Its probably a content war in the US, but its probably still a brand war in Europe and Japan (where the 360 is a casualty of that war).
Sony year-end financials, Fiscal 2007
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Its probably a content war in the US, but its probably still a brand war in Europe and Japan (where the 360 is a casualty of that war).
I still have people over who ask me what that white box is next to my PS3.
Im not so sure. The US is where the 360 has done well. If the 360 is going to keep pace with Sony and maximize its marketshare. It will have do it in the US where chance of really outpacing the PS3. Price cuts in the US will be more beneficial then anywhere else. If MS is looking to grow the userbase then it has to focus on the US.
The US is probably the one market where Sony would have a hard time narrowing a price gap with the added consequence of the bigger the price gap in the US the bigger the impact.
I'd advise against any conspiracy-theorizing on this matter... it's a pretty straightforward affair IMO. Remember that exchange rates play a big role with margins, and for now Sony expects an average dollar/yen rate of 1:100 over the next year. When the 40GB console launched for instance, it might have been losing x amount of money, but by the end of March for example it was probably losing a good bit more due to the rates.
It makes total sense in my book that Sony take it easy for a year and make some money; if they need to cut the price later, they can. But if things are "good enough" for the time being no reason to rock the boat. I also wouldn't be surprised if Sony wants the PS3 at $400 for a little longer to let some of the margins on BD players remain high. During the conference call Sony said they expect to sell 7 million BD standalones this year. Since this entire pricing/market drama with the PS3 was premised on the inclusion of Blu-ray in the first place, no sense in it handicapping those profits now that the format has actually won.
It makes total sense in my book that Sony take it easy for a year and make some money; if they need to cut the price later, they can. But if things are "good enough" for the time being no reason to rock the boat. I also wouldn't be surprised if Sony wants the PS3 at $400 for a little longer to let some of the margins on BD players remain high. During the conference call Sony said they expect to sell 7 million BD standalones this year. Since this entire pricing/market drama with the PS3 was premised on the inclusion of Blu-ray in the first place, no sense in it handicapping those profits now that the format has actually won.
Another possible explanation may be that they've stuffed retail channels with consoles the same way MS did last year, and now decided to wait until those units are sold. They report about 13-13.5 million consoles but even the most optimistic estimates are way below that.
There was also a Sony claim that they've taken the lead in the EU with 5 million consoles which MS later questioned, based on market research data. Perhaps it's also a case of pushing a lot of consoles into the market that aren't yet sold to customers?
There was also a Sony claim that they've taken the lead in the EU with 5 million consoles which MS later questioned, based on market research data. Perhaps it's also a case of pushing a lot of consoles into the market that aren't yet sold to customers?
If you put out a low (but reasonable ) estimate, the stock price will adjust based on this information. If it later turns out this estimate was low, and Sony did better than their estimate, stock price goes up.
Other way around is a bad deal however, the finance market tend to hit stocks that underdeliver very hard. It also makes you look like much less of an idiot.
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But being drastically off even in the "good" direction also makes you look like an idiot, right?
Sony looses US$260 each ps3 sold?
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189023
"On Sony's own figures, the games division made a loss of $130 for each PlayStation 3 shipped," he said. "Let's assume that it's making pots of money on the PSP and the PlayStation 2: the PS2 is now hugely profitable and still sells more games than anything else. These two platforms could easily have made a profit of $1.2bn in the year. In that case, the total PS3 loss would have been $2.4bn shared between 9.24m PS3 consoles, or $260 per PS3 - including any attached Sony games."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189023
"On Sony's own figures, the games division made a loss of $130 for each PlayStation 3 shipped," he said. "Let's assume that it's making pots of money on the PSP and the PlayStation 2: the PS2 is now hugely profitable and still sells more games than anything else. These two platforms could easily have made a profit of $1.2bn in the year. In that case, the total PS3 loss would have been $2.4bn shared between 9.24m PS3 consoles, or $260 per PS3 - including any attached Sony games."
I don't think so, and to hear the reactions on the conference call, no one else had much of a problem with it either. Personally I could care less what the number Sony gives is, since it will be wrong anyway.
There pulling those numbers out of their ass - losing money yes... $260? Why don't we get some iSuppli numbers up here while we're at it. If it comes from an analyst, it's gotta be true afterall, yeah?
It's rather pointless to divide the loss by each PS3 unit since they have to invest money onto R&D and online infrastructure management anyway.
As for price cut, I guess they'll add values to what they have, 399 Euro bundle are already good value addition. DS3 bundle may be possible. Also a new SKU with a higher price / larger storage.
As for price cut, I guess they'll add values to what they have, 399 Euro bundle are already good value addition. DS3 bundle may be possible. Also a new SKU with a higher price / larger storage.
Looking at the NPD numbers gives light to the forecast for next year. GTA was the bigggest Playstation franchise last gen. It failed to move hardware. It's clear the pricing it still the key for consumers. If they don't want to drop the price, then they will have to deal with low sales. Not just GTA4 but GT5 was also released in the same month.
was also released in the same month.Gradthrawn
Veteran
It did? Based on what data? A few weeks? Wow, that's a pretty quick to call a failure.
EDIT
Ah, I see your arguments in the NPD thread. Never mind. Still seams premature, especially since that's US only data.
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For sure Sony is way better off this year than last, with a very solid line up of games and more importantly of known franchises. But still, if GTA4 now, which remains to be seen, did not move any conciderable amount of hardware I do not think that MGS will push that many either, some but not any huge amounts. As was said for GTA4, those that want to play itreally badly most likely have the console.
As for LBP, I agree it seem to be phenomenal and in many ways a game for everyone, but still I have started becomming more and more of the opinion that it most likely will not be anything more than a niche game, but I am very badly informed about the game. Will there be several levels of the games shiped with it, will there be a story and missions to get trough or is it only about building your game? If it is the later I don't see it being for the masses.
As for their projections for next year, it depends very much on how many of those 9.2 million consoles sold this year, were actually sold to consumers and how many are stuffed in the retail chanel. A bit like the first year of the 360, when MS wanted to push the 10 million in one year number, sure they reached but they had stuffed the channel so much that stores didn't know where to store them...
