Bravo Microsoft, Bravo

[amirnetz]

I completly agree with the above two postings by Donicinator and Thx1139.

Microsoft will start 2009 with an incredible momentum - outselling the PS3 by 50% - 100% every week.

Sony's only move should have been a $100 price cut, but they just cannot do it. This would translate to an additional $1B in loses for the company and they just lack the deep pockets of Microsoft to take on such loses.

Moreover - they will never be able to recover these loses. Never. Just no such prospects.

So at this point Sony must focus on profitability and not on market share. This means keeping high prices, no paying for exclusives, limiting marketing and just cutting down costs across the board (goodby Home?).

It will take Sony about a year to get to a point where a price cut might even be considered. This is a year that Microsoft must use to leave them in dust. Microsoft should aim at selling 13M units next year and limit Sony to no more than 8M. The gap between the two systems will grow to 12M units and it will be easier for Microsoft to secure a complete support from all of the studios and reduce support for the PS3.

With such a small PS3 install base Sony will be forced to restructure its gaming division and studios that got bloated as they were designed to serve the 100M+ PS2 installed base. With small production volumes their HW cost structure will remain high making the prospects of a price cut even deemer.

Overall, it is hard to see how Sony can recover from Microsoft's move. Good game Microsoft.