If the PS3 Slim is legit and releases at $299 - What will it do for sales?

[ZenfoldorVGI]

SWA_JM_Obi-Wan said:
I have to laugh at some of you. You guys seem to forget that only a few months ago before the 360 price drop that the PS3 was signifigantly outselling the 360 in Europe. running equal in the states and winning slimly in japan on a weekly basis. A slim at $300 would bring the price gap back to that point again, but in Japan the slimline factor mixed with FF13 would create a major boost in that country. I know 360 fans want to believe that the sales numbers are about the 360 being in demand, but the truth is it's about a major price gap. Also we don't exactly know where the Sony losses fall. they coald be due to shipping, they couyld be due to storage, they could be due to the designing of this slim model. Truth is we do not know how much Sony looses on the production cost of the PS3. We also do not know truly how much added little stuff that could be removed in a slim would cut costs. If we were experts we would be running these companies.

Why would you laugh at someone's opinion? Isn't that a tad passive agressive.

THEN is not NOW. Brand recognition and acceptance changes with time. Price is not always the absolute decider. By the time Gamecube hit 99 dollars, its brand had already been tarnished enough for it not to matter. You can't base sales trends on such simple deductions.

The whole point of the "Slim" design is to remarket the PS3 as a "new and better version" most notably in the states, where its brand, frankly, sucks.

Console redesigns, like color changes, are marketing schemes. They can give a console a fresh start, like the DS-Lite, or they can reup sales by increasing functionality and destroying stigma, like the PS2 slim. A 360 redesign could derail the RRoD argument, for instance.

In the case of the PS3, the redesign wouldn't be aimed at destroying a faulty hardware stigma or increasing functionality. It would be aimed at destroying the poor brand acceptance and price stigma surrounding the PS3, worldwide. It would be nothing short of a relaunch of the console.