In 2006 the PlayStation 3 launched as the most expensive console of this generation. Now, more than two years later, it still retains that title and publishers wish it weren’t so.
According to Bloomberg, Sony is under pressure from video game publishers to drop the price of its flagship console. At $399, the PS3 is $150 more than the Wii and twice the price of the cheapest Xbox 360 (though the same price as most expensive Xbox 360).
Of course, all game publishers want the hardware to be as affordable as possible, so that more consumers will buy the systems, thereby expanding the user base. The majority of video game systems are sold in the latter parts of the life cycle, when the hardware hits its lowest price points.
“Anytime a console manufacturer reduces the price, software publishers benefit,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft Entertainment.
Analyst with Janco Partners, Mike Hickey, believes that Sony will drop the price of the PS3 $50 to $100 sometime next month. “If they can’t meaningfully increase their install base, then you will likely see a capital reallocation,” Hickey said. But Sony is sticking to its guns with regards to its current pricing.
“Everybody in the development community would love for the PS3 to be free, so they could just sell razor blades,” Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview.
Executives at top game publishers do agree that the current PS3 price is a sticking point with consumers looking to get into next-generation gaming.
“Sony obviously still has a ways to go with their pricing,” said Peter Moore, head of EA Sports. EA has shifted some of its resources to developing for the Nintendo Wii, naturally incentivized but the large install base.
“You can’t ignore the guy who has half the market,” Moore said. For the previous two console generations, Sony has been the one with the largest share of the market, but the Japanese electronics maker now finds itself no longer on top of the heap.
With the PS3’s high price tag being such an issue, nary a month goes by without some talk about a price cut. While a price drop for spring is less expected than one during the holiday season, publishers along with consumers who are still on the fence about buying one would like it to be as soon as possible.
Actually the 360 has a better GPU. The only advantage PS3 has for graphics is the added space on Blu-ray for storing high res textures, but all that doesn't matter because the PS3 is limited by its dedicated 256MB of Video RAM, where as the 360 has shared memory and gives the developers freedom t use more than 256MB for video at a time. BTW, the 360 can touch the PS3 in exclusive title graphics. Killzone 2 probably has the best graphics for PS3, but the flame thrower affect is worse than PS1 graphics. And for games that aren't exclusive to PS3, they run better on 360, even when ported from an engine designed for PS3. PS3 has frame rate issues in many shared games as well as more aliasing than the 360.
Sony can't reduce price because they have no other revenue stream from their PS3. Sony doesn't create the games for their console (like Nintendo), and they aren't run by a buffoon (like Microsoft). Plus they still have that whole "its a game console AND Blu-Ray player" aspect to play off. Even when HD-DVD was still alive, that was an additional $200 to the cost of your XBox.
Dont forget Sony lost GTA4,FF13 aswell, i loved sony, but they need to step there game up, hopefully GoW3 will boost sales seeing as how i loved the second on the ps2.
Excellent question!
There is no way x360 graphics are on par with the PS3. The x360 runs a GPU that was old when the system came out. I've seen both on a HD projector and there's no comparison.
I don't know what you were watching, but it doesn't prove shit. The added eDRAM and shared memory of the Xenos GPU gives it to 360 FTW. And dated GPU? Look up the facts fuser. The R600 GPU was based on the 360 GPU which came out more than a year ahead of the R600. And the R520 came out just a month ahead of the 360, so I don't know where you get off saying it was a dated GPU at the time of its release.
I don't know what you were watching, but it doesn't prove shit. The added eDRAM and shared memory of the Xenos GPU gives it to 360 FTW. And dated GPU? Look up the facts fuser. The R600 GPU was based on the 360 GPU which came out more than a year ahead of the R600. And the R520 came out just a month ahead of the 360, so I don't know where you get off saying it was a dated GPU at the time of its release.
Lost them as exclusives... they are still going to PS3 as well.
I prefer the PS3 over the other units, but i LOVE the load times of the 360 over the PS3.
The Wii is SHii. I own one, and I am beside myself that people like this unit! Ok..Great, the Wii has motion detection/sensing.. But it SUCKS!! There is nothing on earth more inaccurate then the Wii’s motion controls. I HATE IT. Play tiger Woods, It is SOOO far from real golf. Even Mario Cart… the controls blow chunks. I personally feel if you are going to use motion as a control that it better replicate real life…or what’s the point?
Every day I will choose PS3 and/or 360 over the Wii. I firmly believe Wii has sold so many units due to price, and nothing else. Parents who are not gamers certainly are going to buy the sub $200 unit over the $400 unit, it’s a no brainer.
there is only a small group that that go for preference. Sony won the lat generation with the PS2 and the xbox was a distant 2nd so the PS2 owners wanted to continue with Sony but they put a high price tag on it. most people are flocking to the crashbox because of the games (and they don't care how many times they had to get microsoft to replace it LOL). the first console i got with the Wii because it was the cheapest and i Like Nintendo and it is not as bad as some strung out lord of the kings geeks say it is. I for one am going for a 2nd console and it will be PS3 because i like the games on it better and I already gave Microsoft too much of my own money buying windows for my PC multiple times over the years
Another issue is Sony still manufacturing PS2 which is totally different machine and would divide the resource. I believe Sony should build a strip down PS3 (no Blu-ray, no HDMI) that can play PS2 and PS3 games on DVD and discontinue PS2, so all the resource are dedicated to PS3. So that they can lower the PS3 price without losing money.
This is a good idea.
No it isn't. It's a horrible idea. They would have to reprint every game and many of the games would need recoding to fit on a DVD9. Than it would lead to customer confusion of what game to buy, the Blu-ray or DVD one. What they should do is bring back backwards compatibility to the PS#, but removing blu-ray and HDMI? They already have a sytem like that, it's called the PS2.