Sony Open to Considering PS3 Price Cuts 339
njkid1 writes with word that Sony is considering dropping the PS3's price. The Mercury news reports that Sony Senior Vice President Takao Yuhara has admitted they are investigating whether to drop the PlayStation 3 in price around the world, despite statements previously made that the 'lower' PS3 price in Japan is hurting Sony's bottom line. Profits for the company slipped some five percent in the October-December period, and the shortfall expected through March could be even worse than previously predicted. The article points out the possibly risky nature of a price cut for such an expensive item so early in its lifespan, and notes the stiff competition from the Xbox 360 and the Wii.
PS 3 sales prediction cut by 25% (Score:5, Informative)
They originally planned 6 mil, adjusted to 4.5 mil now. more... [vgcharts.org]
better to lose a little on the sale (Score:5, Informative)
of course since you can still buy PS2s many might opt that route if they don't like WII or XBOX360
Sony doesn't control WB, Paramount, Disney, Fox (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. In titles without the image constraint token, the resolution far exceeds that of DVD-Video in both luma and chroma. Even with the image constraint token, the chroma resolution is double that of DVD-Video in each dimension. The major American movie studios that have adopted Blu-ray Disc have agreed not to use the image constraint token for the first few years of releases. But whether Warner Bros., Paramount, Disney, and Fox use the image constraint token in future Blu-ray Disc titles is not Sony's to control.
Re:That's nice... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:they aren't Coke (Score:2, Informative)
It was a BRILLIANT strategy.
Re:they aren't Coke (Score:3, Informative)
The change you are talking about is the switch from real sugar to high fructose corn syrup, and it happened almost a year before the introduction of New Coke. It was pretty uneventful, since there were no blogs back then. A few people complained, but they were ignored.
Re:I spent $647.99 (Score:4, Informative)
The Cell processor uses 7 cores, but each one has 8 physical cores on it.
The reason for this is that they expect a roughly 1 in 8 failure rate of the cores (or close to it). By having 8 cores, many chip yields will have one bad core, but it's okay. They test them, disable the bad core, and ship the chip with the dead portion disabled.
When they happen to have a good chip with all cores good, it'e either used for other applications, or it has a random core disabled anyway and goes into a ps3.
When there's more than one core dead, I'm not sure what they do. I'd guess they either scrap it, or use it in less demanding applications.
It's a somewhat clever model. But it makes me wonder if they're releasing chips with cores that might me marginal into the market.
Re:they aren't Coke (Score:4, Informative)
No, but seriously, there were far less crafty and conspiratorial reasons behind New Coke.
It started with the invention of NutraSweet. Diet Coke pushed Tab and all other sugar-free colas into total obscurity. It not only became the #1 diet soda, it became the #3 soda overall.
The crucial difference between the flavors of Coke and Pepsi is the choice of citrus used. Coke has always used lemon, while Pepsi uses lime. That's why Coke has that "snap" that hard-core Coke fans crave, while Pepsi tastes slightly sweeter (which led to them winning all those "Pepsi Challenge" taste tests... If you just have a sip of each back-to-back, the sweeter one will taste "better.")
Diet Coke has a formula which is extremely sweet, like Pepsi.
Younger people tend to prefer the sweeter taste of Pepsi, while older folks like Coke... generally speaking.
This created a demographic scare for Coke execs in the 1980s. They saw that a whole generation was growing up on Pepsi, and feared for their market-share dominance. Not considering that some of these Pepsi-drinking kids might gradually change their preference, they panicked.
New Coke was an effort to capture the younger market, by making a sugar-based cola which tasted pretty much the same as the startlingly popular Diet Coke, and compete with Pepsi on the basis of sweetness.
The problem was, people who drink Coke exclusively don't like the ultra-sweet taste of Pepsi.
If it was an on-purpose maneuver, it was a terribly risky one. The ONLY reason their old customers came back for "Classic" Coke was because there was, and is, nobody making anything that tastes quite like Coca-Cola. (Actually, there may have been, since the patent on Coke's old formula has long since run out, but nobody is calling their attention to it.)
As for why Classic doesn't *quite* taste the same to picky cola drinkers: Coke keeps most of the formula the same, but uses whatever sweetner is cheapest at the time for the region which is making it, which in almost all cases is either high fructose corn syrup or beet sugar. They figure most people won't care, and they are mostly right.
If you are one of those hard-core Coke fans and miss "the real thing", go shopping in April.
For the Passover, Coke makes a limited batch of Kosher Coke, so kids from traditional Jewish families can have a little Coke with their feast. The thing is, there is only one Coke formula which has been approved as Kosher, and that's the original formula using cane sugar for sweetener.
You can identify the Kosher cans of Coke by looking for the triangle-shaped seal of the Rabbinical Council near the base of the can. I don't drink Coke anymore (all that sugar is bad for you), but back in the day I used to buy it by the crate-load out of local supermarkets and hoard enough to get me through as much of the year as I could.
Sony Just RAISED the Price of the PS3 in Canada (Score:2, Informative)
PS3 Price Drop = Xbox 360 Price Drop (Score:4, Informative)
Re:they aren't Coke (Score:3, Informative)
So, it's not really "kosher" coke that's the issue - it's that "chametz-free" coke is what's needed at Passover.
Re:they aren't Coke (Score:3, Informative)
I was under the impression they never patented it, so the formula isn't public; they've always protected it as a trade secret.
Re:That's nice... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, according to slashdot quoting some guy on his blog quoting an unnamed Sony rep. No, they overheated. In Sony's defense, those enclosures are pretty poorly ventilated.
But really, the demo game is unimpressive