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misterd on 31 May 2007
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naznatips said:
omgwtfbbq said:
Gballzack said:

The PS2 sold at a loss of $50-$100 a unit, had a powerful launch, sold like mad and was a commercial success yet it took more than two years before its price dropped even $100.

The PS3 on the otherhand sells at a loss of $200-$250 a unit, had a poor launch, is selling relatively poorly and is a commercial nightmare that has resulted in a 2 billion dollar loss. Do you really think the PS3 will be dropping in price anytime sooner than the PS2 did? Do you honestly think Sony can afford to lower its price?

you have to remember that part of the reason why it didn't see a price drop for two years is because it was selling so successfully, and Sony didn't see a need to drop the price when they could simply make more money. I'm sure Sony could have dropped the price earlier, but they would have made less money. This is the same situation the Wii is in right now, they probably could drop the price $50 but it wouldn't increase sales and would just make them less money.

On the other hand, you can bet every cent you have that Sony are going to drop the PS3 price as soon as it is feasable. It definitely won't take 2 years as the PS2 did.

 yeah I agree with you omgwtfbbq.  Sony isn't stupid.  They are very aware of the need for a drop and I think as soon as they can get the price down to 500 or less sales will start to pick up to a much more reasonable number.  Obviously Sony won't be getting more than 50% of the market like last generation, but they can still pull off something like 30%, which wouldn't be bad at all for a system like the PS3.  Especially when they are trying to push a new media format with it.


Part of this was also due to the slow rollout of the PS2 globally. Wasn't it nearly a year between the Japan and European launches? Sony was not about to cut price in one territory when it had just released the system in another. It could also afford to sit back because it had no competition for most of that time, and when the GCN and XB launched, they were at comparable prices with far inferior libraries and narrower fan bases. Remember the losses on consoles do not persist throughout their lifespan - after 2 years Sony almost certain had cut most of its losses on the PS2, just as MS is doingwith the 360. That game them the ability to cut price soon after the competition was launched, forcing MS and Nintendo to follow suit and possibly hurting their bottom line (almost certainly for MS).

This time, Nintendo is making a straight profit on the Wii, and MS is the one that has almost eliminated its losses, so they are both in a good position to cut prices, and Sony knows this. Whatever price cut Sony rolls out, MS and Nintendo will follow suit, so whatever benefit Sony would get would likely be marginal, so I don't see them accepting a guanteed loss of profit through console sales in order to take a shot at a slight boost in sales. I do think they have to be sweating at the idea of MS cutting price though -they too are creeping up on 2 yearswithout a cut, and the launch of HALO 3 would be an ideal time to announce a drop for all their systems. That would force Sony to follow suit, even though they won't be in a good enough financial position to do so.