How can Sony further cost reduce the entry-level PS3? *spawn

[Bigduo209]

Hmmm, seems neither console maker wants to reduce prices any farther. So I doubt we're going to see any price cuts this year unless one console starts to rapidly outsell the other. I don't see that happening however.

Regards,
SB

I don't know about that, Sony is the only console manufacturer who's not budging on price since they've always had the highest costing system. You might see some PS3s get bigger harddrives while maintaining the same price or some bundles increasing the price like Shuhei said, but no lower pricing from them.

MS on the other hand will lower the cost on their lower-entry 360 for when their gonna push out Kinect. Nintendo can drop the price on the Wii if they want, but they sure as hell don't need to, they'll offer more bundles and probably release some new accessories along w/ a bigger focus on games.

 

[corduroygt]

I think the $150/$250 old 360 prices will become the new slim prices when the older stock is cleared. Sony won't reduce the price but they could make the $299 PS3 include Move if they're serious about motion gaming, or move to $250/$300 price points with the $300 sku including move.

 

[mrcorbo]

I believe that the console manufacturers want to continue to reinforce the $299 price point in consumers' minds by continuing to have the most attractive SKU in terms of value sit there. If they can move people's expectations of what they should pay for a console to these price points it allows higher price points for future generations of hardware. $399/$299 (assuming multiple SKUs are adopted again) is probably a given for the next generation and someone may even try $499/$399. I don't think anyone is going to try $599 again, though.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I believe that the console manufacturers want to continue to reinforce the $299 price point in consumers' minds by continuing to have the most attractive SKU in terms of value sit there. If they can move people's expectations of what they should pay for a console to these price points it allows higher price points for future generations of hardware. $399/$299 (assuming multiple SKUs are adopted again) is probably a given for the next generation and someone may even try $499/$399. I don't think anyone is going to try $599 again, though.

Aye, that's what I'm expecting somewhat. Both Sony and MS wanting to set 299 as the low bar for "standard" console. MS has the 199 price point for the "cut down" console.

That'll make it easier to price the next gen consoles such that they may not have to be loss leaders for very long. As well as prime customers such that they are more willing to spend more on a console. In other words, if there are no expectations of a standard/full featured console ever dropping below 299, then you won't have people waiting for it to hit 199 during the next generation.

I still think however that 199 will be a key pricepoint to hit this generation, but it appears that MS will be satisified filling that with just their "cut down" console, and both Sony and MS are going to see if they can keep the standard box at 299, and wish "special" editions at 399 (PS w/move so far announced).

Then again, I'll be quite happy if one of them kicks off another price war by going down to 249 or 199 as standard pricing.

Regards,
SB

 

[corduroygt]

If they combine cell and rsx in the next "slim", which way would they go? Would they have both GDDR3 and XDR intefaces on silicon, or redesign the cell, or the rsx? Is XDR ram used anywhere else these days? Might as well design a standard DDR/GDDR interface for the cell in preparation for the next version of cell for PS4.

 

[Carl B]

I don't see them combining the chips at all, precisely because the memory controller interface would present a huge headache. It's not worth it vs just continuing to shrink the chips independently. There may be a future where we see a single package though, but I'm not even sure that's all that exciting in terms of cost reduction with this architecture.

On the broader topic, I'm also of the mind that the manufacturers are more ken on 'adding value' at certain prices than they are in actually cutting the price, and I think we've actually been seeing this play out over a couple of years now.

 

[Danalys]

Ipod like model of business.