford to, the business model of the industry is to pass those savings onto the consumer, but we're a long way away from doing that yet."
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] PS3 Finally Ready to Rumble? 99 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Sony has finally settled its longstanding legal dispute over infringement of Immersion Corporation's force feedback patents, which reportedly led to Sony's decision to remove rumble technology from the PS3 controller, by agreeing to pay Immersion at least $150.3 million in damages and royalties. The agreement presumably will result in rumble and perhaps other of Immersion's force-feedback technologies being incorporated in future Sony controllers. Microsoft previously settled a similar lawsuit brought by Immersion, but Sony hung on tenaciously despite complaints about its controller products and disappointing PS3 sales." There's no guarantee that the tech will show up in the Sixaxis controller, of course. After all, rumble is a 'last-gen' feature.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Sony's Harrison In No Rush to Lower PS3 Price 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • Of course not... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by k_187 (61692) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @01:52PM (#18169836) Homepage Journal
    Why would they start trumpeting a price drop now? When one comes (whenever that may be), there won't be much if any of a warning. Even if they were going to do it next week, they won't tell anyone until it happens. The last thing Sony needs is ill will from the people who were still loyal enough to have already bought a PS3.
    • My guess is that he was specifically asked about WHEN to expect a price drop. He did a good job of saying yes there will be a price drop when the ps3 reaches that stage in its life, but we are nowhere near that. If anything I think he was squashing the price drop trumpeting by reporters.
      • Its kind of a given that the price will drop. I'm just saying that even if Sony was planning on doing it next week (which I don't think they are), it would be silly of him to say so now.
    • The last thing Sony needs is ill will from the people who were still loyal enough to have already bought a PS3.
      I don't think they'd worry about such a small number of people.

  • What a coincidence! (Score:5, Funny)

    by TomatoMan (93630) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @01:53PM (#18169862) Homepage Journal
    I'm in no hurry to buy one.

  • Of course (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tbannist (230135) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @01:54PM (#18169876)
    Really, there's no point in dropping the price right now. Until Sony gets a couple of killer games out, dropping the price isn't going to really excite anyone.
    • I disagree. I think that the BluRay functionality would be a major reason to purchase one, especially if the price dropped. However, that's exactly why a price drop is not going to happen. It has nothing to do with the PS3 but with the positioning of other products.

      In particular, Sony just announced a set-top BluRay player for - look at that - $599, which is the MSRP of one of their PS3 models, I believe. I would not be surprised that the reason for the price drop of the player is to match the PS3 pri
      • for roughly the same price: a PS3 without the full functionality of a standalone BluRay player -or- a full player with all of the features that a PS3 doesn't have

        What features would a standalone BluRay player have that the PS3 does not?
        • DVD upscaling to 1080p? A universal remote with picture mode settings? Not a whole lot but I can imagine picking the standalone player if I wanted blu ray and wasn't into games at all...especially if they cost the same. But the PS3 cost significantly less then I could imagine my choice changing.
      • I understand your point but disagree that people are purchasing the PS3 as a cheap BluRay player. There may be some, but they are probably in the extreme minority. Having said that, I have no interest in the PS3 or BluRay until they drop in price. I really can't see spending more than $200-250 for a gaming platform and anything more than $150 for a movie player is ridiculous.
        • In North America I agree with you but in Japan it is a different story ...

          Currently (in Japan) there have been (roughly) 700,000 PS3 systems sold and (roughly) 725,000 games sold; being that many gamers would buy (at least) 2 games with a system, and have bought (at least) one aditional game in the past couple of months, I think a reasonable assumption is that a lot of PS3 systems have only been used to watch movies.
    • This is completely true, though they're finally starting to release some worthwhile stuff. fl0w was just released (and is completely amazing), Virtua Fighter 5 (I hear) is excellent, and Motorstorm comes out next week. These games should likely give the sales a boost, although I doubt the big jump will come until FFXIII/GTA4/MGS4.

  • Excellent!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by rlp (11898) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @01:54PM (#18169882)
    As a Nintendo shareholder, you have my deepest gratitude.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by falcon5768 (629591)
        Maybe so, but Nintendo will still have made massive profits while Sony sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss that is their game division atm.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Phisbut (761268)

        You better sell your shares becuase in a year the public will have already forgot about the simple mini games and rehash games.

