Ben-DutkaThe rumors of a price drop for the PlayStation 3 continue, although this is more suggestion than rumor.
In a recent interview with EDGE, Xbox 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg said he expects to see a PS3 price cut "in the next couple of months." This flies very much in the face of Sony's insistent claims that with the PS3 very close to turning a profit, they have no intention of dropping the price. But here's what Greenberg had to say:
"We absolutely expect the PS3 price drop to happen in the next couple of months. Were frankly surprised its taken this long. I would expect they'd have to move on price, sooner than later, for sure."
Thing is, although Sony has cut production costs dramatically (down from $840/PS3 in 2006 to $445/PS3 in late 2008), if they drop the price to $299, they're incurring more loss yet again. On the other hand, with sales on the upswing and the giant software releases just around the corner in 2009, slashing the price in the next few months could result in a gigantic spike. As most of our readers have already said, price is one of the biggest obstacles for new consumers in regards to the PS3, especially in this ailing economy. So will Sony respond, as Greenberg thinks they will? We shall see.
I see ms is trying to make the public force Sony to slash its price, misery does love company it seems.
I have to agree 100% here that MS is trying to push a price cut on Sony with this type of statement, and I don't believe it is out of misery. Economically standing if Sony were to be forced to cut the price of the PS3 then they would again be sitting in the red on every PS3 that sells, and with the global financial fiasco they really cannot stand to be in the red on a product considering they are already cutting fat from the company. MS is also a giant corporation and they know how things like this work. It is a simple business strategy to push a company closer to the edge of either going out of business or selling off divisions to 3rd parties. Same thing happened to a company in the tech park that I work in and now the company I work for owns their Sustaining division.
Do I think this tactic will work on Sony even if they do make a price cut? No, I fully believe Sony is at the helm of the ship now and are heading to a black financial year either way with the exclusives that are coming and the ever dropping price of technology.
Last edited by coverton341 on 1/6/2009 11:08:15 AM
PS3 price in august/september. no sooner.
Repost: PS3 price drop in August/September 2009. No sooner.
Sorry. "Edit" doesn't work on my Internet Explorer Mobile.
I agree…it's definitely gonna be closer to the hoidays. They've got plenty of nice exclusives near spring to carry them towards the holidays. The Msft guy makes me laugh because he's boasting without boasting.
Last edited by ec0li on 1/6/2009 1:28:04 PM
I expect it to drop this Holiday "09", for I think Sony is going to have the best holiday at the end of this year!
slashing the prices soon would be one of their best business decisions, after their last one which was turning down a deal with a company that wanted to sell sony radio's but rebranded with their name. they then went on to become the sony we know.
people r goin crazzzy……for 400$ u can't expect more than that……….a 7core corei7 3.2ghz cpu costs around 500$ alone……..how da heck people want sony 2 reduce ps3's price????
Ummm… the Core i7 doesn't have 7 cores.
Meh ive got mine already and im sure anyone reallyinterested in the PS3 would have to by now……… Though my step dad has got a new 50inch TV and doesnt have a Blu-ray player yet, a price cut could be convincing, eh eh eh!
or he could buy a blu-ray player that already has sales and price cuts.
Last edited by King James on 1/6/2009 8:49:47 PM
Just like anything, u get what you pay for.. You wanna save some money an buy garbage, get a sexbox you want greatness, shell out the money an buy it. Quit complaining about the price drop I personally still think the launch price i paid was a steal, happy as hell i owned my ps3 for 2years.
same here i baught mine the first year and have never regretted it. the ps3 is a steal any way you look at it.
I happen to agree. What you paid was a steal. Oh, I think you meant different to me.
Actually, what I think Microsoft is out to do is to hurt Sony's sales with this – generally, if people know or have a pretty good idea that there is going to be a price drop, they will prefer to wait. In this situation, this might seriously hurt Sony's sales to the point where the gaming division's capability to stay afloat is strained, or they have to drop the price sooner than anticipated (in effect, BEFORE benefits of production cost decrease kick in) and suffer even more loss. Although I seriously hope this does not happen, I do hate Microsoft for this (apparently) dirty move.
Just my two cents, and I hope it's just me reading more into this than there actually is.
Last edited by Thinker on 1/6/2009 1:01:45 PM
eh your name says it all, and what you said does actually sound reasonable. microsoft has played dirty in the past so i wouldnt put a move like that past them.
yeah i have to agree with that to.
sony has been noble just weight till their money situation gets right. than the gloves will come off.lol imo 8)
Could be their attempt but I don't see it working that way. How many regular gamers will know of, remember or care about this specific MS PR? Anybody wanting a ps3 will buy it. Those who feel they can wait for a price drop whenever it happens will continue to wait. Nothing changes. I sense more nervousness than confidence behind this. Everyones waiting to see exactly how many people are waiting to buy ps3's at $300. It's a little funny of them to expect sony to do things on their schedule. Sony will drop price when they decide it's better for them.
