PS3 Slim Hardware Confirmed

[rendezvous]

Here in Finland the price of PS3 Slim would seem to be €349.
Don't understand why they announce a €299 price, as in most countries it'll be more anyway

It is listed as €299 at http://fi.playstation.com/, I don't know if that matters though.

And as for the price in sweden, there have been rumours about Nordisk Film (the ditributor) increasing the price earlier so i think this may be "good opportunety" for them by not lowering to 2990 SEK with the new unit.

 

[manux]

Here in Finland the price of PS3 Slim would seem to be €349.
Don't understand why they announce a €299 price, as in most countries it'll be more anyway

Because sony sells ps3's 299e in countries sony works as the distributor. Nordisk film which is the distributor in nordic countries takes extra money and consumers get to pay extra. Though many people have bought ps3 via amazon.co.uk because you get one quite a bit cheaper than when buying from finland.

I suppose nordisk film does some good for sony so sony doesn't mind nordisk film charging extra for ps3. Perhaps it's the price to pay for all those finnish subtitles and dubbing found in many games...

 

[Prophecy2k]

If I was a betting man I'd be ready to bet on a real meaningful worldwide sales surge for Sony. One that would continue on beyond 2010.

Just like in the comments made by EA's head honcho, I agree that Sony put out the Slim and dropped the price at the right time. Had they done this at E3 then it would have likely al but been forgotten about amongst all the other industry news and "big reveals" like MS Natal.

With all the internet rumours about the Slim/pricedrop combo and whispering leading up to gamescom, then the "big reveal" amongst what's been such a stale month for gaming (i.e. little to no news, game reveals or even releases so far in August), then really did time this perfectly for maximum BUZZ gainage!

I mean... I'm excited and I have no intention of buying a PSlim3 :smile:

With them now having a competitive price with the top end MS SKU, I can see their marketshare begin its ascent.

I'll definitely be interested to see the NPD results, but moreso sales info. from Sony's two biggest territories EU and JP. With the right price and an exclusive FFXIII in JP this holiday, PSlim3 sales could very well explode in JP. Again if they can put out Uncharted 2 and maybe GT5 in 2009 (i know I'm reaching on the GT5 one) they have a good shot at reviving sales in the US and EU too.

Again, if Sony can release their motion controller spring next year, with Natal releasing by the end of 2010, the Sony console just begins to entice more and more.

Of course it could all go the other way and the Slim release could end up being too little too late... but call me an optimist

I'd like to see sales of both HD consoles pick up this Christmas. If anything but to increase the global market so that publishers don't start following Kotick's example and start whacking up game prices

 

[Scott_Arm]

If the slim was ready at E3, it would have been released. This isn't good timing. The PS3 needed a price cut a long time ago. Better late than never. Sales will surge, and Sony will reap some cost savings.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here on. Microsoft should be in a good position to lower their pricing, or offer other incentives.

 

[obonicus]

If the slim was ready at E3, it would have been released. This isn't good timing. The PS3 needed a price cut a long time ago. Better late than never. Sales will surge, and Sony will reap some cost savings.

I'm not so sure -- we had the current Slim box about when the slim rumor surfaced. The speculation was that Sony was going to try and sell the old stock at $399 as long as they could and lower the price in time for winter and the big releases, like with MS.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here on. Microsoft should be in a good position to lower their pricing, or offer other incentives.

We don't know if they're losing money on the arcade, though, so it's hard to say what position they're in. As a company MS isn't in the same situation as Sony, but didn't E&D post a loss last quarter?

 

[RobertR1]

I'm not so sure -- we had the current Slim box about when the slim rumor surfaced. The speculation was that Sony was going to try and sell the old stock at $399 as long as they could and lower the price in time for winter and the big releases, like with MS.



We don't know if they're losing money on the arcade, though, so it's hard to say what position they're in. As a company MS isn't in the same situation as Sony, but didn't E&D post a loss last quarter?

E&D did but MS made it a point to show investors the losses came from Zune and the Xbox was the bread winner of the e&d.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I guess it's true that they would wait for old units to clear before releasing the slim, but just because we saw pics of the casing for the slim a long time ago, doesn't mean it was anywhere near ready for release.

I don't know if MS is losing money on the 360 or not, or whether the unit is losing money. All I know is MS has insanely deep pockets and if they want to stay price competitive by undercutting, they can.

 

[liolio]

is this true? I find it a pretty bothering omission.

 

[MasaC]

I think it has more to do with the swedish krona tanking.

Cheers

No, it's the Nordic distributor, Nordisk Film, salting the prices.

€299 = 3150 SEK. Yes, the Swedish Krona (SEK) is tanking and about a year ago €299 would have equaled about 3000 SEK.

Now the RRP is set by Nordisk Film to 3790 SEK. That's 640 SEK more than what €299 is worth in SEK today.

It's a rip off.

