How soon for a PS3 price drop?
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?