http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-costs-further

 

"Sony Corporation has underlined its intention to further cut production costs of its goods and fulfil more orders in an attempt to offset the reductions in export profits caused by the strengthening yen.

The current economic conditions, which have seen the yen make significant gains on the dollar in the past year, could impact the company's ability to offer any further price cuts on the PlayStation 3 in the foreseeable future - a move which spurred significant sales in the final quarter of 2007.

"As to the situation of the US dollar's weakness in the medium to long term, we already have a strategy to deal with it," said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president, according to MSN Money.

"We will lower our production costs as possible as we can and we will choose production sites to cope with the industry's weakness, and in the short term, we will try to accept more orders."

For every JPY 1 gain versus the US dollar, Sony loses around JPY 6 billion (USD 58.3 million / EUR 37.5 million). In the past year the yen has moved from an exchange rate of 111 to the US dollar, to 102.5 - representing a loss of around JPY 51 billion (USD 496 million / EUR 318 million) for Sony."

 

America stopping any price cuts confirmed?

Cutting costs means they'll try to lose less money on hardware, it doesn't mean they'll cut the prices (especially in America since the dollar is weak). I'm not sure if they'll cut their prices further this year, and if they do it will probably be in November or December.

As I know that I'd be attacked by people who "heard" they're making money on hardware, for the record, my source is Sony's own fiscal report where they said they're losing less money on each PS3 hardware unit.

 

go for the 50 dollar price cut b4 360 does.

That's a shame, I'd love to see a $250 PS3 and really see what it could do sales-wise but I guess that'll still be a long ways off.

Is anyone reading the post? They've come out and said they can't lower the price..

"As to the situation of the US dollar's weakness in the medium to long term, we already have a strategy to deal with it," said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president,

Yeah, its called raising the price of the PS3 in PaL

NJ5 said: Cutting costs means they'll try to lose less money on hardware, it doesn't mean they'll cut the prices (especially in America since the dollar is weak). I'm not sure if they'll cut their prices further this year, and if they do it will probably be in November or December. As I know that I'd be attacked by people who "heard" they're making money on hardware, for the record, my source is Sony's own fiscal report where they said they're losing less money on each PS3 hardware unit.

Can you save me some time and provide a link to the "losing less money on each PS3 sold" part?

I've been wondering lately if it's helping Microsoft at all to be based out of the US given the current state of the dollar.

It sure ain't helping Sony or Nintendo, that's for sure. It ain't helping me, either. My company imports a lot of their products from Europe.

I do think that Sony will have something in the works to deal with this loss, most companies will anyway! What this plan is, other than cutting production costs (like they would have been doing all along) is anyones guess!

Sony will have to cut the price of the console regardless of the Dollar to stay competitive though, as when the 360 receives a cut in the US, thats when the PS3 needs to be cut in price also otherwise Sony will see further losses in sales to MS!

I think that Sony need to focus on the Others market more though, a price cut in the region where the PS3 is most popular would be a wise move as it would see console sales even further ahead of the 360, and maybe achieve wii-like levels for a while!

Hmm, well, the reality is that all of the major consoles are manufactured in China, and the yuan has been reasonably stable against the dollar (which means a slight depreciation vis-a-vis the euro). So no firm really has an advantage here - they're all benefiting from the cheap yuan, and would all take a hit from a sudden jump in the yuan (say, 15%).

That said, Sony is moving extremely aggressively to cost-reduce the PS3 further. They'll have a $299/299EUR model out by this November, guaranteed.