The CEO of Activision’s recent comments about possibly dropping Sony PlayStation 3 development has drawn the ire of Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who has sidestepped discussions regarding possible PS3 price cuts.
“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer said, as reporters discussed Activision CEO Robert Kotick’s comments. “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”
Last month, Kotick said his company would consider dropping PS3 game development if the cost of the console didn’t lower before the end of the year.
Rumors indicate Sony will slash the cost of the PS3 sometime this fall, when the PS3 Slim launches, though Sony has remained quiet about the price cut. Microsoft is expected to slash the price of its Xbox 360 game console at some point this fall, while it’s possible Nintendo will finally lower the cost of its $249 Wii console.
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“I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic,” Stringer said, when asked about why Sony isn’t interested in slashing PS3 prices.
Since the PS3 has lagged behind the Wii and Xbox 360 on U.S. and international sales charts, I think it’d be rather asinine for Stringer to shrug off a PS3 price cut. If Activision is serious about dropping game development for the company, it’s possible other game studios will follow suit and instead focus more on the Wii and Xbox 360.
Will Sony really lose money on each PS3 made if prices are cut? It’s certainly a legitimate possibility, especially considering the powerful hardware that powers the PS3, but consumers don’t care about Sony’s struggles. Consumers likely aren’t interested in purchasing an expensive game console that has a lackluster game catalog.
Would you be interested in purchasing a PS3 if Sony doesn’t slash prices, or would you choose to purchase a cheaper Xbox 360 or Wii?
14 Comments
anyway, I'm sure they'll make the money back with game revenue!!
That is wrong. The PS3 sells just as well as and sometimes better than the X360 everywhere except in US.
Sony's point of view is simple : why would they slash price when they are selling fairly well at the current price?
Also, they will drop the price. They always deny right before they drop b/c if they said they were going to drop, then sales would stop immediately until they drop. They want to be able to take advantage of as many people as they can before dropping the price. (This will go for MS & Nintendo as well if they drop their prices as well)
Minor Note: Why does the editor decide to put a prerelease picture of the PS3 up when you can easily find one of the retail PS3. Just wondering.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20090528122215_Total_Sales_of_Microsoft_Xbox_360_Reach_30_Million_Units.html
Get your facts straight please.
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that its Xbox 360 video game console has reached life-to-date sales of 30 million units. While the company is tangibly ahead of its main rival – Sony PlayStation 3 (about 22 million) – Nintendo Wii (about 50 million) is unreachable for the system from the world’s largest maker of software.
And that was 2-3 months ago.
LOL, dude, you have already lost 3 billion plus dollars on the thing purposely low balling it so you could drive out HD-DVD. Why are you worrying about it now?
If the PS3 gets a little lower, I might have to bite myself. Not for the gaming ability but for the Bluray flicks.
Maybe because he ain't making any money on BD afterall
if MS have sold 30 million consoles, and is a year ahead, and sony has sold 22 million, then its closer than you think! plus, MS also take reconditioned consoles from their RRod into their numbers so they're pretty much neck and neck!
fact is people worldwide are getting fed up with the crap MS is putting out. their games maybe plentiful, but with the RRod(some people are on their FORTH console now!), people are becoming disillusioned!
Sony cannot drop the price any further, as they have lost enough money on their blu-ray device already to lose them this generation.
Dream-on if you think Sony / MS are 'neck and neck'. Sony had their golden era with PS2 - and now things are much different.
At any rate, they could keep the price constant, and wait for inflation to catch up ... assuming the worlds economy doesn't deflate
as for your comment of dropping the price, you are SO wrong. You are going by the assumption that technological advances do not lower the prices of existing tech. when the PS3 slim comes out then the price of the fat PS3 will obviously come down!
The point about the 360's RRod is a valid one, if MS are including the 360's that they fixed because of that problem in the 30 million they are saying that are out, then that means that they have not sold as many as they would have you believe.
As for dreaming about the PS3 and 360 being neck and neck, the PS3 is selling 733,333 on average a year, the 360 are selling 750,000 a year, so not that far off from each other! now take away 16% at least to take into account of the amount of reconditoned consoles that have sent out for RRod, and then you will have a more realistic figure! try 630,000!
You're just defending your console, fair do's, but you should realise the downsides to it also! the 360 is a good selling console, just doesnt do reliabilty well though!http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...ies/2/wink.gif
As I have said a few times before - it doesn't matter about console sales - it's the games that are selling HUGE amounts for the 360. The attach rate is much bigger for 360 than PS3 simply because MS have a greater catalogue.
I have a very fast PC for my gaming habits - which gives me the types of game I want to play (FPS genre mostly) at a very high res.
Slim PS3 = meh !
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