Ps 3 price cut coming soon ?

[LordTheNightKnight]

Sony is reconsidering new budgeting, even if not a drop yet.

I'll tell you why they are doing this. Here's the cost of the premium 360 at launch. Ignore the left column about the PS3. That was just an initial estimate.

That column does leave out labor, which brings the total cost to $525.

Now this is the actual manufacturing cost of the PS3 at launch. The chart is long, so I'll add it up, but you have the link to double check. And I'll be adding up the 20GB version, even though it's only supported in Japan now, since it's closest to the Premium 360.

Processor: $89

Disc drive: $125

Graphics chip (counting the 256MB of VRAM): $129

Memory (the 256MB of XDR): $48

Hard drive: $43

Labor: $39

Subtotal: $473

Now the "other doodads", that are necessary to the system, are the power supply: $37.50, Bluetooth module: $4.10, Cooling system: $22, System Enclosure: $31, Emotion Engine/Graphics Synthesizer: $27, and HDMI: That isn't listed, so I'll assume it's $15 until one of you can tell me the correct price. These all add up to: $136.60

Total: $609.60

Since the total cost of the 20GB is $805.85, there's a $196.25 worth of parts, that may not even be necessary for the system. And this is the same for the 60GB version.*

So the PS3 has $200 extra in its manufacturing cost, which doesn't even count the Emotion Engine and blu-ray. So those are actually not the problem. If this extra cost was not there, the PS3 could sell at the same price as now, but with losses even smaller than the 360 ($100 for the 20GB, and $50 for the 60GB). This would allow costs to drop faster, and allow a price drop to be affordable much faster.

And I do place the blame on Katuragi. Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, pointed out all the times Katuragi would refuse to discuss the development of the system with Stringer. Katuragi simply over-engineered it. A more economic redesign would be the best solution. It wouldn't be anything radical, not likely even an external change. It would just be figuring out where all that extra cost comes in, and get rid of it

*Adding up the extra parts of the 60GB version: HDD difference: $11, Wireless module: $15.50, PC Memory Card board: $5, Enclosure difference: $2, and labor difference: $1, we have $34.50, the total cost is $644.10. Subtracted from the total of $840.35, we have $196.25 again.