Japanese Stores Lowering PS3 Prices 189
Kotaku is reporting that the 20GB PS3 is down by 20% the the Akihibara district of Tokyo. Reports from both here and in Japan would seem to indicate that PlayStation 3s are sitting on shelves, as gamers wait for price drops or new games. The Tokyo merchants are anxious, it seems, and ready to get their consoles out the door. From the article: "The 20GB version originally books at 49,980 yen (US $412), but is being offered for 39,980 yen ($329) in a sale ending February. The shop is knocking a flat 10,000 yen ($82) right now. Japanese bulletin board 2chan reports that this at other Don Quijotes as well. It's interesting to check out the PS3 vibe at 2chan; Reasons for not buying go from 'there are no games I want' to 'video stores don't rent Blu-ray movies.' Well, not yet that is."
Anyone know about the dynamics of retail/mfg? (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh, I almost forgot: here's my reaction to the story:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! oh man.... HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAH!!!! ahh....
(See also: Rush Limbaugh drug arrest.)
Re:Yes, price dropping rapidly. (Score:1, Interesting)
2ch, not 2chan (Score:3, Interesting)
US Retail price drops? (Score:3, Interesting)
Exclusive Titles (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Exclusive Titles (Score:3, Interesting)
I usually end up owning all the consoles in each generation, but who knows if the PS3 can survive long enough for me to do that.
Re:Who is losing money (Score:3, Interesting)
The "new sales" video game market is not a good place to retailers, whether people want to admit it or not. Spending $44-46 on a game to sell it at $49.99 is not a happy prospect on most games.. throw in the occasional total bomb, and it becomes a very hard business to succeed in.
Re:Anyone know about the dynamics of retail/mfg? (Score:2, Interesting)
Same with stores that exchange defective merchandise, the distributor is the one who deals with sending stuff back to the manufacturer.
I'm sure stores aren't too concerned with the "money sitting on the shelves" with unsold PS3s, the major concern is the shelf space itself as it could have been filled with something that sells instead.
Re:The PS3 Has No Games (Score:2, Interesting)
BIC Camera in Tokyo: http://gallery.planetcr.com/gallery2/v/japan/Elec
Also, heres the XBox 360 section: http://gallery.planetcr.com/gallery2/v/japan/nago
Compare that to the Wii section: http://gallery.planetcr.com/gallery2/v/japan/nago
Any more questions over whats more popular there?
Sony's Mistake... (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's list out their recent Mistakes individually:
Delivering a 6 hundred dollar console. Any rudimentary survey of the market would show this is just too damned much. But they wanted to expand the market for blu-ray, and somehow convinced themselves that it wasn't too much for the next generation of gaming. Then realizing the losses, they actually raised the price for launchs in other parts of the world. Again, not engendering affection from their customers.
Really bad statements about the cost of the console... like that people should want to get a second job to buy one. Or that the first 5 million would sell without any games anyway. Or... the list goes on and on. Somebody's PR guy should have been fired a long time ago with the string of "damage control" that only managed to alienate people who had been thinking about the system.
Repeated slippage of launch date. A little slide here and there is understandable, but if you haven't shipped dev systems out, you have no intention at all of hitting that date. This bit of tactical marketing enraged those customers most likely to line up and buy the console on launch day. Nintendo did the same thing with the N64, and paid the price.
Only 1 anticipated good launch title actually made it to launch. Ok, so that's not bad compared to the legions of 360's stuck playing Geometry Wars for a few months after launch, but it's still about 5 system-sellers less than promised.
Last-minute Sixaxis. This doesn't necessarily hurt the system, it's just a somewhat obviously rushed feature that is, currently, too laggy to be useful. Hopefully future games will find ways to use it despite the obvious shortcomings. In the mean time, they should have focused on improving the other parts of the system which could have used the polish time.
Promising a Live-equaling service, then shifting the burden onto developers while delivering a service that pales in comparison. A lot of 360's live stuff is integrated into the shell or on their servers, which takes a tremendous amount of the work off of the shoulders of developers. Sony, on the other hand, is making promises and leaving them up to us to fulfill. This fits EA's server model, but not many other people's.
HDMI waffling. If you're going to require the expensive version of your system and a potential HDTV upgrade to get the selling feature of your new movie format to work, don't waffle back and forth on whether or not it will be required, then pass the buck to movie studios. Either own up to it and require the protection, or don't. Leaving the people unsure if they need the upgrade or not simply makes them put off the decision.
Two words "Rrrrridge Rrrrracer!"*
* horrible presentations leading up to the system launch that basically insulted the intelligence of the audience. The hype machine was in full swing, but the pictures and games simply weren't congruous with what the speakers were saying.
The PSP UMD debacle. Sure, not directly related to the PS3, but taints them nonetheless with the faint wift of late 90's Sega. This was one of Sony's most public claims about the PSP, one which they staked a large portion of their credibility, and they lost an obvious fight.
Suing Lik-Sang out of business for selling imported hardware, while many of their most prominent executives were customers. Quite frankly, I've never worked at a gaming company that didn't purchase random devleopment bits from Lik-Sang at one point or another. Going after them for something as cherished as importing systems was bad PR amongst the development community.
Things weren't all bad for Sony. For one, Blu-Ray does provide a lot more breathing room for content on dis