no PS3 price cut... Sony, why?

[Snotnarok]

Sony does need to drop the price, some developers are getting upset a them for the sluggish sale of their consoles. Then again after all the first party games I'm sure that'll change (Uncharted 2 anyone? Hell yes). They do seem to be in a bit of a tight spot, people/companies want a price drop on the PS3 but they lose money on each unit sold. Its really hard to say what they should do.

 

[bue519]

i have a ps3 and a 360, i play my 360 a lot more, but the ps3 is built like a brick, i mean, if the 360 ran the way the ps3 does ( pound for pound the 360 performs better), then 360 owners wouldnt have the rrod problem or the circular scratches problem. Sony did a really good job on the hardware, and the games come out cheaper then on the 360, so, you would make up the difference after only a short while. aswell, think about the controllers, ps controller, all inclusive, 54.99 canadaian, and you get the controller and rechargable battery, plus the recharge cord comes with the system. on the 360 hand, 59.99 for the controller, and 29.99 for a battery and recharge cable. then you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360, you spend more on the 360, people just dont realise it because its after the initial system purchase, when you get a ps3, thats all you need, such is not the case with the 360, but i digress, i still play my 360 a lot more, i hate that ps3 controller and its marshmallow-y shoulder buttons lol

You make a good argument. Except the only reason that I play my Ps3 more than my 360 is cause of the fact I have to pay to fully enjoy my gams on the 360, which is to say play multiplayer. I just finally ran out of trial accounts so my xbox doesn't get much action anymore.

 

[randomsix]

If the rumors of the PS3 slim are true, they will try to release that as soon as possible. Not because it's cool but because it lowers component costs. They could possibly sell the slim at the PS3 current price (for more profit) and drop the PS3 to a slightly marginal profit range.

I may just be ignorant of the specifics, but usually smaller hardware translates into higher costs assuming capabilities are maintained.

 

[imburke]

i have a ps3 and a 360, i play my 360 a lot more, but the ps3 is built like a brick, i mean, if the 360 ran the way the ps3 does ( pound for pound the 360 performs better), then 360 owners wouldnt have the rrod problem or the circular scratches problem. Sony did a really good job on the hardware, and the games come out cheaper then on the 360, so, you would make up the difference after only a short while. aswell, think about the controllers, ps controller, all inclusive, 54.99 canadaian, and you get the controller and rechargable battery, plus the recharge cord comes with the system. on the 360 hand, 59.99 for the controller, and 29.99 for a battery and recharge cable. then you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360, you spend more on the 360, people just dont realise it because its after the initial system purchase, when you get a ps3, thats all you need, such is not the case with the 360, but i digress, i still play my 360 a lot more, i hate that ps3 controller and its marshmallow-y shoulder buttons lol

This made no sense... are you high?

Back on topic...

They are in profit at the current price and considering the losses on the PS3, they need to sell in profit as opposed to sell extra units at more loss.

Really? Sony is making a profit off of the PS3? This is the first I've heard of this, can you show me where you saw this amazing information because I want to be the first one to email it to Sony so they can know too and then they can concentrate on other things like making an update to the firmware that LETS ME CHANGE MY PSN AVATAR TO SOMETHING CUSTOM THAT I WANT.. or.. CHANGE THE FONT ON THE DASHBOARD FROM THAT GOD AWFUL DERIVATIVE OF WHITE SO I CAN USE ANY BACKGROUND THEME I WANT AND STILL BE ABLE TO READ the Text enough to know if I'm selecting a DVD or signing IN. I really really really hate the fact that these two reasonably simple things to do are not doable at all on a system that keeps trying to compete with the Xbox360 and it's appreciation of a modding community in gamers like a big sister that wants to be cool like her younger sister, but refuses to take off her pants for anyone.
And honestly, it's this reluctance by Sony to give a little more freedom without putting up such a fuss that has kept the 360 competitive instead of being blown out of the water by a technologically superior system

how did it make no sense, i was highlighting the fact that outside of the initial system purchase, the 360 is actual more expensive than the PS3 with all the other things u have to buy for the 360 that are built into the ps3

