How soon for a PS3 price drop?

[woodrun]

If I were Sony and making decisions before the UK launch, I would probably be thinking of a price drop before the Winter holiday season.

After seeing the sales results over the last few weeks, I would probably be thinking of maybe a little sooner. End of April? End of May? Or can I afford to wait a little longer and see if a games release helps to increase sales?

Rumour has it that UK unit sales are now sub 10K per week and worse still, UK retailers have taken it into there own hands to reduce the price. Add to that the other rumour of cutting jobs in Sony Europe gaming division and the picture isn't quite rosey.

Can Sony Entertainment hang on and keep plugging away until the public finaly wakes up to the consoles many capabilities? If they don't, how long before some top level manager in Sony pulls the plug and cuts their losses?

Why not scrap the PS3? PS2 sells extremely well. That's profit in hardware and software from a huge installed base. There might be the odd prediction that new games development will dry up but have you looked at the cost of games devlopment on a PS2 versus the 360 or PS3.

Could this new generation become a 360 for HD games with the PS2 for the popular masses and the Wii for those who entertain a lot at parties?

It's not just sales numbers in the UK though.

Top seller in the US for March is the PS2 (280k) with the Wii (259k) a close 2nd. XBox 360 (199k) and PS3 (130k).

With the summer months almost upon us, those sales for all consoles will probably drop as we make the most of the extra sun.

Now if that's not enough to worry Sony, how about the home market of Japan?

Sales on last week are: Wii (75K), PS2 (14k), PS3 (12k) and Xbox 360 (3k).

So what's it going to be to save PS3? Amazing piece of software that everyone wants? Death of HD-DVD? Or a price drop and not a small one.

Who wants to predict a $100 price drop across the world?

[j.o.s.h.1408]

ithey are already making a loss so cutting down the price will spell a HUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE LOSS

[Veles]

Originally Posted by j.o.s.h.1408

ithey are already making a loss so cutting down the price will spell a HUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE LOSS

Better than the huge loss they're suffering due to lack of games being sold. It's already come down in price in most UK stores to £400. Selling like hotcakes my ass.

If Sony plans to make money from games and peripheral sales, they really need the sale of consoles to pick up, since hardly anyone has a PS3, the sales of the profit items is also very low.

[woodrun]

Originally Posted by Veles

If Sony plans to make money from games and peripheral sales, they really need the sale of consoles to pick up, since hardly anyone has a PS3, the sales of the profit items is also very low.

Do Sony get a royalty for every Blue ray movie sold?

[moogle]

Originally Posted by woodrun

Do Sony get a royalty for every Blue ray movie sold?

are any blue ray movies even sold? tbh i dont know anyone with one. the goddamn player gosts £1000. it'd be cheaper to get a ps3 tho

[gtech]

The playstation 2 is paying for the 3 at the mo, the price drop is inevitable, and the GOOD games are still in development, they're probably still finding out the capabilities, so im just looking forward to when the games really do start rolling out.

[Steven W]

I'd say it will drop soon, and by Xmas time they'll be some great bundle deals.

I don't think they'd capitalise enough by reducing it for the summer season. There's always very few games out.

Late August/September for a price drop maybe?

[beanbandit]

Originally Posted by Steven W

I'd say it will drop soon, and by Xmas time they'll be some great bundle deals.

I don't think they'd capitalise enough by reducing it for the summer season. There's always very few games out.

Late August/September for a price drop maybe?

Why does Sony need to drop the price? At the moment the console market is the domain of the hardcore gamers or those with money to burn. If you look at hardware launches down the years the same thing happens. ie massive first week or 2 sales then a (massive) slow down, before sales start picking up.

People keep moaning about the price of the PS3, is it really that expensive compared to the 360? In my view no. The 360 costs £280 for the Premium version.
But does it have HDMI connector? Nope.
Does it have HD-DVD playback as standard? nope.
Does it have wi-fi as standard? nope
To bring the 360 up to the standard of the PS3 will cost you another £200 (HD-DVD = £130 Wi-Fi = £60)

So MS counter the Sony challange with the Elite, WTF, what a complete waste of time creating another model of the 360 without fixing the faults of the current models. So what we get a 120Gb Hdd, or a HDMI, but it still sounds like a jet engine when being used, and it still has the same cpu so therefore the same faults will soon surface ie ring of death.

So do Sony need a price drop when their main competition can't produce reliable consoles or make enough consoles 6 months after launch?

MS are running around like headless chicken in regard to their hardware plans, 3 models so far, with a redesign with new cpu on the horizon. Then the statement saying that they will jump on the blu-ray bandwagon if needed.

Nintendo have a great console and a wonderful controller, but where are the games? Where are the games that take full advantage on that controller?

So do Sony really need a price drop? I'd say no. The market is there for the taking, but no one wants to step up and take control.

