NJ5 is right.

Win.

Where did you get your figures OP?

Anyways I predict and quote with the price drop the 360 will pull out a gap of 6.7 million by february 2009. America is gonna go nuts with the 360 pricing. I think even more than we anticipate.

 NOTED.

1.  Sony used cutting edge technology in Blu Ray and the cell.  It's more conceivable that they could drop the price quicker/bigger than the 360 which is essentially based off of existing PC technology.  Look at Blu Ray players, started at $1,000 and are now down to $300.  Without a detailed analysis of actual costs of each machine, which I doubt you have it's your opinion compared to mine.

3.  You said they have promised not to cut the price of the PS3 to the board member.  I don't see that in the article you posted.  I see that they don't think they are cutting the price of the PS3 this year and that profitability is #1 priority for the group.  Sony is pushing out new downloads and getting new games.  They'll sale more of these if they have more PS3 out there.  And the best time for a price cut is before the holiday season because that will push more sales during the crucial 4th quarter.  If they don't drop the price now they will gain no effect from a price drop until the 4th quarter of next year.  That's a long time to not respond to Microsoft and they risk losing more games such as Final Fantasy etc.  So a little bit of loss now helps them out long term.  Short term profitability is great but long term profitability is always better.

I know the difference between revenue and profit.  You seem to think Microsoft is willing to throw money and money at the xbox while Sony isn't at the PS3.  Okay, let me make a scenario for you.  You own a business.  It is exceedingly profitable.  You purchased or developed a segment 7 years ago.  You've spent 2-3% of your profits every year trying to build up this business and make it profitable.  You finally have a profit for a half a year and you think they should be willing to dump more money into it?  Microsoft has the money to subsidize the xbox yes, but eventually it needs to be self sufficient or management fired for continuing to waste money on this cause. 

For Sony, they are not as rich as Microsoft but they are still rich.  They had a bad quarter and this is on pace for over $1 billion in profit this year.  And ultimately for them they need to make more $ on TV and electronics.  That's going to turn this company around.  Not if they can sell more $400 PS3 instead of selling them at $350.

Win?  Unless you work intimately with Sony management and know that they are not going to drop the price exactly for the reasons NJ5 listed, I don't know how you can win an opinion.  But thanks for your great input into our discussion.

If the PS3 doesnt overtake the 360 this gen, i will suck my own balls

^lol

The 360 is already so cheap, I acually don't see how any more price cuts could have it anymore. I guess it'll have a sales spike, but I don't know how long thats gonna last.

Microsoft has done everything a game company can do. Theres not much more.

The 360 is not based on PC technology. Maybe you're mixing it up with the Xbox?

It's not my opinion that they're losing a lot of money on PS3 hardware, it's Sony's:

"our cost of the hardware is much higher than the price itself"

"Our strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability," Oneda told investors at a Nomura Asia Equity forum in Singapore. "Our plan is not to reduce the price.""

"to increase the software rather than drastically increase the quantity by adjusting the prices"

"this year we don't think it is a time to aggressively sell the hardware quantity this year. That's our strategy for this fiscal year."

Read these declarations, it doesn't get much clear than that. They're telling investors that they're concentrating on profitability and selling software, not hardware price reductions. This would explain their hardware sales forecast, which is not ambitious.

Do you think they'd risk having an unprofitable / break-even holiday quarter 2 years after PS3's launch? That would make the games division look like a pure money sink, since that's supposed to be the biggest quarter. Investors wouldn't be happy at all, especially considering Sony's falling profits.

All the signs point towards no price reductions this year. I've made up my mind, and I've given you all the information you can use to make up yours. I'm not out to convince you, so let's just let it rest :)

Not true, any price cut will help throughout the year. And how much do you really think a $50 price cut could help them in the holidays? I think they're just going to make some attractive bundles, and call it a day.

No Not Win.