Last edited by Blaiyan on 1/6/2009 5:42:24 PM
funny how M$ wants Sony to cut price, when you can see the big hardware difference between both console. if they want to cut price, it means Sony is going to remove and modify more stuff in the machine, thereafter start selling crap like that the 360.
i doubt if Sony would like to tarnish their image as a company of QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.
i love SONY, CUSTOMERS FIRST.
CHEERS!
Last edited by jerocarson on 1/6/2009 2:21:49 PM
Amen!!
you mean like they did before with backward compatability?
Hopefully they will drop it around october or november 09 to increase Holiday sales since that it the time most consoles are bought.
Thats one hell of a deal.
Remember how in the last generation the Xbox had a price cut that looked like a retaliation to the PS2 one?
It was actually the case that Microsoft had gotten on to retailers about dropping the price, but Sony struck into action. They lowered the price of the PS2, basically meaning retailers (gamestop, best buy, et cetera) had paid more than they sold them for.
Sony then had to reimburse the retailers that money.
Not entirely relevant to the topic, but interesting to think about.
I'm not going to try and figure how much they will drop the price by, I'm not that good. But I call it for a price drop in April. I think it may involve yet another example of Sony adding value though rather than dropping the price that much.
i domt care if the price was cut im so glad my PS3 is compatible with PS2 games, it would be really lame if it didnt, i have tons of PS2 games., concidering Sony Blu-ray players cost the same as a PS3 i cant see how people winge at teh ps3's price, you get father more than you bargained for.
I just want to point out a source of amusement for me. People here like to use that line "You get what you pay for" when it comes to buying the PS3. Good on you, you found the value and bought it. Thats fantastic.
Though, that nugget of wisdom is not applicable when it comes to buying a cheaper console and paying for online gaming. Bit of a blind spot, that.
Touche, salesmen.
To be honest, how many companies would be willing to make a lose on their product? Not many I'd wager. And now they are on the verge of profit, let them finally have it!
And besides, I think £200, or $299, is quite a large pricecut. Cutting a third off the price of your product is not good business sense, not in the situation they are in. £300 is fine for what you bloody well get.
i think sony should make a pricecut in Next Nov-Dec………a god of war 3 bundle…160gb hdd…2DS3 controllers…HD cable…=$350….would b a fantastic package
This is wild. What are you, corporate drones?!! I have never seen people argue against a price drop before. Don't give me that" you get what you paid for crap." A price drop would get your hardware into more people's hands…More so than a bunch of fanboys telling me how much the company is losing on each console. Or how lucky i am that this console has blu-ray.
Forgive my rant. Sony has to wake up and realize something. They are no longer the dominant force in videogames anymore. They are now in a race with a very powerful company with deep pockets. A price cut and a new marketing campaign is just for starters. I paid a lot for this console. I have an interest in it's survival. Being a bunch of yes men, with the Sony can do no wrong attitude..Is not going to help Sony in the long run. Cut the freaking price!!!
Last edited by cadpig on 1/6/2009 11:12:56 PM
Honesty the soonest I could see a price cut is the end of the 1st quarter of halfway through the 2nd quarter. The reason I say this is because tax time is coming up and people are going to have a little extra money. Also even though it is not a requirement people will be buying HDTV's because of the digital conversion on 02-17-09. And while their buying their TV's they may also want a Blu Ray player and since the PS3 of course is a gaming console and a Blu Ray Player as well that may be the best option for them especially since their still is a lot of PS2 owners who haven't moved on to a next gen console yet. So after tax season is over and everybody has got their refund the price of the PS3 might finally go down.
Last edited by BigT_1980 on 1/7/2009 1:14:44 AM
They don't care what it takes. They want the BS3 and Sony out of the gaming business.
Wow that was a major typo. The B and the P keys are not even close to each other. I recommend Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
i hope its a typo, xbots love using bs 3 ,you aint an xbot Joshua, right?
You constantly talk about the ps3 like you don't care but your always here.But yet it still out sells the xbox outside the US.The ps3 is still a thorn in xboxs side.Your a prime example of the fear in micro soft.MR GREENBERG is hoping that the price cut would damage the sony gameing industry.This is why he hopes for a price cut ,but the one thing he didnt think about is how the number of sales would overwhelm the cost."THEREFORE BRINGING THE COST DOWN AGAIN".Profits would be made anyways.But JOSH for me to continue would only confuse your little mined.
