Yeah, wasn't there a few days during 2006 when some stores were sold out of the PS3?  I remember how people were buying them to resell them on ebay and they were selling for less than retail in december right before Christmas.

Yo son, don't get it twisted. Nobody be talking about the PS2 in here, aight?

Not sure your sig is the answer, but you're from New York aren't you?

If so, are you from upstate, city or Long Island?

Well, that's good.

Sony's main issue is they never have enough in stalk.

Guess they fixed it with gunz all out this time though.

I'd like to know the numbers involved.

How many units is the initial PS3 Slim shipment?

Will Sony cut back on orders to clear out old stock?

Are retailers stuck with old stock and waiting until that stock clears to order to new units?

I think this shift in tactics will be a boon to PS3 sales. In the end it'll be more about Sony's continued support for the Sony.

They are going to have to do a lot of bridge building in order to repair consumer confidence they've squandered with all of those initial missteps in their marketing strategy.

To quote a Kutaragi: "for consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."

This marketing strategy was doomed to fail, and when the recession hit and jobs were being lost it got worse.

MS pulled ahead not because of releasing early but because of realitic expectation, not just from their system but also from the consumer.

Sony seemed to expect the PlayStation brand would be enough to sell systems regardless of how much their consumer base would be willing to pay.

Nintendo ultimately came up with a market friendly price point, viral marketing targeting non gamers and designed games to expand their market share which they did substantially.

The reason Sony failed their system in the first few years is not because they don't have kick ass hardware. It's because they demanded too much from a consumer base which wasn't ready for such a high price point. Of course this could be because they wanted to push Blu Ray as much as possible (which worked for them).

This death rattle (the 100$ price drop) is more of an admission that they couldn't actually market this thing as purely a game system at such a high price point. The early adopters I feel the sorriest for because their 600-800$ systems are worth about 300$ now which is a reduction of about half or more of the price and in that time period so few really interesting exclusives have been released on it compared to the Xbox 360.

That and the Xbox 360's original price was 299-399$ which means a reduction of only 100$ or 25% of the price compared to the 50% of the PS3 to this date and it released a year earlier then Sony's system.

That being said the PS3 launch units will probably last longer.

I ROFL'd at the title.

@MindKry

I don't feel sorry for buying it for $600. Used price on my 60GB is higher than that of a new Slim PS3 and I have full backwards compatibility with all 72 of my PS2 games.

Euphoria14 said: @MindKry I don't feel sorry for buying it for $600. Used price on my 60GB is higher than that of a new Slim PS3 and I have full backwards compatibility with all 72 of my PS2 games.

Pretty much. I was able to give my Ps2 away and the exclusives that came out in 08-09 before slim were worth it. First year of Ps3 was terrible though.

Not a big deal. All they need to do is put about 400k on store shelves world wide for the 1st week, and 250k the second week. By then they can go back to regular production levels as immediate demand has been met and regular weekly sales of 100k are back.

:)

Euphoria14 said: @MindKry I don't feel sorry for buying it for $600. Used price on my 60GB is higher than that of a new Slim PS3 and I have full backwards compatibility with all 72 of my PS2 games.

It would have been nicer to pick one up when SCE was clearing 60GB SKU inventory at $500, but it was still the best $600 I've spent on AV equipment in terms of use. If nothing else, it gave me an excuse to buy a 1080p HDTV to watch movies on back in 2007.

In terms of value, they still average about $400 used on E-bay, typically a bit more for a refurb.

A used Xbox 360 in contrast will barely clear you $200 if you're lucky (with HDD). Typically they go for less, particularly the older 20GB SKUs. $150 is reasonably what you could expect for one on Craig's List without throwing in a bunch of extras.

Anyway, everyone knows cheaper hardware is always a part of consoles. The 360 Elite debuted at $480 for those with short term memory and I don't see anyone crying over the current $299 price.