[Hulkster316]

Originally Posted by beanbandit

Why does Sony need to drop the price? At the moment the console market is the domain of the hardcore gamers or those with money to burn. If you look at hardware launches down the years the same thing happens. ie massive first week or 2 sales then a (massive) slow down, before sales start picking up.

People keep moaning about the price of the PS3, is it really that expensive compared to the 360? In my view no. The 360 costs £280 for the Premium version.
But does it have HDMI connector? Nope.
Does it have HD-DVD playback as standard? nope.
Does it have wi-fi as standard? nope
To bring the 360 up to the standard of the PS3 will cost you another £200 (HD-DVD = £130 Wi-Fi = £60)

So MS counter the Sony challange with the Elite, WTF, what a complete waste of time creating another model of the 360 without fixing the faults of the current models. So what we get a 120Gb Hdd, or a HDMI, but it still sounds like a jet engine when being used, and it still has the same cpu so therefore the same faults will soon surface ie ring of death.

So do Sony need a price drop when their main competition can't produce reliable consoles or make enough consoles 6 months after launch?

MS are running around like headless chicken in regard to their hardware plans, 3 models so far, with a redesign with new cpu on the horizon. Then the statement saying that they will jump on the blu-ray bandwagon if needed.

Nintendo have a great console and a wonderful controller, but where are the games? Where are the games that take full advantage on that controller?

So do Sony really need a price drop? I'd say no. The market is there for the taking, but no one wants to step up and take control.

Agree with your point but Joe Public standing in Game are just gonna see 2 games consoles one costing £280 and with loads of games and one costing £425 with very few games , thats why i think Sony are gonna have to drop the price.

[SiM]

Originally Posted by Hulkster316

Agree with your point but Joe Public standing in Game are just gonna see 2 games consoles one costing £280 and with loads of games and one costing £425 with very few games , thats why i think Sony are gonna have to drop the price.

If Joe public is educated - through marketing then price won't be a problem. But Sony haven't really been great at marketing it..

[Veles]

Originally Posted by beanbandit

Why does Sony need to drop the price? At the moment the console market is the domain of the hardcore gamers or those with money to burn. If you look at hardware launches down the years the same thing happens. ie massive first week or 2 sales then a (massive) slow down, before sales start picking up.

Not really, it's the domain of the casual gamers with not a lot of money to burn, hardcore gamers with money to burn buy a ~£1500 gaming PC and all the consoles. If these are sony's "massive" launch sales, they're in trouble

Originally Posted by beanbandit

People keep moaning about the price of the PS3, is it really that expensive compared to the 360? In my view no. The 360 costs £280 for the Premium version.
But does it have HDMI connector? Nope.
Does it have HD-DVD playback as standard? nope.
Does it have wi-fi as standard? nope
To bring the 360 up to the standard of the PS3 will cost you another £200 (HD-DVD = £130 Wi-Fi = £60)

Yes it is really that expensive, I know it's fantastic money for what you get, but the majority of gamers don't give two ****s about blu-ray, and just want a PS3 on it's own. Which is why most people who are buying it are doing so because it's a cheap BR player, the people who really want a PS3 as a console can't afford one because Sony decided they'd use their PS3 customers to push another one of their products. By doing so they've dramatically reduced their sales.

Originally Posted by beanbandit

So MS counter the Sony challange with the Elite, WTF, what a complete waste of time creating another model of the 360 without fixing the faults of the current models. So what we get a 120Gb Hdd, or a HDMI, but it still sounds like a jet engine when being used, and it still has the same cpu so therefore the same faults will soon surface ie ring of death.

It isn't really a counter challenge to the PS3, people have been saying for a long time that they'd like a bigger HDD, a black console and an HDMI port. If they had stuck a HD-DVD player in there, they'd be in the same boat as Sony, and it wouldn't sell. The red ring of death doesn't really have much to do with the CPU either, sure the CPU was the cause, but the fault was down to the PCB getting too hot, which they have now fixed as the Llama team found out when they ripped open an Elite. These problems, are only a small number of the consoles, you hear a lot of problems with it because the small number of people with the problems kick up a fuss about it, you only ever hear the bad, you hardly ever here, "my 360 has been working perfectly since day one".

Originally Posted by beanbandit

MS are running around like headless chicken in regard to their hardware plans, 3 models so far, with a redesign with new cpu on the horizon. Then the statement saying that they will jump on the blu-ray bandwagon if needed.

Not a redesign, a die shrink, it's completely different, and ALL hardware undergoes this.

Originally Posted by beanbandit

Nintendo have a great console and a wonderful controller, but where are the games? Where are the games that take full advantage on that controller?

Admittedly there arn't enough games out for the Wii really, but there are some fantastic games out for it, the same couldn't be said of the mediocre lineup the PS3 has currently.