 

[incubus42]

i have a ps3 and a 360, i play my 360 a lot more, but the ps3 is built like a brick, i mean, if the 360 ran the way the ps3 does ( pound for pound the 360 performs better), then 360 owners wouldnt have the rrod problem or the circular scratches problem. Sony did a really good job on the hardware, and the games come out cheaper then on the 360, so, you would make up the difference after only a short while. aswell, think about the controllers, ps controller, all inclusive, 54.99 canadaian, and you get the controller and rechargable battery, plus the recharge cord comes with the system. on the 360 hand, 59.99 for the controller, and 29.99 for a battery and recharge cable. then you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360, you spend more on the 360, people just dont realise it because its after the initial system purchase, when you get a ps3, thats all you need, such is not the case with the 360, but i digress, i still play my 360 a lot more, i hate that ps3 controller and its marshmallow-y shoulder buttons lol

This made no sense... are you high?


how did it make no sense, i was highlighting the fact that outside of the initial system purchase, the 360 is actual more expensive than the PS3 with all the other things u have to buy for the 360 that are built into the ps3

yes, it makes sense and you didn't even mention the xbox360 multiplayer subscription which isn't free like the one of the PS3

1. They're still losing money on each sale.
2. The Yen has gotten ridiculously strong against the Dollar, meaning they're losing even more money per sale.
3. They lost money as a company last year, combined with years of major cash flow problems, Sony cannot afford to drop the price.

Basically, Sony lacks the resources to just eat through losses and the weakening of US currency is blocking Sony's ability to cut prices. If anything, with all the money printing going on this year, Sony is going to have to INCREASE the price of the PS3 to avoid hemorrhaging even more cash.

This.

The hole concept of building the PS3 with blu-ray disc, cell-processor and other really expensive hardware was in my opinion wrong in the first place.
Most games which get released for the PS3 as well as for the Xbox360 don't look better on the PS3, some even look worse (like need for speed underground)

 

[Xcelsior]

you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360,

Jeez, where are you buying your 360 controllers from? Just the other day I saw a wireless 360 controller with the plug and play kit for £17.50

 

[katsabas]

The problem with sony is not that they are dumb. Which they aren't, otherwise they would not have good exclusives such as Uncharted. Their problem is that they have developed a triple personality when it comes to gaming. Like the Hulk. PS3 is the grey hulk, PS2 is the green and PSP is banner. PS2 is still being bought after about 8 years of its release. And since it is still being bought at a ridiculously low price, Sony thinks they have no reason to cut the price on something that has mediocre sales.Or otherwise said, they focus on the PS2 sales and since they do not disappoint, they keep the PS3 price steady. PSP is kinda underrated, mostly cause of that joystick which may be frustrating but you do get used to it and PS3...well, for it to get green, they need to focus more on it. Which means that they have to get rid either PSP or PS2. Either way, anyone who thought that they are going to lower the price at E3 while Uncharted 2, Tekken 6, Fallout 3 and Infamous are on their way, you are waaaay too optimistic. The best time IMO to lower the price would next Spring. That would kill the competition. But we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Ashbax]

the only company to officially make profit off of their systems is usually nintendo, because they use old architecture, i believe sony, just this year, began turning a profit from the ps2

Yes...I preferred sony when they were making TV's.

Nah Sony would have made massive profits from the PS2 120 million units its really the Games where the money is made who knows what the attach rate is but even 4 games is getting close to half a billion software units.
Even the original playstation hit over 100 million units so its quite astounding how badly the PS3 is doing

Its because PS1 was a rather standalone console, Better than any other on the market. (And the next best thing was the N64, so...yknow. it kinda buttfucked them ^^)


And when Ps2 came out in 2000 it was also better than the others, as the original xbox came out in 2001 in japan and about a month later worldwide, but by then many people had bought their Ps2's.

