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Forums - Sony Discussion - Kaz Hirai: "Sony will "rigorously pursue" PS4 sales", "increasing installed base more important than profit growth"

Skidonti on 27 May 2014

I would be the most shocked I've been about anything in this industry for at least the last couple years if they cut the price to even $350 from a market leading position this summer.

And the tricky thing with undercutting manufacturing price is the loss just gets bigger and bigger the more popular the device becomes. You'd have to be very confident you could make that back up in other profits.

All things considered with the amount of gaming money and time I have I still wouldn't come close to buying a brand new system to play $60 games on and subscribe to online for anytime soon, but if they price drop again at that rate it could get in the tempting territory soon...



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Phantom-Lord on 27 May 2014
Shinobi-san said:
Now that the order has been delayed...sony has a bit of a games issue. They really need to push ahead with the games...they have all the right IP's and studios they just need to do what they have been doing with the PS3.

I think Kaz is going to be a bit shocked at the underwhelming E3 sony will have (not that Kaz knows anything about games at all :P). With this increased focus on PS4...they really need to dominate. Its a big opportunity for them.


LMAo no, just no. Kaz knows full well PS4 is fine, multiplatform games alone are more then enough to keep ps4 going this year, sony has zero to worry about, not like MS has much this fall either.



Phantom-Lord on 27 May 2014
Puppyroach said:
Good for the console industry but I have a hard time thinking share holders will like that profit growth isn´t front and centre for Sony.


HUH? Did you not read? profit growth is vastly bigger with software , subs on a  bigger install base then anything they make on Hardware, that's exactly the point.



chocoloco on 27 May 2014

I feel like i am advertising PS4 every time I post a video of my gameplay on facebook. Sony was really smart by making sharing on facebook so easy with great sound editing options.

And, yeah, I think he is thinking long term growth is better than a short term gain. It seems pretty obvious to me.



kekrot on 27 May 2014
LordPhil said:
Maybe they're about to introduce a cheaper ps4 sku with a smaller hdd.


Sounds great, but doesn't every single PS4 game need to be fully installed in order to play? I don't know cause I don't have a PS4 yet.



Yep.

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sully1311 on 27 May 2014
Intrinsic said:
Sounds like a solid plan, personally if the PS4 is already profitable to them and I were them, I would drop the price to $299 for the fall if I can ramp up production. Increasing the install base without taking too much of a hit should be paramount for any console cause when you think of it a console is a 6 year service. The sooner you can get people hooked into your service the better.

Honestly, what i would really do is not just drop the price to $299 but also make a disc driveless SKU and sell that for $199. Then sell a blu-ray drive add-on seperately for $120.


Wow, just wow.



alabtrosMyster on 27 May 2014

That's strange, I would have though that they would just say: See MS we are better than you, we can now discontinue the PS4 and concentrate on TVs.





outlawauron on 27 May 2014

A price cut would be pretty ruthless. Instead, I expect a nice new bundle announced at E3 with a game packed in at $400.



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LordPhil on 27 May 2014
kekrot said:
LordPhil said:
Maybe they're about to introduce a cheaper ps4 sku with a smaller hdd.


Sounds great, but doesn't every single PS4 game need to be fully installed in order to play? I don't know cause I don't have a PS4 yet.


Yeah, the games need to be installed. Upgrading the hdd is easy though and they could always patch in support for external hard drives. 



thismeintiel on 27 May 2014
MoHasanie said:
Burek said:

This move would offset any potential gains X1 could potentially make in the NA/UK market with the upcoming Kinectless console. Undercutting them by $50 right off the bat, June 10, would kill all of Microsofts momentum, from which it would probably recover either never or at least not until Halo 5/ GeOW4.

Not claiming it will happen 100%, but it would be such a brilliant strategic move, and would provide PS4 another 6-9 months of sales leadership, even with no true exclusives to help them.

Also, I would just leave EU price as is, no need to do it there, as X1 is not a threat anyway.

Yes they could do that, but its still not a smart business decision. MS won't just watch their console fail; they will respond very quickly with a price cut as well. And MS is much more ready to take a loss on the console than Sony. So overall what would that solve? 

You honestly think MS is going to drop the price more than the $100 (albiet without Kinect) they are now?  Highly doubt it.  MS may have a lot of money, but they are hardly in the position to start throwing even more at the Xbox division when they have a few big investors breathing down their neck to drop the brand all together.  Even Gates recently said that if the new CEO decides to spin off the Xbox brand into its own company (where it would either die off without MS's money or be sold to someone else), he wouldn't oppose it.

@ OP

Not sure if they will drop a full $50.  But, I do see them taking a similar kind of loss they were at launch, so maybe a $25 cut to $374.99.  Not only would this not create a huge loss, but it would also negate the One price cut almost completely.