        Just like the public has already forgotten about the DS when everybody went out to buy PSPs and watch UMDs


  • Of course he is in no rush to drop the price. If I were in his position I would be tempted to wait until I was forced. I know of no corporation that is in a rush to drop prices.
    Even Walmart drops prices to beat up the competition, not because they really care if you have an extra dollar at the end of the year. (and soon many won't have the dollar as they shut down more and more of the US economy, but that is another topic for another day)
    • I know of no corporation that is in a rush to drop prices.

      Maybe not, but there's no shortage of companies that are willing to drop prices in order to get rid of unsold inventory.

      If Sony is losing $200 on every PS3 they DO sell, then they lose $800 on every PS3 they've manufactured but DON'T sell. It's not outlandish to suggest that it might get to a point where Sony would drop the MSRP by $100, meaning they get away with a loss of only $300 per unit. Negative three is better than negative eight.
      • Yep, I agree. I think they have a lot of good reasons that could FORCE them to drop the price. They are not in any RUSH...
    • He should be. The odd thing about video game systems is that there's momentum at play. If you can't get a reasonable install base, then you lose exclusive developers, who will move on to greener pastures where they know they can make money. And if you lose exclusives, you lose a major reason to buy a particular console.

      Getting out early and building an install base fast is *extremely* important to the success and longevity of a platform. Cutting prices on the PS3 may go a long way to helping them in that
  • Can this guy possibly spew any MORE bullshit?

    I feel insulted that he thinks we're this stupid.
    • Could you point out for me specifically what bullshit you're upset by? I'm only going on the price-drop quote. And it seems to be free of bullshit. A reporter asked him, straight up, when would the ps3 drop in price. He was amicable said there would be a price drop, but its way off in the future.

      I think you're just getting your panties in a wad.
      • Agreed. I was surprised at how well he answered the questions, given Sony's recent epidemic case of foot-in-mouth-itis.
    • Can this guy possibly spew any MORE bullshit?

      Be careful, he'll take that as a challenge.

  • Insulting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vapspwi (634069) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @02:24PM (#18170368)
    As a fan of the PS2 who WANTS the PS3 to succeed (I'll buy one when the price comes down...), I find this interview rather insulting. It's just so transparent that EVERYTHING he's saying is just a repeat of the company line, trying to turn negatives into positives.

    Lots of PS3s languishing on shelves? "We do a good job managing our supply chain." Target in Newnan, GA, 4 PM on 2/25: 11 PS3s, 0 Wiis. Congrats on your expert supply chain management, Sony, but maybe you'd better focus on SELLING THE PRODUCT.

    No rumble in the controllers? "That's a previous-gen feature." Yeah, and why would you carry over a minor feature that most users are neutral or positive about into the next generation...

    Motion sensitivity? "Far more opportunity for future innovation..." Ah, so that's why Sony didn't even HAVE motion sensitivity in place until the last minute, then?

    Arrgh. Just infuriating.

    JRjr
  • A steady supply chain? Rumble is last gen? You've got to be kidding me!

    Talk to the people who run GameStop, talk to the people who run BestBuy, and they'll tell you that the demand is unprecedented and that they give us kudos for managing to keep a very sophisticated supply chain moving.

    Phil, the people at slashdot have had several conversations with these people and we'll tell you a different story. No regrets? I hope not, but i do hope this generation knocks off SCE from its high chair so that you gu

  • "So long as you suckers keep paying full price, we have no reason to offer a discouunt! Muhuhaha!"

  • "Last-generation" features? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wilson_6500 (896824) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @02:51PM (#18170856)
    What, like gameplay?

    Seriously, what kind of rationale is that for leaving out a feature? If that's a _justified_ reason, then it means that the feature was all along just a gimmick to lure people in, like virtual reality (i.e. red lines) or force feedback or onboard memory expansion. Why would you want to say something like that to people? "Well, we can't dupe you dolts any longer with that candy, so we'll drop that for some new one like motion sensing." If it's _unjustified_ to dismiss it as last-gen, then you're dropping support for something that gamers might possibly want or like; if gamers don't like it or don't care about it, why not just say that? It's not like Sony would be admitting that they made a mistake since they didn't exactly pioneer the idea of controllers with rumble.