 

[Arwin]

I saw an unboxing video of the thing, and they just tried setting it on its side, and it actually did that just fine. You may want additional stability though, which is what this is for. This one is a lot lighter than the original one that I have (almost half, at just over 3kg, I think mine is 6?)

 

[obonicus]

E&D did but MS made it a point to show investors the losses came from Zune and the Xbox was the bread winner of the e&d.

Sure, but taking a loss (or further loss) on 360s might mean making E&D look even worse.

 

[Crossbar]

Swedish krona vs. dollar for the past year.

Imagine you buy raw materials and labour and pay in dollar (or something linked to the dollar), - and sell in krona. With a falling krona your income falls. To avoid this you hedge your trade against currency fluctuations. But! It is much more expensive to hedge against a volatile (and falling) currency than a strong and stable one, hence it is more expensive for Sony to ship PS3s to Sweden than to Norway. This added cost is reflected in the selling price.

Cheers

I seriously doubt Sony is continuously hedging potential sales of home electronics against currency fluctuations as heging doesn´t come for free it makes much more sense for big orders that are delivered and paid years after a contract was signed. And if they were it would be really strange if they did it separately for the Scandinavian countries when they are using a single distributor for those markets.

Anyway I haven´t seen the price of the Slim in Norway yet, so I rest my case.

 

[Crossbar]

No, it's the Nordic distributor, Nordisk Film, salting the prices.

€299 = 3150 SEK. Yes, the Swedish Krona (SEK) is tanking and about a year ago €299 would have equaled about 3000 SEK.

Now the RRP is set by Nordisk Film to 3790 SEK. That's 640 SEK more than what €299 is worth in SEK today.

It's a rip off.

Actually I just read a discussion where someone had called up Nordisk Film asking why there were no price cut and they said their margin were hardly anything, which means that it is Sony setting the price.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Some random internet person called some random Nordisk Film person? Is there a link? Forgive me, but even if the company rep was in the know, why would they tell some random nobody something truthful that makes the company look bad? Saying "our margins are very small" strikes me as a pretty standard retail pricing evasion.

 

[obonicus]

Actually I just read a discussion where someone had called up Nordisk Film asking why there were no price cut and they said their margin were hardly anything, which means that it is Sony setting the price.

Very strange story, though. Why would Sony charge more for shipping there? Is crossing the North Sea such a hassle? Are they shipping it via land? It does seem more likely that this distributor is raising the prices because, well, Nordic people don't seem to have much choice in the matter.

 

[mrcorbo]

Sure, but taking a loss (or further loss) on 360s might mean making E&D look even worse.

They are going to be selling the ZuneHD this quarter versus developing and ramping production on it in the last one. That ought to help quite a bit (regardless of how well ZuneHD performs on an absolute basis).

 

[DieH@rd]

is this true? I find it a pretty bothering omission.

Slim can stand sideways without that kickstand, but its not really ultra stable.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

It is listed as €299 at http://fi.playstation.com/, I don't know if that matters though.

Nordisk Film has confirmed that the official retail price for the Slim in Finland is going to be 359€, which is exactly 20 % more than the announced Euro price and is inline with the past Playstation pricing here. Most of the bigger electronic stores import the machine themselves though and for a while 80GB model has been easy to get for about 330-349€ so this new price cut is kind of questionable around here. I'm sure you can get the Slim from unofficial routes close to the 299€ though, but it won't be the Nordisk version.

 

[Crossbar]

Some random internet person called some random Nordisk Film person? Is there a link? Forgive me, but even if the company rep was in the know, why would they tell some random nobody something truthful that makes the company look bad? Saying "our margins are very small" strikes me as a pretty standard retail pricing evasion.

You are right, I should have skipped that reference. Yet we don´t know the reason behind differences.

 

[jonabbey]

It is very late, but still I'm thrilled that they finally cut price. We don't enough console volume out there to support these uber expensive games, which of course has cause some havoc in the industry. This is mostly because of high console pricing, if you can't pay you can't play. Microsoft doesn't really set the pace of console pricing, they just follow off what Sony does (although possibly less now given their success), so we've been all watching Sony to cut price to set the new cost of entry. So I'm happy, although I would add that it's about damn time!

I'd love to know what fraction of overall PS2 sales were made after the slim PS2 came out. I have to imagine it's a very large fraction, even given the Wii-like numbers the PS2 came out of the gate with.

$299 finally seems a tractable price. At that price, I don't think Sony will have to make the 'value' argument so much, because it will be pretty obvious. A Blu-Ray / upscaling DVD player, a DLNA player, a game system with a decent library, an increasingly competitive video on demand service, a DVR (in Euroland).. there was always quite a lot there for the money, and now it's not even that much money, really.

Now it'll all come down to marketing. I think the new 'PS3' logo is more attractive, I think their branding is going in a good direction, I think the new wand controllers will get some good attention. Will Sony be able to convince people embittered (or baffled) by the last 3 years of over-priced irrelevance (underrelevance?) to take another look?