Although the original xbox was arguably equal or slightly better than the PS2, it didnt succeed the same way the Ps2 did, but people did recognize its power.

So when the Xbox 360 came out, it was far greater than the Ps2 in every way, and many people bought it, and still are. Then about a year and a half later, the Ps3 came out, but Many gamers already had their Xbox 360, and many more were still buying it.

Although somewhere inbetween the Wii came out and ruled gaming for a few months before people got bored and realised the only novelty was the motion, which is a screwed up system anyway.

But in the most recent Poll taken it seems for every Ps3 sold, 2 xbox 360s are sold and 4 Nintendo Wiis.

And THATS why the Ps3 isnt doing as well as the other two playstations.

 

[logiman]

I think we all know what happened when Steam sold Left 4 Dead at half the normal price. The sales whent up by an incredible 3000%. That`s 30 times.
Matbe sony should try and do this for a week. See if that works.
Even if they sell twise the PS3s they would normaly sell (very plausable) they wouldn`t loose any extra money for every PS3 sold now.

But I think they sell so bad is because they don`t have many more exclusive titles, liek the 360 has know. If Tekken 6, MGS: Rising and Final Fantasy XIII would have remained exclusives the sales problems would have been long gone.

 

[Clarkarius]

Multiple reasons...

1) As already mentioned Sony are already making a loss on each PS3 sold, which under the current economic climate they are unable to cut the price significantly.

2) Microsoft have recently undertaken a predatory price system by selling the basic Xbox 360 at a lower cost then both the Wii and the PS3 in order to improve console sales and thus software sales.

3) Sony still have a number of exclusive franchise games to be released, and will no doubt be hoping that the release of these games will lead to a number of people buying the console.

4) The PS3 is arguably the most expensive console to produce, with even the most basic version still creating a loss.

5) And although many would argue otherwise, Sony still has legions of fans who would refuse to buy a Wii or an Xbox 360 out of loyalty to a console they believe to be superior.

And there are many more reasons I'm sure. To be honest though I'd imagine that prices on all consoles will likely remain static for a while with the current economic climate, except for the DS and Ds lite which will probably fall in price with the release of the DSi. Who knows maybe if Sony introduced a simplified PS3 or they introduce a 'slim' or an upgraded model, then maybe then the price may fall.

 

[Rigs83]

Sony is already losing money on every PS3 sold. Back in 1983 Nintendo created the business model that every company has used since which is you sell the hardware at a loss so you get them in the market and then make a profit on licensing the software.

It took Sony nearly six years to get to a point that they made a profit on every PS2 sold.

 

[imburke]

you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360,

Jeez, where are you buying your 360 controllers from? Just the other day I saw a wireless 360 controller with the plug and play kit for £17.50

keep in consideration this is an international board, im canadian, times my dollar by roughly 2.4 and thats what id pay on yours, and im talking first party, microsoft, 17.50 pounds is prolly close to what i pay, and europe gets the systems cheaper traditionally

 

[HyenaThePirate]

how did it make no sense, i was highlighting the fact that outside of the initial system purchase, the 360 is actual more expensive than the PS3 with all the other things u have to buy for the 360 that are built into the ps3

Oh I see... wait.. I'm sorry, what relevance did that have again?
The topic of this thread was "why SONY, we no can haz price cutz?" not:

"Sony drowning in Debt! Xbox makes Profit at expensive of people with disposable income!"