    It's not really even right semantically. It's not like we have something better to replace it--you could argue that motion sensing and rumble aren't compatible and one would have to replace the other, but since they don't do the same thing it's not really a supersession of "last-gen" rumble with "next-gen" motion sensing. If we found some whiz-bang thing that would make for instance anisotropic filtering obsolete, THEN you could call anisotropic filtering a "last-generation" feature.

    In this context, it just sounds like marketingspeak use of "generation."

  • Gee, Phil, thanks for letting us know (Score:3, Funny)

    by elrous0 (869638) * on Tuesday February 27 2007, @03:12PM (#18171274)
    I think the entire gaming world just breathed a sigh of "Who gives a rat's ass?"

    Seriously, is there any real reason to buy one of these things at ANY price right now?

    -Eric

  • Money Better Spent? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Plekto (1018050) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @03:37PM (#18171686)
    I as talking with a friend online last night and the PS3 came up. It eventually came around to the price and two things came up.

    1:$600 in PC upgrades results in an astounding increase in gaming potential for most people. Far more than any PS3. Why should we spend $600 for a box that's merely comparable to the old gaming rig we want to upgrade anyways?

    2:If Sony ditched the Blu-Ray player or made it an optiona add-on, the PS3 would barely cost $250, if that. $300 is a hard price-point, like $30,000 is for car buyers. It's hard to justify more than that much for somethng unless there's a real need for it.(let alone $600 or a $60,000 car). The Wii sells well because it's inexpensive and fun. The PS3 is expensive and games are slow to arrive.

    3: One more - Me? I bought a PS2 this holliday season for my son. Cheap, effective, and it has Guitar Hero and GT4 and so on. Its a great toy for him and didn't break the bank.

    • Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LukeCage (1007133) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @02:14PM (#18170180)

      You mean Sony isn't completely obsessed with the price of their console, like potential customers are? They don't feel bad about the lack of rumble, like the potential customers do? They have their own strategy that doesn't involve pleasing potential customers?

      You seem to think that "the press" has it's own agenda here, but in this case they are bringing up legitimate concerns that the public is putting forward and that Sony is ignoring. I won't go as far as saying "self-destructing", but ever since their E3 price announcement they have steadily been eroding the goodwill of gamers and turning off potential customers. Like myself...I was going to buy a PS3 before the sky-high price and lack of exclusives turned me off to it. Their attitude isn't helping me re-evaluate that decision.

      Don't bother with the interview, btw. It's nothing more than PR-flak "we can do no wrong" spiel from a clueless non-gamer executive.

      • You seem to think that "the press" has it's own agenda here...

        Come on. We all know the press never has an agenda.

        I was going to buy a PS3 before the sky-high price and lack of exclusives turned me off to it.

        If the price is such an issue for you, how did you think you were going to afford any games? The PS3 costs as much as another console with an accessory and a couple of games.

        • If the price is such an issue for you, how did you think you were going to afford any games? The PS3 costs as much as another console with an accessory and a couple of games.
          Perhaps he does, in fact, want a couple of games, and not just the system itself.

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by torchdragon (816357)
              Actually, wouldn't the problem be that I can afford to buy $100-200 worth of additional items AND a cheaper system as opposed to a more expensive system with nothing? I remember back in the day saving up my pennies so that I could buy my own SNES. Now, I know this whole "teaching your kid (financial) responsibility" thing is on the way out, but for those few parents encouraging their kids to save up for a smart purchase a $100-200 cut is huge. 1xPS3 @ $499 = 1xWii @ $250 + 5xGames @ $50 ea More potential
              • More potential customers care about price point than those that care about ZOMG GRAPHICS!!!!

                Yeah, those people bought a Wii or a PS2. Some people are in the market for hi-def and some aren't. There are lots of nice choices for everyone.
            • I don't think for most people here its "too expensive" as in they cannot afford it. Its "too expensive" as in there is something just as good or better which costs less. IE if Bill Gates was in the market for a car and found two that were identical but one cost $50,000 while the other cost $70,000, the $70,000 one would be too expensive (far more expense for the same value).

