PS3 cost discussion *spin-off

[Johnny_Physics]

Ouch. Although I vaguely remember someone saying that Norway had an exclusive distributor of the PS3 who hiked the price, and so this isn't Sony pricing. But that needs confirmation; I may be babbling.

You're not thinking of Nintendo and Sweden? (edit: answered above)

Norway/Sweden is an interesting scenario because of the EU thing. Among other things I seem to remember EU putting pretty high tariffs on foreign made DRAM some ten-fifteen years ago or some other vague stuff that made nerds angry, which at one time made Norway the place to buy computer stuff from.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

All of Scandinavia. To quote the company themselves [sic]:

So who's responsible for the price discrepency between Norway and Sweden (and incidentally, which is which? I just noticed Jonny Physics quote mixes the nations!)? Has one a significantly higher average income to warrant a higher regional, just 'coz they've got more spending power?

 

[Zaphod]

I'm guessing Nordisk Film sets those (perhaps within some guidelines from Sony). Norwegians have both higher wages and higher purchasing power than the Swedes (yet likes to bitch about things being cheaper across the border). Add in currency fluctuations and it's not all that strange that the prices aren't set to parity in US$ terms.

 

[Johnny_Physics]

So who's responsible for the price discrepency between Norway and Sweden (and incidentally, which is which? I just noticed Jonny Physics quote mixes the nations!)? Has one a significantly higher average income to warrant a higher regional, just 'coz they've got more spending power?

Yeah, there's a huge income difference between the two.
I just find it odd that they really try so hard to drive the 399(x) price point home for the PS3, while Xbox and Wii pretty much bounces off the local currency and settles down.

If the price drop doesn't change the PS3 from 3990 to 2990 I think a lot of people will be disappointed because the local numbers are so closely tied to the American ones, but the drop in price is a lot more.
The price would have to, with the current exchange rates, drop to the equivalent of $492 which is entirely reasonable(2990 NOK to 492 USD), which I think makes more people expect that drop.

Strip the correct amount of(sorry for earlier) VAT from that and Norway finally has its $399 PS3.


The PS3 has been edging out the 360 in shelf space at the big retailers, even if they've had to sometimes stretch titles over the shelves to use that space.
Retail seems to be behind the PS3 and is expecting it to grow much more is what I'm trying to say.

(and incidentally, which is which? I just noticed Jonny Physics quote mixes the nations!)?

Sorry, I'm pulling a triple shift and need to stay awake, so I came here to read and happened to write but all those numbers and currency codes, it's like there's ants in my eyes!

edit2:

Add in currency fluctuations and it's not all that strange that the prices aren't set to parity in US$ terms.

But the 360 is really close and it's often changing, and the Wii is a money-machine and they don't mark it up as much(they're still basically at launch price right?).
Sony seems to be holding out for the price drop as a re-launch, or stage 2 rocket for the PS3, and in their mind everyone should feel the drop in price at the same time with the same amount of relative money or something. That's the only way I can make sense of it. It's a really weird situation.

 

[Crossbar]

Sony has a somewhat complicated relation to Nordisk Film. Nordisk Film is probably involved with the distribution of Sony movies and are likely supporting Sony with localisation of both movies and games. If Sony wanted to bypass Nordisk Film for the console hardware distribution they probably could with little effort since they already have channels that distribute tonns of electronics. But Nordisk Film may provide Sony with services in a good way and leaving the console distribution to Nordisk Film may help them keep those services for a reasonable price.

It should be mentioned that Sony is the only console manufacturer who is serious about localisation of games up here in the north. Even most of the first Sony games for the PS3 was well supported some even had Swedish voice overs (Heavenly Sword) and other Swedish sub text (Lair, Uncharted DF). Those things certainly don´t come for free.

 

[Arwin]

Uncharted also has Swedish and Finnish voice overs, not just subtitles, iirc? Well, maybe I'm confused.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It should be mentioned that Sony is the only console manufacturer who is serious about localisation of games up here in the north. Even most of the first Sony games for the PS3 was well supported some even had Swedish voice overs (Heavenly Sword) and other Swedish sub text (Lair, Uncharted DF). Those things certainly don´t come for free.

Cool. How important is that to Scandinavian gamers? Have they grown past it and just endure English because the games industry kinda forces it on them, or are they wanting regionalised titles such that they'd be (and even are) willing to pay a little extra for a Scandinavian-friendly console?

 

[Crossbar]

Uncharted also has Swedish and Finnish voice overs, not just subtitles, iirc? Well, maybe I'm confused.

You may be right it may have voicew overs as well, I don´t have the game.

 

[Crossbar]

Cool. How important is that to Scandinavian gamers? Have they grown past it and just endure English because the games industry kinda forces it on them, or are they wanting regionalised titles such that they'd be (and even are) willing to pay a little extra for a Scandinavian-friendly console?

I don´t know how important it is, but it certainly is nice to have the option there.

