Sony Rejects PS3 Price Cuts

Despite hopeful comments by analysts, Sony has gone on the record (again) saying that it has no plans to cut the PS3's pricetag any time soon. Next Generation reports: "'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.' Analysts believe a price cut is inevitable, as the company struggles to catch Microsoft's early lead with Xbox 360, and the $250 Wii continues to sell as many as can be produced. However, Sony's plan has generally been to hold tight and hope that demand for Blu-ray drives will increase, by the end of this year." Relatedly, the company has outlined releases for the second quarter of this year on the PS2, PS3, and PSP systems.

when you know you're wrong...

[butterflysrage]

dig in your heals and hope no one catches on to that fact...

It's the right move

[cxreg]

cutting the price at this point wouldn't help game sales enough to offset the extra loss they'd be taking on each unit, because the library is still pretty sparse. might as well suck it up and sell whatever units are selling. when the really good games start coming out later this summer and fall, sales will pick up and I wouldn't be surprised to see a november cut of about $100

My eyes!

[The Real Nem]

Of the 134 words in the summary, 24 were not part of a link. I'd post something constructive, the I could bare to rear more than 10 words of the summary (and we all know the golden rule about reading TFA). Sheesh!

Driving co. into the ground?

[rfunches]

Seriously, is Sony intentionally driving itself into the ground? (and no, I'm not trolling)

It's a known fact that consoles don't bring in revenue, it's in-house games and accessories and licensing fees. If the PS3 price were even remotely close to the XBox 360, I could see Sony not cutting the price on grounds of competitive pricing; that's clearly not the case. I can't see sales ticking up significantly through the first price drop, unless there's something I'm missing.

Its my toy

[jriding]

They keep playing the old its my toy and if you don't want to play by my rules you can't play with it... But they don't seem to notice that not many people are willing to play with their toy based on their rules. This includes both game makers as well as customers. Over all I keep hoping that they will see the light and the ps3 will take off with both good games and good price... but untill then I will just keep what I have.

Wow

[stratjakt]

Wait for demand for Blu-Ray drives?

Is there any demand, whatsoever?

Hell - demand for HDTVs isn't even all that high.

Regardless, I can watch HD movies via Comcast on demand, download them via XBox 360, or to a PC.

I have no problem at all getting HD content onto my screen.

Why should (most)people care about plastic discs anymore?

Naturally no announced price cut...

[geders]

I don't understand why people are confused about the lack of a price cut announcement.

You don't tell the public that a poorly selling, expensive product is going to be $100 cheaper next month unless you want even lower sales for the next month. Lower sales for that month means even lower numbers of customers looking to buy software for the machine.

The announcement of the PS3 price cut will come the same day as the PS3 price cut (see PSP price cut as an example).

Re:Driving co. into the ground?

[Applekid]

Consoles don't usually bring in revenue, no, but the PS3 is estimated to cost $800 per unit to get out the door but it's selling for $600. (The $500 model is discontinued.) Typically, the cost per unit is considered proprietary information so it's only an estimate. This means it's hard to pin down but I do believe this is the highest net loss per unit of any console ever. If they already have to sell a bunch of games and accessories (X) to break even, if they drop the price by another $100 they'll just have to have an average of each user now buy (X * 1.5) games and accessories.

They're bleeding on PS3 right now, so should they bleed more? I guess someone crunched some numbers and came to the same conclusion you did.

Putting on my tinfoil hat, I'd say these rumors of price drops that simply will NOT die are a combination of 1 part wishful thinking, 1 part wanting to make existing owners panic, and 1 part of helping to stifle sales as consumers who are on the fence about pricing would most certainly not want to buy if they anticipate a drop.

Re:It's the right move

[powerlord]

Not to mention even if they WERE going to have a price cut, denying it is "standard practice".

Take a look at Nintendo (who everyone seems enamored with at the moment), and remember what happened when they had the last round of price cuts on their handheld ... and denied any price cuts were about to happen when asked about the week before?

Look. Suck it up. Price cuts WILL happen at some point. If you want to wait for whenever that will be, then wait. If you don't, then don't. I agree that once the games start rolling this Summer and Fall things will start looking up, and I also wouldn't be surprised by a price drop before the holidays.

Re:Wow

[pete-classic]

Why should (most)people care about plastic discs anymore?

Bandwidth?

I don't have HDDVD or Blu-ray. Every HD source I've seen so far is seriously over-quantized. Cable, satellite, downloads (legal and otherwise) all look like crap (in ascending order of crapitude).

It seems to me that the powers that be decided that more lines means more room for loss. HD in practice seems to be mostly a wash.

I've got an ATSC tuner coming in tomorrow. Hopefully that means Lost and Heroes in actual HD.

It appears that over-the-air and on little plastic discs are the only places to get "HD" with, you know, high definition. That's why I care.

-Peter

Re:As Slashdot's (only?) Sony fan ...

[GrayCalx]

Just wanted to throw in that the 360 does look pretty amazing at 720p. So far seeing ps3 games and 360 games at 720p I haven't seen anything on the ps3 that really "wow'd" me. (Not to say it didn't look good, just nothing that made me regret getting a 360). Can't speak to the 1080p though, so thats definitely an opportunity for Sony to excel if the 360 doesn't start putting its own 1080p games out.

On the other hand again its ridiculous to say that the graphical output of a 360 in HD is a half-generation behind the Wii.

Re:As Slashdot's (only?) Sony fan ...

[asc99c]

Yeah the Wii isn't half a generation ahead of the 360 graphically. But it does have controllers a generation ahead. That's part of the problem launching first. Sony got to see what people thought of the 360, and also hear what Nintendo was doing, and try for the best of both.

