The mass market price point theory: "Everybody knows that once a console hits $199, most of it's sales come after that, 80% of them. Examples include, PS,PS2, GC, SNES? etc.."

Many on this forum have argued that the ps3 has yet to reach the "mass market" price point that would propell it to reach its true sales potential, well this thread has been created for members of the vgchartz community to argue that point, is there really a "mass market" price point for a console like the ps3? Do you think the ps3 has another 50 million install base of consumers that it could reach to? Because if this "mass market" theory were true, the ps3 would easily surpass the 100 million sales mark and reach ps2 numbers with ease once it drops below the $200 entry price.

Well leo-j what do you think, and WTF were did you come from?

What do I think? Well the ps3 should see a huge boost once it drops below its current entry price of $299, at the moment the 360's entry price is at $199(and cheaper in other countries), and the wii's entry price is $199, they both saw a substantial increase in sales(especially the 360) once that entry price model was introduced, the wii got a smaller boost since it launched at $249, which was slightly higher than the definitive "mass market" price point of $199m so it was able to attain a bit of the mass market audience earlier in it's life cycle.

Will the ps3 break 100M LTD sales? Maybe, but I think the ps3 wont be able to ever reach its true sales potential for the likely hood that when the console drops to $199, 6 months later(or less), microsoft will launch its next generation console, or at least announce it and launch it within a year of the announcement or less.

(A price cut(to counter a ps3 cut) wont have much of a significant impact on 360 sales, unless they sell the arcade for $99 and the kinect 360/250gb 360 for $199, any cut lower than a 50% cut on it's lower entry model wont push more consoles than a $199 ps3, since the 360 has been available at the mass market price, this based on "theory", same goes for the wii)

The time will come soon, the ps3 has been $299 since 2009, and sony have been making money on the console as of late 2010, although it's currently estimated here that it's the top selling home console monthly, sony must cut the price so that the announcement of a nexgen xbox or nintnedo system wont hamper it's sales potential in the long run.

vote

well i think if sony did cut the price it would have to be soon if the next gen consoles are coming out next year. We have never seen a PS3 $199 before so yeah it will have a major impact i think. Will it add another $50 million? Probably not because, again the next gen will start in 1-3 years. But i think it will cause the PS3 to be the best selling console during the holiday season.

BTW Awesome post!

Knowing Sony, the PS3 will be $199 when it becomes irrelevant thus missing the big opportunity. 

PS3 doesn't have to hit 199$.

199$ of 2005 is 225$ in 2011...There's this thing called inflation.

And anyway nope, PS3 will not get the majority of its sales after it drops to that low of a price...

@rol

well of course not because the $299 also included the slim model

We've been through this before if price was everything PS2, at $99 would be outselling everything rather easily. Price Cuts & TIMING make the difference.

PS3 isn't going to be under $200 until 2012 or later. PS2 was $200 in 2002.

2000 ---> 2002  vs. 2006 ---> 2012 is completely different from a timing perspective.

I also have trouble with the whole idea that people really cant afford $300. How hard is it to save $25 a month for a year? Thats how I used to buy games when I was in middle school and highschool. Some people won't buy because they think PS3 isn't worth $300 but thats a different issue.

The other problem with this argument is Wii & X360. Both are still $200. Do you think Wii has only sold 1/5 of its eventual penetration because it isn't a  "mass market" price yet?

the 400-300 pricecut had a much bigger effect then the 300-200 pricecut will in my opinion. While previously generations anything over $200 seemed pretty expencive. In today's market electronics are selling amazingly at ridiculous prices. People can buy much more feature rich tablets at nearly half the price of the ipad, but they don't because they prefer the ipad. Same goes for the ps3. PS3 has already reached the mass market price in north america and europe. Where it could have a big effect is south america, and middle east/africa/etc where a big pricecut could probably double sales but that still would only boost it by a few mil yearly.

My understanding is that this statement was made in reference to the PS2 generation assuming that the same thing was going to happen this generation, while paying no heed to inumerous other factors which affect the whole equation, not the least of which is Inflation.  $199 is not the same now as it was 5-10 years ago.

Agreed by the time the PS3 will be $199 it will be pretty much irrelevant because the sucessor to the Wii or the 360 will be out by then and by that time their might be a firm release date for the PS4 (it could be out already also).  But I also thing that once the PS3 hits the $279 and shorltly theirafter the $249 price point its sales will get a decent boost.  Even if Sony doesn't cut the price this year the strong lineup of exclusive titles will still boost its hardware and software sales.

my belief is if Sony does the move this year, it will have a huge effect, but I don't see it happening. Demand, value has nothing to do with price, at its peak the Wii was being sold close to $500 on Ebay.