A press release that came in from Ster Kinekor this week is showing that Sony is confident that they are the dominant console in Europe, stating that they have:
“moved to dispel Microsoft claims that Xbox is outselling the PS3 in Europe, revealing internal figures that say its console has sold 300,000 more units than Xbox 360 in PAL territories.”
Sony have confirmed that they are happy with the current state of the console as well as it’s pricing, poking a stick at Microsoft’s strategy of price dropping saying, also stating the following:
“And the company doesn’t feel it has to follow Microsoft and further ignite consumer interest with a price cut of its own anytime soon.”
“SCEE president David Reeves told MCV that Sony will remain focused on the value offered by the PS3 and its extra functions and services – at its current £299 SRP.”
Sounds like good news for Sony but is this bad news for the consumer? More about Sony’s pricing strategy, after the jump.
David Reeves also had the following to say with regards to the pricing of the console:
“No we are not going to go down in price; neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary,†he said – referring to purported ‘leaks’ from a Sony meeting two weeks ago that claimed Sony had a price cut planned for March ‘09.
“When we came into the industry we started at zero. And we had to have a model that offered price elasticity. As soon as we got the manufacturing price down on PSOne we lowered the price. Same with PS2. But we’re not doing that on PS3 – that’s not the model, even if people are expecting it.”
That pretty much confirms that Sony may never drop the price of the PS3 at all. Although I can’t say that I believe that they would keep the price the same well into the next couple of years, surely there will be a price drop? I find it hard to tell from these statements whether or not Sony will ever leave room for the idea in future.
The Playstation 3 is definitely starting to show it’s power in the world and as great as this news may be for both Sony and it’s fanbase, I do still find it somewhat unsettling that Sony are pushing so hard to reassure the world that they will not be doing anything to drop the price.
This is not good news for anyone who has been saving to buy a Playstation 3 but was in the hope that their may be a price drop soon. The bad news is that you will have to save a little longer, the good news is that once you do finally buy one, you can at least rest easy knowing that the product is well supported.
What do you guys think? Is Sony taking the right approach or do you find their statements to be a little unsettling?
Last Updated: December 5, 2008
Banana Hammock
December 5, 2008 at 09:05
I think that even if there were a price drop coming it would be suicide to mention or confirm it now. Whos going to buy the console today if they know the price will drop in a month. At this time of the year you cannot afford that sort of thing.
But then it’s plain to see that the PS3 is selling less units in both America and Others for the last many weeks and it’s only beating the 360 in Japan. With the credit crunch in full swing i think Sony will hurt the most with sales. They need to get these so-called “value bundles” out there and make them good.
Scotty777
December 5, 2008 at 09:57
you know what, I think sony will price cut… it’s just they don’t want to announce the price cut now because that would hurt sales…
but it’s been 2 years now since the release of the ps3… so I’m pretty sure the cost to make each unit has come down quite a lot… who’s knows, maybe sony realised they making a profit off the ps3 and they don’t wanna lose that