              That said, it also CAN be a matter of "too expensive" (as in cannot afford it). Say a poor college student is considering a PS3 and
          • In my evaluation, the PS3 holds no value over an Xbox360 or a Wii, so I would consider price to be an issue even if it was $1 more. Now, for others it might hold more, even $100-200 more.

            Yes. So the PS3 is too expensive to some and the 360 is too expensive to others. People value different things differently.

            I'm not sure I understand how that makes "PS3 to Continue at the Same Price" news though.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Kohath (38547)
        I'm not on a team. The press should think about reporting the news instead of beating up on Nintendo or Sony or anyone else. Sony saying the price isn't going to change isn't news.

        The whole "Can you believe the Sony execs don't agree with us about our latest obsession?" storyline that the press has going is silly.

        In other news, The Sun says it has no plans to change it's habit of coming up in the morning. We'll be back with updates on that story every 20 minutes or as they occur.
        • saying "We are completely content with our plan and its outcome," is news. Not "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction" news, but for gossipy video game entertainment news, this is gold.
          • saying "We are completely content with our plan and its outcome," is news.

            It's essentially what every corporate PR person always says.

            Breaking news: Politician says "vote for me".

    • Re:yep (Score:4, Insightful)

      by LWATCDR (28044) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @02:25PM (#18170386) Homepage Journal
      Except when your competition is selling many more systmes and is 100% sold out all the time. I still can not find a Wii for sale. I have no problem finding PS3s. Then add in that that your competition is making a lot more per system sold than you are and it actually does look pretty ugly.
      • > If you want to run Linux don't buy the Dell Dimension E521.

        If you mean the USB mouse problem w. Ubuntu, Dell's Jan '07 BIOS upgrade fixes that.
    • That was true a few weeks ago, but the systems really are starting to pile up. Last week I was in Best Buy twice, and both times they had a stack of 40+ units of the 60 gig model out. The first time, I thought I just must have shown up on a shipment day, but the second time proved that wrong.

      I know it's just another anecdote from a guy on the internet. But, if you add it all up, the PS3 is getting easy to find. I don't necessarily think that means it's time for a price drop, but the theory that they'r

    • Re:yep (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cadallin (863437) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @02:40PM (#18170680)
      Um no, They aren't selling out, and we're not talking a console or two. We're talking even the smallest retailers have a a stack of half a dozen machines, with the big stores having stacks of the things. This isn't just the states either, its the same in Japan. Retailers in Japan have already started to discount the machines just to get rid of them. This isn't bad, its an out and out disaster. And Sony's not helping things either. Telling Europe they're getting crippled systems with impaired backwards compatibility isn't exactly drumming up excitement for the European launch (and its not really pleasing anybody else worldwide either).

      If Sony wants to salvage the situation, they need to be doing something right now. Because here's what Sony's got: The worst development tools (vs. Xbox 360, great dev tools, and the Wii, with good tools, and lots of experienced developers in the field), the most expensive platform to develop for (partially due to poor tools, but also due to the use of expensive technologies like blu-ray), the smallest market share, and the slowest growing market share. If I were a developer, I'd be thinking long and hard about my commitment to the PS3 right now. The alternatives are looking very tempting. At this point I wouldn't even count on Final Fantasy remaining Sony exclusive. My guess is that Microsoft is probably flashing crap tons of "partnership" cash in their direction(It's what I would do if I were a Microsoft Gaming Division executive), while Nintendo is content to let their profitability and growth speak for themselves.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by fistfullast33l (819270)
        We're talking even the smallest retailers have a a stack of half a dozen machines, with the big stores having stacks of the things.

        You're right, I was just in Best Buy and Circuit City last night, and thanks to Sony's console I now have two pending lawsuits due to negligence from stumbling over the damn boxes! They're piled up outside and the retailers can't even give them away!

        Let's cut the hyperbole for a second. If the crisis was as bad as you say it is, two things would be happening.

        1) Retailers would

        • NPD Statistics (Score:5, Informative)

          by Dobeln (853794) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @04:45PM (#18172946)
          "Until then, you can make no conclusions about how the actual console is selling because retailers won't report this information fast enough!"

