PHS Wildcats
02-04-2007, 12:48 AM
Last week I posted a story that Sony Chief stated that the price on the PS3 won't go down until atleast March of 2008. Now I found a story that the price may come down this summer.
Sony looks for a game machine surge
2/2/2007 11:47:13 AM, by Jeremy Reimer
Sony's games division may have taken its hard knocks lately in the press and in sales figures, but the company is determined to turn things around. To that end, the company is planning a two-pronged attack: price cuts on the PlayStation 3 console and a marketing surge promoting the PlayStation Portable's Internet features.
The price of the PlayStation 3 raised concerns with some ever since it was first announced. Despite supply constraints that caused Sony to scrap the simultaneous launch in Europe, the company cut the price of the PS3 by 20 percent in Japan before it even went on sale. Now, amid rumors of a North American price cut, Senior Vice President Takao Yuhara told reporters at a press conference in Tokyo that "we may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right," stressing that no decision has been made as of yet.
The decision to lower the price on the PS3 would seem like a no-brainer, were it not for the fact that Sony is already losing money on each console sold. Yuhara warned that Sony's gaming division may record an operating loss of as much as ¥250 billion ($2.1 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March, rather than the ¥200 billion previously estimated. This news did not sit well with investors. However, Yuhara said that Sony expects their games division to break even in 2008. Cutting $50 to $100 off the price of the PS3 right now would mean that losses per unit would increase from the current estimate of up to $240 per console to over $300.
Sony's other console, the PSP, did well out of the starting gate but has been losing marketshare and mindshare to Nintendo's DS. To date, the PSP has shipped 24 million units worldwide, while the DS—which launched at the same time—has sold 35 million consoles. To boost the PSP's fortunes, Sony is hoping to partner with Internet companies such as Yahoo to promote the Internet browsing and media playback features of the console. Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer, told the Financial Times that "it was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network." Sony is hoping to promote the fact that PSP owners can download movies, TV shows, and old PlayStation 1 games over the Sony network.
Still, both the PS3 and PSP are currently suffering from the perception that while they both offer many features, the asking price is just too high compared to products from competitors such as Nintendo.
Sony looks for a game machine surge
2/2/2007 11:47:13 AM, by Jeremy Reimer
Sony's games division may have taken its hard knocks lately in the press and in sales figures, but the company is determined to turn things around. To that end, the company is planning a two-pronged attack: price cuts on the PlayStation 3 console and a marketing surge promoting the PlayStation Portable's Internet features.
The price of the PlayStation 3 raised concerns with some ever since it was first announced. Despite supply constraints that caused Sony to scrap the simultaneous launch in Europe, the company cut the price of the PS3 by 20 percent in Japan before it even went on sale. Now, amid rumors of a North American price cut, Senior Vice President Takao Yuhara told reporters at a press conference in Tokyo that "we may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right," stressing that no decision has been made as of yet.
The decision to lower the price on the PS3 would seem like a no-brainer, were it not for the fact that Sony is already losing money on each console sold. Yuhara warned that Sony's gaming division may record an operating loss of as much as ¥250 billion ($2.1 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March, rather than the ¥200 billion previously estimated. This news did not sit well with investors. However, Yuhara said that Sony expects their games division to break even in 2008. Cutting $50 to $100 off the price of the PS3 right now would mean that losses per unit would increase from the current estimate of up to $240 per console to over $300.
Sony's other console, the PSP, did well out of the starting gate but has been losing marketshare and mindshare to Nintendo's DS. To date, the PSP has shipped 24 million units worldwide, while the DS—which launched at the same time—has sold 35 million consoles. To boost the PSP's fortunes, Sony is hoping to partner with Internet companies such as Yahoo to promote the Internet browsing and media playback features of the console. Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer, told the Financial Times that "it was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network." Sony is hoping to promote the fact that PSP owners can download movies, TV shows, and old PlayStation 1 games over the Sony network.
Still, both the PS3 and PSP are currently suffering from the perception that while they both offer many features, the asking price is just too high compared to products from competitors such as Nintendo.