Possible PS2 Price Portent Pondered 302
Londovir writes "Could Nintendo soon be sharing shelf space at the $99 rack? According to an article on IGN.com, an internal source at Target claims to have received printed fliers with the Playstation 2 listed at $99. If you remember from an earlier story from September, it was an advance newspaper ad from Target (again), as well as a leaked scan of a Wal-Mart ad, that told the world about the GameCube's price before it happened. Given how the GameCube is outselling the PS2 & XBox - would a price drop so low be so unexpected? One last tidbit to contemplate: Sony is ready to roll the manufacturing plants for their smaller 90 nanometer PS2 CPU. Maybe that price drop isn't so unbelievable after all..."
Um... (Score:1, Insightful)
Look, dropping the PS2 to $99 would probably cause Sony to make almost nothing on the hardware, if they aren't losing money at that point. There's also no need to jump down to the Game Cube's level, as they'll still outsell both Nintendo and Microsoft, even at a higher price. Hell, the number of people who have to rebuy a PS2 to replace a dead one probably outnumbers the number of people who picked up a GCN at its new low price.
Besides, the new wave of consoles are coming in 2005 or 2006...do you honestly think Sony will keep it at $99 or less for 2 or 3 YEARS before their new system?
In other words...no.
Re:2 thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
Not gonna help... (Score:1, Insightful)
Great news for Xbox (Score:4, Insightful)
To be honest, as a geek, Xbox has become my favorite plaything. The games have started to get very good (I've been playing Panzer Dragoon and Voodoo Vince pretty much non-stop) and, when you're ready to hack the system, all the parts are there. I actually have two: one legitimate one I use on Xbox Live and another I've sacrificed for hacking. Hard drive, Intel processor, networking, nice video: card all for $100? I'll pick up another.
Re:Not gonna help... (Score:2, Insightful)
I know the gamecube has a reputation for being a kiddie system, but it simply is not the case. I can remember clearly at launch and for the several months afterward that there were no 'kiddie' games. In fact, a quick look at the PS2 lineup will find hundreds of kiddie games, many of them worthless.
If you still think its kiddie, go pick up Resident Evil 4 for GameCube (the new one coming out soon) and tell me you aint scared.
The price drop is unlikely, but is still possible (Score:3, Insightful)
The GCN was designed from the very beginning as a low-price machine. The ATI and IBM chips are very well integrated and have a lot of room for costs reduction. At the time of launch, they were still made using a
Many regarded the GCN's production halt as a sign of weakness, but this has been a normal move since the first NES. I can certainly see a more integrated GCN motherboard (can the thing be even better? It's already incredibly tiny and simple), maybe even putting everything on one die, just what ultimately happened with the SNES. Slashing costs even further is possible because the TSOP technology used is far chesper now than in 2000 when the GCN's spec was frozen.
For Nintendo, this is something they had planned for so long and it's finally paying off. But Sony and Microsoft have much more to lose if their price point got to that low level.
Sony just launched the SCPH-50000 model a few months ago, so I don't think they can roll out a
This Christmas season suddenly seems a lot more interesting and leaves me wondering about the next one... Historically these price drops happen only when the next consoles are around the corner, which is definitely not the case here.
Re:Great news for Xbox (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Will this kill the XBox? (Score:2, Insightful)
As cool as Linux on the Xbox is it means jack shit in terms of sales. Even if it didn't the money is in the games, MS may not loose cash on an Xbox sale, but they sure as hell aren't making very much.
As far as Ethernet and Hard-drives go once again they don't really make a big difference. Most people don't care about them, and those who do (admittedly a significant percentage of the market) tend to be the sort of people who buy one of each of the systems out anyway.
The console market is still just about games. Maybe the next gen (or more likely the gen after that) will be more about Internet multi-player, but right now its sort of a peripheral perk.
I'm not surprised.. (Score:3, Insightful)
How in the PS2 now? Almost 3 years old (In the US). Based on previous game consoles, that means the PS2 is nearing the average lifetime of a console (which is about 3~5 years).
Regardless of sales and the numbers game, Sony is under pressure to continue the impression that they're dominating the market. The gaming industry may be big business, but as it is the gaming industry is a harsh, demanding market with little room for failures or mistakes. (Sega being the biggest example) If Sony was to lose footing due to the PS2's weak hardware (expansions don't really count) and fails to bring the PS3 out in time to compete, Sony will be in huge trouble.
Christmas will be here in less than 3 months. What more can I say?