          Erm, NPD (USA) and Media Create (Japan) keep close track of the sales of all major consoles, and as the PS3 has only been released in those territories, the statistics are comprehensive. Current stats:

          November 2006:
          Xbox 360 -- 511K
          Wii -- 476K
          PS3 -- 197K

          December 2006:
          Xbox 360 1.1 mm
          Wii 604.2 K
          PS3 490.7 K

          January 2007:
          Xbox 360 294k
          Playstation 3 244k
          Wii 436k

          NPD also does Canada stats, but the PS3 has been the slowest selling console there as well (by far).

          In short, I do believe there is reason for Sony to worry, but not to panic. Yet. This is a marathon, not a sprint, after all...

    • I know Sony-haters like to think that the fact that they saw a console or two on the store shelves is indicative of something
      When your supply chain is shot, and you can still find units on the shelves in every store in town [penny-arcade.com], it probably does mean something.
      • in Santa Maria, CA yesterday. All I could think was "Damn, I wish they had that many WII's"

        I pondered a purchase...but the price was prohibitive. Plus, they are kind of cheap looking and I saw no interesting looking games.

        Maybe next generation...

    • Re:Old-gen, New-Gen, Next-Gen, Last-Gen. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chris Burke (6130) on Tuesday February 27 2007, @08:12PM (#18175926) Homepage
      The problem is that, certainly from the point of view of the consumer, PS3 isn't anything new. It's a PS2 with a few generations of silicon advancements incorporated, just like the Xbox 360 is an Xbox with newer silicon. Oh, and better online support and other minor tech, but it's still fundamentally more of the same.

      Cell doesn't bring anything to the table but the possibility of more MIPS. As a computer architect, more MIPS is of course interesting to me, and the particulars of how the Cell works are fascinating. As a gamer, it's just more MIPS. Just like the Xbox 360 is more MIPS. That's no more a "new direction" than the PS2 was when it was released. It's the same direction, just trudging along Moore's Law silicon improvements and little else changes. The only difference is that Sony jumped out further ahead on the technology curve this time, getting something new and paying a price premium for it. Riding the bleeding edge is great if you are a hardcore gamer who buys Alienware boxes, but it is a terrible place to be for what is supposedly a mass-market consumer electronic device.

      BluRay is the same deal -- all it really does is offer more storage. New direction? PS1 was CD, PS2 was DVD, PS3 is bigger DVD. Sounds like more of the same to me. Yet unlike CD with PS1 or DVD with PS2, BluRay is brand-new technology and thus much more expensive than a more established technology would be, and this is a premium the consumer is paying for.

      The fact is that both Microsoft and Sony are greedy, and neither is trying anything new. Both are operating under the "same as before * Moore's Law improvement ratio" scheme of simply pursuing more performance. Sony thought they could beat MS by jumping out ahead on the curve, hoping consumers would be willing to pay the price premium for that decision. They also thought they could leverage the PS3 into victory for BluRay over HD-DVD, again charging consumers for that decision. Going faster down the same path is not the same as a change of direction. The only difference between MS and Sony this generation is that Microsoft executed on the bog-standard console game plan more intelligently than Sony did.

      The only one actually trying anything different this generation is Nintendo. Which I'm grateful for, because the Gamecube was essentially the same as the PS2 and Xbox, a "me too" bog-standard console upgrade if ever there was one. It was N's worst console. Now they're back where they were from the NES to N64 days, as leaders and definers of industry standards. Whether it works for them or not, if you really want to give credit to those trying a new path, there is nobody to pick but Nintendo.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Chibi Merrow (226057)
      Did the Devs take full use of the Cell Proc or did they simply recompile it for the Cell and not optimize it?

      Or is optimizing for a Cell processor an absolute nightmare and so you're best off just getting your stuff running good on the 360 and just plain running on the PS3?

      It is true the PS3 dosn't have a large following. however the real reason this is such a shame is because the injustice done to gamers world wide.

      I would think that having to pay $600 for the ability to play the next "Shadow of the Coloss
    • Sony has finally, it seemed, ironed out demand problems

      I agree. They've done an excellent job of killing practically any demand for their latest console. :)

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.