The tilt sensors in the PS3 controller are a nice touch and I'd like to see some games make better use of it. Tony Hawks uses the tilt sensors for balancing on grinds / manuals. It feels like a really natural way to do it and for me that was the killer feature vs the PC version I've got. Motorstorm can use them for turning, but that feels like a tacked on extra that doesn't really work.

I don't think Sony has caught up with online stuff yet. The headsets for the 360 also sound like a great piece of kit I'd like to see on the PS3. But that's all software. I think Sony concentrated on getting the hardware in place to do anything the 360 can do, with the idea they can improve software later.

Re:Suggesting a price cut right now is retarded

[drinkypoo]

the money is not made on the hardware but on the software

This isn't news. But several other things are also true. Among them:

1. Gamers go where the games are.
2. The games are where the developers are.
3. The developers are where the gamers are.
4. GOTO 1

Sony completely fucking blew the PS3 launch. There are simply not enough games that people actually want, and the price is astronomical so many people decided to wait for more games to be released. But the result of that is that there are less PS3s sold. Developers want to make games for consoles that people actually own, so they will be less inclined to make PS3 games. This won't result in many games being cancelled, but it will result in less games being exclusive to the PS3 - the installed base is less than any other console for which people are still making/selling games, so making a PS3 exclusive is guaranteeing that your profits will be reduced. Since there are less games, and less exclusives (which have traditionally been strong selling points - for example zillions of people bought the PS2 just for Tekken Tag, Gran Turismo, or a Final Fantasy title) this means that less people will want to buy the system.

If you can't sell games, you're not going to make the money.

Also keep in mind that Nintendo makes money when they sell game consoles. They don't lose it. So even if they sold less units they still wouldn't be losing money on consoles. This is why there's room in the industry for first place, second place, and Nintendo. But if Nintendo takes first or second place, I think there's distinctly less room left...

Re:It's the right move (PS3 new games)

[WillAffleckUW]

Motorstorm (already out)
Metal Gear Solid 4
Killzone
Heavenly Sword
FF13 (despite recent headlines, 13 and 13vs are still PS3 exclusive for now)
Lair
Afrika
LittleBigPlanet
Home

Other than Heavenly Sword and FF13 (which will be ported, they announced it), I don't sense any anticipation to speak of for the rest of that list.

Going to be a cold winter at Sony HQ.

Re:Wow

[pete-classic]

If it looks "great" then why can't we have HD movies on single layer DVDs? That is, after all, the same codec that Blu-ray and HD DVD use.

You should have your vision checked.

-Peter

PS3 is less expensive than an XBox 360

[sevenn4]

The PS3 is $600 and includes a 60GB HDD, wireless and wired networking, and a blue-ray HD player (chosen for playing HD movies and for having a media type with enough storage space for games that will eventually exceed the storage of a standard DVD disc). The XBox 360 is $400 with only a 20GB HDD and to make it comparable to the PS3 you must buy a wireless adapter ($90.00), and an HD-DVD player ($190.00 and which Microsoft doesn't produce games on which means you'll be dealing with multi-disc games in the not too distant future). This brings the XBox 360 price up to $680. In addition the online play is not free ($40 for a year subscription), it is prone to overheating so an intercooler is almost a must (NYKO Intercooler $15). This brings the XBox 360 to $735. Furthermore, XBox 360 is going to increase the HDD capacity of the XBox 360 to 120GB to compete with the PS3 and since they use a proprietary drive this will cost you $180 whereas you can put any HDD in a PS3 (120GB HDD can be had for $53.00). This brings the XBox 360 to $915 and the PS3 to $653. If you decide the HD player really just isn't worth it then that still leaves the XBox 360 at $725 which is $72 more than the PS3. Then you add the fact that the PS3 is a single component vs. the now 4 components for the XBox 360 (The unit itself, intercooler, wireless adapter and the HD player) or 3 if you choose not to get the HD player. More components means more wires and more hassles and more space that is required. Plus, a single component looks a lot nicer in your living room rather than several. I realize the wireless adapter and intercooler actually connect to the XBox 360 but it is still more wires and more hassle and makes the console take up more space. Another nice feature of the PS3 is that you can install Linux on it making it a fully functional computer if need be. The PS3 is also quieter (barring the recent whine discovered in some of the new PS3s which will hopefully be fixed soon), a lot more backwards compatible and doesn't have the bad manufacturing quality of the XBox 360 (lots of people are complaining that they have had to replace their XBox 360 several times). So, how do you really justify the PS3 being more expensive than an XBox 360?

Re:It's the right move (PS3 new games)

[KDR_11k]

Why exactly did Nintendo reject an immersive world for a bare-bones cartoony poor man's version with little actual value to the player?

Because they found it unnecessary and only wanted to provide a way for the player to get "himself" in the game? Because it's easier to make a carricature of yourself from cartoony parts than a realistic representation because the latter will be held to a much higher standard and just a slightly different nose can ruin the illusion?

Re:As Slashdot's (only?) Sony fan ...

[Raenex]

I know a few people thinking about getting a PS3, and it's not really the price issue that's holding them back but the content.

If $600 is no big deal for you when buying a game console, and you read Slashdot, I'm guessing you are a well-payed techie with lots of free spending money, and your friends are too. Sony needs people outside of this niche. I've read lots of forum posts from people who want to buy a PS3 but are waiting for more games and a price drop. I'm thinking they could sell a lot more at $400, but I don't think they can afford to sell them at this price, even 6 months from now.

Better luck next round, Sony.