 

[joker454]

Do any of these cost breakdowns includes costs related to supporting blu-ray movie playback? I know many wallets have to be greased to support that. It can't be cheap since so far the OS makers are avoiding built in support, so I'm curious what that costs them per PS3.

 

[DrJay24]

Do any of these cost breakdowns includes costs related to supporting blu-ray movie playback? I know many wallets have to be greased to support that. It can't be cheap since so far the OS makers are avoiding built in support, so I'm curious what that costs them per PS3.

Is this a serious question? Sounds like a "when did you stop beating your wife" type one. The cost of producing a PS3 has nothing to do Blu-ray wallet greasing (whatever that is), unless you think the 360 cost includes RRoD insurance.

 

[Carl B]

Joker is referring to the cost of licensing to include BD playback support.

As for the thread as a whole though, is there anything left un-discussed when it comes to PS3 costs? The costs are high!

TheD, do some searching - threads on this topic, either originating or converted, are everywhere. Granted I don't know what thread this was originally spun off from to begin with, but therein lies further irony as to the commonplace nature of this topic.

 

[RobertR1]

Do any of these cost breakdowns includes costs related to supporting blu-ray movie playback? I know many wallets have to be greased to support that. It can't be cheap since so far the OS makers are avoiding built in support, so I'm curious what that costs them per PS3.

From the avs format war days as I recall, The BR stuff (including the studio exclusivity payouts and replication subsidies) are part of electronics. Each PS3 should be subjected to a BDA payment for licensing of which Sony will get a kick back of their share from the patent pool.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Cool. How important is that to Scandinavian gamers? Have they grown past it and just endure English because the games industry kinda forces it on them, or are they wanting regionalised titles such that they'd be (and even are) willing to pay a little extra for a Scandinavian-friendly console?

Not very I would say apart from some games meant for the younger ones. Our TV and movie theaters also play mostly everything with original soundtrack + subtitles. The situation is very different compared to the big European countries. I think it's kind of nice that Nordisk Film does localisation, but I personally don't want to pay for it, as it's zero use to me. Playstation consoles usually have been about 20 % more expensive here compared to other non-Scandinavian European countries. I wouldn't say that we have to endure english in our games or entertainment, because it has always been so.

 

[Crossbar]

Not very I would say apart from some games meant for the younger ones.

This is very true, it´s really nice to have it in LBP, Singstar and such. God knows that I have done my share of translating pokemon games for the kids, yes I am looking at you Nintendo, you cheap bastards.

I agree that it may not be of much value to me myself but I know there are people who have less English skills than me. Though I thinks sub texts would be enough, I hate dubbed films with a passion and I am happy it rarely happens to movies here in Sweden aside from kid movies.

 

[ShadowRunner]

... yes I am looking at you Nintendo, you cheap bastards.

Sig worthy!

 

[Lucid_Dreamer]

The cost in store is more than just the BOM. Smaller boxers means cheaper transport and storage. Oneda in the above interview seems to be talking about reducing producing a PS3 unit by 70% (which I also take to be the Slim version not out yet) which doesn't reflect on the final cost in getting it to retail.

Without hard figures for manufacturing costs, we're all really guessing when PS3 broke/breaks even. But I'd like to present to TheD Sony's financials for the past few years. PSP is profitable hardware. PS2 is profitable hardware. So if PS3 is also profitable hardware, how the hell are they losing so much money?!

Where does the advertising costs and software (game creation) budget come from? In other words, what are the operational costs coming from?

 

[mrcorbo]

Where does the advertising costs and software (game creation) budget come from? In other words, what are the operational costs coming from?

Would you not expect that to be balanced by the revenue from the sales of the games incurring those costs? If Sony are spending more advertising and developing software than they are making selling it than there is something very wrong with their business.

 

[mrcorbo]

From the avs format war days as I recall, The BR stuff (including the studio exclusivity payouts and replication subsidies) are part of electronics. Each PS3 should be subjected to a BDA payment for licensing of which Sony will get a kick back of their share from the patent pool.

What about the codec licensing?

 

[TheD]

TheD, do some searching - threads on this topic, either originating or converted, are everywhere. Granted I don't know what thread this was originally spun off from to begin with, but therein lies further irony as to the commonplace nature of this topic.

What the conference call said was that they had dropped "manufacturing costs" by 70%, I don't now about you but I can not see much cost savings in the labour of buliding a PS3 vs the cost savings made from die shrinks and the drop in blu ray diode prices (and other things), so as far as I can see that has to be the whole cost (to make).

If they are still making a lost on the PS3 hardware they are doing something very wrong (based of what others can get out the door at the same price).

I also notice that no one has said anything to disprove what I said other than wanting me to search for threads (which mind you would likely be out of date) and a link that claims that they are still making a loss at $410 USD which does not make sense in light of the link I posted.

They both can not be true, otherwise the PS3 would of cost them around $1300 at launch to make which is far higher than what anyone else has ever said.