PS3 cut 'won't worry' Microsoft

[Squilliam]

greenmedic88 said:

Squilliam said:

Um, in reality they are losing the high end SKU and not the mid range SKU. Its a convenience issue, and nothing more. Its simply easier for them to drop the Premium and reconfigure than it is to drop the Elite as they are always going to be trending towards larger HDDs anyway. There are rumours of even larger HDDs being offered for people who need more than 120GB.

What they do depends on their goals. I see no room for concern here, they will do whatever action they deem to suit their interests best. They don't have any reason to worry about Sony running away with anything because their 8M console lead gives them room to sit for a year and focus on profitability if they so wish. Sony has far more reason to worry about what Microsoft does than vice versa as the latter really does have the resources to cut the price significantly and the profitability to match, especially considering Microsofts strong Live revenue.

 

MS isn't reconfiguring anything but their pricing. That is a direct response to a perceived consumer reaction of a direct competitor releasing a new model at a lower price. It's in their best interests to do this rather than do nothing at all, which is precisely what they would do if they weren't concerned.

If they drop the "Elite" from the SKU you can make a paper argument that the top end SKU is gone, but the reality is the HDMI cable would be the only thing missing.

If you want to throw out predictions of MS sticking with a three tier console structure and a 250GB, 320GB Elite or higher you would have a leg to stand on, but until that happens, the reality is: mid-range SKU is gone, high-end SKU is down $100.

 

The Premium was always their primary SKU, with an increase in HDD size the Elite SKU became increasing irrelevant and it simply wasn't selling so they discontinued it. The Elite has always been a premium SKU it was never the mainline SKU. Just because its called the Elite doesn't mean that it isn't fulfilling the role of the previous 60GB Premium. They are taking the special HDMI cable out, so what comes in the box is essentially the same as the Arcade but with a larger HDD. It has even less than the Premium did as the Premium contained a Component HD cable in the box.