I just wanted to know what you all think Microsoft and Nintendo will do now that Sony have taken action and made a price cut and a ps3 slim, Do you think Microsoft and Nintendo NEED to make a counter attack or do you think they are fine for now as they are? if you think they should make a counter attack what should they do? price cut, slim models, better bundles?

And how do you think Sony's moves will affact Microsoft and Nintendo's current situations? will the Wii/360 sales decline? will their marketshare start to erode or will it not have much of an effect?

And finally, what happens if the PS3 price drop and PS3 slim doesn't have the desired effect Sony expects? what if sales are not great? what if sales drop off very quickly? what could Sony do next?

Sorry for all the questions but I think this is a VERY interesting situation the gaming world is in right now, things could easily take a turn or they could stay exactly as they are.

My thoughts:

I think Sony have made a VERY good move with the price cut and PS3 slim, things could take a huge turn for Sony now although it *could* go wrong and not do as well as they expect, I personally hope the PS3 sales pick up as they have made a good choice here, 

I do also think Microsoft MUST make a counter move as soon as possible, Arcade at £99.99 and Elite at £159.99 sounds good, is this enough? I think so but it will come down to games and marketing getting into the holiday season, it will be very close this year though, I also think now is the time Nintendo should make a price cut on the Wii, the price of the Wii can't stay the same forever and it is now starting to look very expensive against the hd twins,

Who will come out on top at the end of the year? I think Wii sales will slow down a lot compared to last year, 360 sales will be very good just like last year and I think the PS3 will sell much better than last year but *maybe* not quite as much as the 360 only because the games that are due out this holiday season but again these are only my views, I could be totally wrong so don't flame me for it!

As a huge 360 fan I can even reconize the huge ace Sony have pulled here and it is sure to impact the gaming industry over the next few months.

And PLEASE can we not get into a flame war and keep it as friendly as possible as we will get a lot further! if you have nothing constructive to say please don't comment, if you just want to make a "dig" or "silly comment" please don't do it, make your own thread if thats what you want! if anyone see's any flaming or trolling in this thread please use the report feature!

Thank you

If nintendo losses market share, they will counter, I expect microsoft to counter

I think Nintendo will sit and see what happen in the next two months, than, if required, they'll cut the price at their fall conference in October...
MS can cut the price just in these days...surely they'll cut the price: MS real enemy is Sony now (a month ago at the time of "360 600k in UK" many people tought the real enemy was Wii...).

What do you think they would do to counter? price adjustments?

The PS3 Slim is mostly going to sell to people who were just waiting for a price drop. Anybody that was considering buying a PS3 but didn't want to wait just went out and bought an XBOX 360.

With that in mind I think the 360 is going to begin to lose sales to the PS3 in the lead up to the holidays but the price drop isn't going to effect the Wii just as a cheaper 360 hasn't effected it. I think Nintendo and Microsoft may bleed market share in the next couple of months but Nintendo won't counter, as their sales are still going to rise as the holidays approach and Wii Sports Resort begins to move hardware. The most Nintendo will do this year is release a new colour system and have bundles.

Microsoft I don't think will counter Sony at all. They have just dropped the Elite's price by $100 and they won't be able to lower the PS3's sales by dropping the price because a lot of people were waiting for the drop and so aren't going to consider the 360 anyway. Microsoft's best bet is to wait it out and cut the price next year in my opinion.

I don't expect Microsoft to counter, Sony has nothing and this is the final move of a desperate corporation.

Aside from the joke part, nope I don't think they need to counter. They didn't in 2007 so why would they now?

Some very good points there puffy!

I do think Nintendo should lower the price though, Wii sales would go through the roof if they did, 360 could lower the price too but not sure if they need to yet, hard to tell at the moment...

Squilliam said: I don't expect Microsoft to counter, Sony has nothing and this is the final move of a desperate corporation. Aside from the joke part, nope I don't think they need to counter. They didn't in 2007 so why would they now?

Did you not read the part at the top of this thread about flaming? constructive posts please!

both nintendo and microsoft don't need to counter, the reason is sony is desperate, why are they desperate? 'cause they're not getting as much sales as they would like to. so sony is making an attempt to LEVEL THINGS UP, their console being a little bit cheaper doesn't mean automatically liking their games

Squilliam said: I don't expect Microsoft to counter, Sony has nothing and this is the final move of a desperate corporation. Aside from the joke part, nope I don't think they need to counter. They didn't in 2007 so why would they now?

I won't call it "desperate". The slim looks hella cheap so it was in sony's best interest to release this new model so they can stop bleeding money IMO. Why would they continue to manufacture  more expensive version when they've found a way to make it cheaper? Sure, it can't run linux anymore but does the mass market care?

Price cut or not, the slim is a better idea for sony even if it looks like a polystation 3