Will the PS3 get a price cut this year?

[Dodece]

Sony has sent a consistent message to consumers and investors alike. That their first goal was to reach price production parody, and their second goal was to actually turn profit within the gaming division. I highly suspect that the only way they were even able to manage the latter last quarter was the musical chair shuffle that saw Sony Online Entertainment shift from the pictures division to the the gaming division. Like it or not riding massive online titles into the ground is a very profitable venture with low overhead and massive profit.

Sony has three problems to address in regards to gaming. The first problem is the need to stop hemorrhaging capital with the PS3. They then need to focus on acquiring exclusive content for their console. They also need to plan for the decline and discontinuation of the PS2. All of these things make a price cut a very bad strategic move. Sony needs to covet whatever liquid assets they can get, and they are only going to get them in the long term by making hardware profits.

They absolutely need the liquid cash to come in from the PS3. The PS2 cannot hold the line forever. Either the console will lose most of its profit margin or leave the market. In either event the PS2 is not going to cover the PS3s ass for much longer. The liquid cash is also needed for Sony to start investing in game acquisition. This is not a want Sony has almost blown all of the good will that they had before their consoles launch. Now they are going to need to purchase third party exclusivity to not be outmaneuvered by Microsoft. They will still get games for multiple platforms, but they are not going to have anything to differentiate themselves while Microsoft buys up exclusivity to last generations greatest hits.

When it comes to the library Sony is in a tenuous position, and redressing that issue has to be their top priority. Cutting the price of their machine is not going to help them if Microsoft uses the slack to go out, and buy all the exclusive titles. Sony at least needs the leverage to keep Microsoft honest. When nobody else is bidding its a buyers market. When two are bidding the prices go up. Sony needs to be able to bid. To ensure that Microsoft cannot just buy everything for a song. That happens and it would only be a matter of time. The cumulative effect would eventually kill off the console at some point in its third year.

We saw what happened with Final Fantasy the PS3 library is walking on a knifes edge. Any more high profile losses and the PS3 may find itself being written off by gamers hardcore and core. Justification is hard enough as it is, but were you to have a Resident Evil find itself change to a full 360 exclusive. Then you would watch a gamer meltdown of epic proportions. Sony has to have money to stop these things from happening, or at least make a token response.