Originally Posted by SiM

If Joe public is educated - through marketing then price won't be a problem. But Sony haven't really been great at marketing it..

Thats not why we call them Joe public

[beanbandit]

Originally Posted by Veles

If these are sony's "massive" launch sales, they're in trouble

165k sales in the first 2 days and your saying their in trouble Wii & 360 combined launch sales were only 170k. Sorry Sony, you had a very poor launch.

Originally Posted by Veles

Yes it is really that expensive, I know it's fantastic Value for what you get, but the majority of gamers don't give two ****s about blu-ray, and just want a PS3 on it's own. Which is why most people who are buying it are doing so because it's a cheap BR player, the people who really want a PS3 as a console can't afford one because Sony decided they'd use their PS3 customers to push another one of their products. By doing so they've dramatically reduced their sales.

I don't think they've dramatically reduced their sales. In fact they have done the right thing with the design of the PS3. Future proof it (yes we all know that its not 100% future proof, nothing is) but compare it to what MS are doing, bringing out yet another model and screwing over those gullable enough to fork out for another 360. I'd take a cheap Blu-ray player now than non at all thanks. Lots of people bought a PS2 for the same reason, that still sold by the bucket load.

Originally Posted by Veles

The red ring of death doesn't really have much to do with the CPU either, sure the CPU was the cause, but the fault was down to the PCB getting too hot, which they have now fixed as the Llama team found out when they ripped open an Elite. These problems, are only a small number of the consoles, you hear a lot of problems with it because the small number of people with the problems kick up a fuss about it, you only ever hear the bad, you hardly ever here, "my 360 has been working perfectly since day one".

From what i've heard MS have "potted" some of the heatsink/components to avoid any flexing due to heat build up. This is not a fix, its a work around. To fix the problem would entail a new designed PCB with extra support fixings to stop the flexing from happening in the first place.

I don't agree that it only effects a small number of consoles. From my understanding its a design flaw, therefore any 360 produced could inhibit the same fault at some point. MS have probably already made some production changes ie changed the solder manufacturer.

Originally Posted by Veles

Not a redesign, a die shrink, it's completely different, and ALL hardware undergoes this.

Not all hardware undergoes this. The original Xbox never had any major changes applied, why? Because MS didn't have the rights to do this, they annoyed Nvidia, the supplier of the PCB, sound and Gfx. All the compenents for the Xbox were off the shelf, and supplied by other comapnies who kept all the design rights. Its one reason why MS use software emulation for backward compatability, they would have to pay Nvidia a certain amount fer 360 sold.

MS will be shrinking their die, at the same time the 360 will be redesigned, it may look identical on the outside, but the internals should have some major changes, ie new PCB, improved electronic's, better mounting supports etc. If they were to do it right, then the psu should be intergrated, at the moment the 360 is a dire design.

Originally Posted by Veles

Admittedly there arn't enough games out for the Wii really, but there are some fantastic games out for it, the same couldn't be said of the mediocre lineup the PS3 has currently.

That Mediocre lineup os the sort of thing i would expect from a console thats only been out a month. Look back at all console releases over the years and you will see the same thing. Games take time to produce, games get delayed to allow developers more time to tune the performance, look at the 360. The first "good" game was Oblivion (alledgely) then Gears Of War. 6-12 months after the console was released.

So the question remains. Why does the PS3 need a price drop? Sales for the 360 are pretty poor (MS have dropped their sales figure from 15m to 12m by end of June 07) with sales in Japan looking dead. Nintendo haven't got the games yet for the Wii. No Mario, or Metroid. Plus they still can't make enough consoles. Sony don't have the game either, but they are on top of their console production.

We are now coming into the quiet season for game releases. Come August/September everyone will be waiting for Halo3, GTA IV, Mario. Then the frenzy will start, that will be the start of the console war proper. None of this phoney war that is going on now.

[bee]

its getting outsold 4 to 1 by wii in japan and 2 to 1 again by wii in the usa.its also getting outsold in europe so i expect a price cut to come very soon cos its not like they've got any must have games coming out anytime before xmas.

[kalniel]

I think they'll hold on until peak christmas selling period then make a big PR over a price cut, so rather than compete on price they'll try to compete on x pounds off.

[directhex]

down to 385 at virgin if you get a virgin credit card

[GeorgeTuk]

Originally Posted by kalniel

I think they'll hold on until peak christmas selling period then make a big PR over a price cut, so rather than compete on price they'll try to compete on x pounds off.

Nearly there but they will wait until after Christmas, they wouldn't risk the loss of money per console per sale and a possible red faced shortage just to get more out the door.

I am thinking Jan '08 FTW!

Don't forget everyone was holding on for a much spoken about Wii price drop in February/March/April...that ain't happening.