Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii price-war!

[davygee]

The Wii purchases, although aren't exactly impulse buys as per say, there is the basic element of affordability and unaffordability.

The Wii is $250, the 360 is $400 and the PS3 is $600 (you cannot include the Core system, as most people interested in a 360 will not buy the handicapped Core System).

You will probably find that the Wii is at the affordable end of the scale, whereas the PS3 is at the unafforadable end of the scale.

People can more easily allow for $250 spends than $600 spends.

The Wii sales have performed really well and IMHO it's primarily down to cost. If the PS3 and 360 were priced similarily then there would be no contest; Nintendo comes last.

Most people will find themselves in a similar situation to me. I like all 3 systems, but cost is the major player at this moment in time. The system I really want is the PS3, but it's too expensive at the moment. The 360 seems like a great machine with a good few games that look great, but do I really want one and the Wii is the cheapest of the lot by far, but I cannot warrant buying more than 1 system this generation...so what do I do?

Well IMHO, I will be waiting for the price of the PS3 to drop, and I honestly think there are a whole load of similar people out there that are waiting for the same. But the price drop needs to come soon and it needs to be reasonable enough to make the system more affordable and not in the unaffordable band.

If Sony reduced the price of the PS3 from $600 to $450, then I reckon this will be enough to start the ball rolling for the sales to dramatically pick up. Yes, it's a huge reduction and Sony can't afford to do it, but it is required to get the sales stacking up.

If the Wii price was reduced to $150-$170 then it would put it in another bracket and could potentially make it the must have so affordable unit similar to the DS for a whole host of homes. Until then, it will IMHO be competing with the PS3 over the course of the next few years.