Sony: PlayStation 3 price drop

80GB will eventually come anyway so clearing the inventory for 60GB is not a bad idea for now. Maybe $550 for 80GB.

 

But if they add enough to convince the buyers then it may be OK even though the price is high.

 

This does not work.

 

Wrong way of looking at it IMO. Sony banked that the hi-end users would buy their system, this is not happening.

This tells me that the traditional PS fanbase is what they now need to target(read: lowcost). Continuing to target the hi-end users will be a failed strategy.

All this talk of the system needin games is unimportant as well imo, it does not need games. So many people would buy PS3 on faith alone, if the price was simply lower.

We've seen with 360 that games rarely provide big boosts in sales, and rather they serve to maintain the current rate or boost it slightly. Even when they do provide boosts, it's never dramatic.

Despite having a huge library, 360 can't get over 50k/week in the US, why? $399 pricepoint. Meanwhile, the Wii at $250 is selling like mad with little software, and the PS3 at $599 is dead in the water.

This paints a very clear picture to me: It's not really games, it's not features, it's the price. Price is king.

 

Agreed, price is the biggest barrier of entry for consoles, then games, then features.

499 PS3 will sell better but not that much better.
399 360 has almost maxed out it's market potential at that price point.

Both need to be 299 or below to really get the mass consumer.

 

I come to this forum because it's a cool place with cool people, developers etc. It's amazing however how all threads deteriorate into vonsole vs threads.

The PS3 price drop being $100 isn't enough imo. $150-200 would be better if Sony sould have afforded it. However it would look bad dropping so much so soon, what a position for them to be in.

 

Yep. Originally the 20GB model wasn't going to have HDMI, but they changed that. So the only differences IIRC are

20 GB instead of 60 GB - better value for upgrading your own HDD
No inbuilt Wifi - Unfortunate, and no official solution would deter many who want Wifi
No memory card readers built in - Likely no biggie.

 

dewd, u forget teh CHROME LETTORZ! ShootMyMonkey would be mad at you.

 

No. It's the price of entry, not the sum of features, that keeps the mass consumer away. You might be able to sell units to enthusiasts but that pool gets saturated quickly.

 

While that may be true, I still think a few good games will sell a fair number of consoles, and a $100 price cut will probably sell a fair few more. Remember that at most there are going to be 1.2 million units produced per month. There is no capacity for selling more than those. So it is going to be in Sony's interest to sell this capacity at the right price.

I think the right price could well be 499, especially with some good games out there. Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword and Lair should give the machine a fair push, as will the first proper footie games for the system. You don't want to have too many systems lying around on the shelves, but you also don't want to lower your profit / increase your costs unnecessarily.

 

Sony should have kept the old 20gb 499 around and dropped the price to 429!

 

Its still around, though who knows what they will be priced after the price drop.

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?cookie_test=1&product_id=020071

 

The 20GB is still sold in Japan for ~$405 USD

Just maybe a $399 20GB PS3 SKU is doable for Sony in the USA

 

I don't think a $100 price drop alone will have much impact since it's still higher than it's competition and just high in general. Sony has to get content out first, and along with a $100 that would help. Or a massive $200 price drop alone would help.
I think Sony will continue to struggle until early next year,ceding this holiday to the competition.

 

I means lets just give all that advanced tech away shall we? That $100 price drop just made a lot of people take notice. Also isn't the elite $479 missing much of PS3 features?

 

That wouldn't be PR wording so much as lying. After all planning to drop the price and actually dropping it are two different things.

 

They should have raised the price, what with that advanced tech.

The market for a $500 dollar console is roughly the same as the market for a $600. And no one has said that the Elite is properly priced.

 

The previous $499 PS3 had pretty much the same as the Elite, aside BluRay and a WiFi chip. As HDD prices deteriorate I am not surprised at this, just a shame it is not more HDD space (surely a 60Gb HDD is 'expensive' as an OEM now).

 

HDMI 1.3 also.

 

The $499 PS3 didn't (or doesn't?) have WiFi. Has smaller HDD than Elite. Also PS3Lite has PS2 BC, Linux options, no MCE functionality although media playback, different software library, different chips, different controllers...