IGN : Home Impression :(

[dougsdad0629]

Domicinator said:

Kyros said:

DO not or CAN not? Here's a hint: it's option two.

lol, of course they could. Now the question is: Does it make sense financially. Its a two year old device so I can hardly believe that couldn't make it cheaper. Now they will have to write off huge development costs. In the end its the question between a better quarter now or better quarters in the next years. They made the decision to have more money now which is valid. If it is sensible? Who knows.

Every company in the world is in danger of dying.

??? I was talking about this generation of consoles. Gamecube and XBOX died a premature death last gen because the userbase was not big enough that third-party devs would have given them full support. The PS3 will not have this problem (unless people stop buying them alltogether) It sells much better than either of these and developers essentially make all games PCPS360 now anyway. And for Sony? It has a hard time but not worse than other big asian electronic companies. Becoming a bit leaner and more focused wouldn't hurt them.

 

The Gamecube and Xbox were not in the same situation.  There is a global economy crisis right now, and Sony (not just the gaming division but the company as a whole) is in the headlines as one of the companies being very much effected by it.  Again, they are laying thousands of people off and looking at all divisions of their company that aren't making money.  Do you really think the executives and shareholders aren't questioning the value of the PS3 right now? 

I'm not saying the PS3 is going to "die" per se, but something is going to give at some point.  Sony is in the middle of downsizing their company, they are selling a $400 console that doesn't make them any profit and is being massively outsold by the competition, and as far as anyone has been able to tell so far, the BluRay drive and Cell processor in the PS3 are making it very hard for them to effectively lower the price.  If Sony could think of any way to drop the price on the PS3 and still come out alive, don't you think they would have done it by now?  They simply CAN'T drop the price.  They don't have the means.  Do you honestly think they WANTED to stand by and watch the Wii continue to rule and the 360 Arcade get down to $199?

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks the year head start for 360, the high cost of BluRay and Cell, and the price cuts for the competition haven't seriously hurt the PS3, they're delusional.  The PS3 isn't necessarily in danger of dying, but you can't possibly think the potential isn't there, now more than ever before.

 

I don't believe the "can't" aspect at all.  In theory, the added sales from a price drop would cause more software sales and therefore more royalities thereby offsetting the price cut.  You have to look at the broader picture, not just the gaming market.  Sony needs to be careful about pricing the PS3 so as not to screw over their hardware partners in the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).  The standalone players need to generally be cheaper than the PS3 since the PS3 has multiple functions.  If the PS3 is lowered to $299 before Christmas, it robs the partners of standalone sales because why buy a standalone when the PS3 is the same price and does more?  After Christmas when the partners have made their holiday $ and they are getting closer to lowering their player prices again, then Sony can further reduce the PS3.  There are important partnerships in place here.  It puzzles me as to why people don't seem to realize that the majority of the decisions that Sony has made about the PS3 have been based on furthering Blu-ray rather than the gaming market.  Whether you agree or disagree with their approach, it is the route they've chosen to take.  There's much more money to be made on Blu-ray than gaming.