Ah, yes, an Xbox360 product manager, he'd definitely know what's going on internally at Sony, yeesh. I agree it's an attempt by MS to make consumers think the PS3 is overpriced when I've never heard anyone who actually owns a PS3 complain about how much they paid for it. People who complain about the price either never saw a PS3 in action or are just too broke to buy one so had to go with a known-factory-defects laden Xbox360. Had I paid $399 for something like that I'd def be complaining.
"or are just too broke to buy one so had to go with a known-factory-defects laden Xbox360."
Or people whos PS3s randomly stopped reading dics. I'm sure they regretted the purchase of the PS3 especially when they had to cough up the big bucks to get it repaired.
My PS3 actually got bricked after one of the system updates which made me curse Sony for a few days but I had a replacement unit that runs quieter/better then my original unit back in my hands two weeks from the time I placed the first call to Sony and was not charged anything (they sent the coffin to ship the unit back to them via UPS 2nd Day and it included pre-paid shipping labels for UPS Next Day air to get it back to them). I've not had a single problem with the replacement unit so Sony is now off my enemies list. I did see alot of posts in the Sony forums about bluray readers that stop reading bluray discs but that hasn't happened here yet.
One big difference between the problems the PS3 has and the ones the Xbox360 has is the Xbox360 problems like it's fondness for scratching disc media were actually KNOWN by MS when they went to start shipping the thing but like most stuff MS makes their policy is a strict 'ship first and ask questions later'.
Your PS3 must have been under warranty. Good for you. Not so good for people not as lucky.
Microsoft screwed up big time with the heatsink. The fact of the RROD exists because they were careless. They did bring about a 3 year warranty to redeem themselves, costing themselves a billion dollars. I think thats sufficient "Sorry" for me.
As for the disc drive… Ah, I have seen this argument come up. It is incorrect though. Microsoft had third parties doing the disc drives for their consoles. They would stop using one manufacturer if they were having problems in terms of pricing or quality of the wares. That is why different consoles have different degrees of loudness… Ranging from loud to way too F*ing loud. But, hey, to use the famous truism, I get what I pay for. Great games.
To Pushtrak:
"They did bring about a 3 year warranty to redeem themselves"
Not so much to redeem themselves as to avoid major class-action lawsuits. Since you are so eager to put blame on Sony where you feel blame is due, have the honesty to admit lack of ethics on Microsoft's part. Otherwise that "bit of blind spot" logic applies to you too :).
Judging from what you say, PS3 owners must be having it just as bad with technical failures as the 360. I'm afraid that's what gives away the lack of impartiality on your part.
As for "Great games", agreed. The same could be applied to the PS3's games as well.
There was the lack of ethics in not taking care when designing the machine. I'm not sure I would entirely agree lack of ethics on the avoiding major lawsuits. I think lack of ethics can be seen more clearly in being brought to court over an issue, still denying the issue even after losing said case. Matter of perspective?
I don't think the PS3 has nearly the hardware problems that the 360 has. Disc reading issues and RROD are far too widespread on the 360. I've had a number of discs rendered unplayable because of the disc reader.
He knows he can't force a price cut, but he also knows that saying they should cut it means he wants to get across the idea that the PS3 is overpriced. That's just not the case, the only tradeoff is that you get more potential software buyers, Sony won't cut the price until the payoff from software sales is up to par, and lets face it R2 and LBP should have sold more. Let them do business, M$ is always getting into shenanigans.
My personal opionion is that the ps3 is not over priced. if you buy a 60 gig xbox it is around 350 dollars but that does not include bluray or built in wifi. the ps3 has an 80 gig hdd bluray and wifi. if you buy wifi for xbox it would put the system over 400 dollars. but still for about 50 dollars more you can still have a ps3.
Cognitive Dissonance:
psychological conflict resulting from simultaneously held incongruous beliefs and attitudes (as a fondness for smokingand a belief that it is harmful)
example here:
I think most people on a Playstation Forum would be highly interested in the Playstation, and therefor think very positively of it. I enjoyed my PS2 for the time I had it. And also everyone here that has one is thinking they spent a lot on their product and hold it in a higher regard than a cheaper 360 that has had the red-ring of death looming over it since it came out.
I also enjoyed my Xbox when I got that. I was not an early adopter of the 360, because of the price. However got it when Halo 3 came out. I love it and the game catalog it has.
I have yet to buy a PS3 because of price alone. I have 3 HD TVs in my house and enjoy HD programming from my cable provider and HD with my 360. Now I don't hate on anyone that has a PS3 or Love everyone that has a 360, but I can tell you that when the PS3 drops in price I will get one.
But that might be because I'm married and have kids. Which financially is more important than Resistance 2, God of War and Metal Gear exclusives.
Thanks, that is all.