What I think people fail to get about Microsoft's model vs. Sony is that Sony tried to force the whole kit and kaboodle down the throats of it's consumers with the false assumption that more features = super awesome better = people will pay any price the money-soaked fools!
Microsoft on the other hand, left things to be Modular... like when you buy a CAR. Sure, the factory stereo is crap and to get that really awesome sirius mp3 ipod ready stereo, you have to pay MORE. It's called an accessory for THAT reason and that reason only. You know, not everyone plays games online or likes multiplayer.. some people believe it or not dont even have wireless internet in their HOME! *gasp* so why not make wireless adapter a seperate product to buy? and oh noes it's $99! Sony builds theirs in for free! oh wait.. you dont suppose that built in wireless adapter is contributing to the higher price of the PS3 do you? No, that wouldnt be possible. Certainly the higher price is because the system LOOKS so cool and comes with two controllers... wait.. does it? Well no matter, it has hdmi that.. hey.. where is that HDMI chord again? Oh yeah, gotta buy that separate too.. well at least there is blu-ray, even though the level of quality of a blu ray movie vs. dvd only matters to people who absolutely HAVE to be able to see how clear and realistic that water is crashing down around Johnny Depp's boots. Personally, I'm not going to spend the extra money on a blu ray movie when I can get a standard DVD that i can carry to ANYONE's house and play virtually ANYWHERE even on a blu ray player for less, with arguably decent enough quality. Plus, once i've seen a movie I dont really have any desire to watch it over and over again.

And this little rant summarizes what others have been saying. Sony misjudged it's market. IN a way, as Westerners, some of us should be offended because to be quite honest, the PS3 marketing up to this point shows just how much Sony stereotyped us as a society. THey figured all of us rich, fat, white Americans and Europeans who care so much about having the biggest, best, shiniest, most awesome gadget would pay any price just to be better than the next guy. They thought they'd milk us cause we are stupid consumers. It is obvious as the PS2 showed that we will buy the greatest best thing ever for any price.

Then... we didnt.
We bought Xboxes and Wii's. We looked at their big black shiny box and said "wow, thats totally awesome. But it's totally expensive too. Laters"
It's like a Ferrari... people love to look at them and ooh and ahh.. but at the end of the day we go out and buy a Honda Accord.

 

[imburke]

you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360,

Jeez, where are you buying your 360 controllers from? Just the other day I saw a wireless 360 controller with the plug and play kit for £17.50

keep in consideration this is an international board, im canadian, times my dollar by roughly 2.4 and thats what id pay on yours, and im talking first party, microsoft, 17.50 pounds is prolly close to what i pay, and europe gets the systems cheaper traditionally

and by wirless i meant the wireless network adapter, which is 99.99 here, but built into the ps3

 

[DragunovHUN]

They're japanese. We simple westerners wouldn't understand.

I can confidently say this though: It has NOTHING to do with the production price of the unit. Chanses are they're already losing on each unit sold. It took years for the 360 to become profitable. Before that, Microsoft was losing money on each unit aswell.

The consoles themselves are not the main source of income for these companies, it's all about the games, services and accessories.

 

[megapenguinx]

i certainly think the manufacureing costs of a ps3 is bigger than the 360/wii but i still think they could lower the price of it and make some profit just not a huge one per unit but overall it would make more money

They'd lose more money than they could make. They'd have to move thousands overnight in order to make a profit from a move like that. In order to make any money at all, Sony has to either raise the price or wait until it's cheaper to manufacture.

 

[PumpActionJesus]

PS3's cause a loss for sony each one they sell, so making them cheaper would just be insane.

 

[Tony Grande]

you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360,

Jeez, where are you buying your 360 controllers from? Just the other day I saw a wireless 360 controller with the plug and play kit for £17.50

Europee gets the systems cheaper traditionally

Well Europe usually pays the most between them and the States. Usually same price between dollar and euro, with the euro being worth a lot more! So if it costs CAN$400 it costs more in Europe, but I don't know the price of a Playstation in Canada, haven't been in a while!

 

[imburke]

you have wireless, built into the ps3, while its 99.99 on the 360,

Jeez, where are you buying your 360 controllers from? Just the other day I saw a wireless 360 controller with the plug and play kit for £17.50

Europee gets the systems cheaper traditionally

Well Europe usually pays the most between them and the States. Usually same price between dollar and euro, with the euro being worth a lot more! So if it costs CAN$400 it costs more in Europe, but I don't know the price of a Playstation in Canada, haven't been in a while!

how much is your 360 pro console worth, ours is 299.99, and i heard the 360 just dropped below the price of the wii over there, which here is 279.99