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Comment by: 21Q (Apr 20, 2007 16:23)

i wish that was the situation in the u.s.

Comment by: hughjars (Apr 20, 2007 17:48)

£399 seems more common, that's still $800.

They have done this little unoffical price cut and they are bundling as fast as they can but the ticket is still absurdly high.....

......and still they sit bolted to the store shelves.

Comment by: domie (Apr 20, 2007 19:28)

and they will continue on the store shelves until they drop the price to the SAME price that they charge all american customers.... $ 600 which means £ 300, a 25 % price cut on top of the cut currently seen.

Comment by: fgamer (Apr 21, 2007 02:22)

That doesn't seem to be healthy for a console to need a price cut so soon right after it's launch, to me that's a sign of failure. I still firmly believe Sony is in trouble until they cut the PS3's price tag here in the US, UK and abroad.

Comment by: duckNrun (Apr 21, 2007 02:36)

Naw, as much as I despise Sony...

They are catering to those people who WILL pay the outrageous price they are asking for their machine. And proof shows that SOME people will at least pay it (I think 'some people' is to the tune of just under 200,000 units in the states last month). While this is far behind the WII and not so far behind the 360 they are hedging their losses with the higher prices. As soon as demand for the product at these prices dries up you will see them reduce the price A BIT but not too much. This will bring in the next group of consumers who will be willing to pay say $500 instead of $600 for the thing while benefiting from the decreased manufacturing costs that always occur as time marches on. This Cat and Mouse game of decreasing demand, lowering manufacturing prices and lowering MSRP of the PS3 will reap Sony the most income (and when selling at a loss, the least lost income!) that will be possible from this machine.

Yes, it WILL take a while before this marketing technique will fully saturate itself within the consumer market and homes... but then that IS partly to Sony's benefit. If they can drag this out till Christmas and then offer their first significant price drop they will essentially be able to 're-introduce' the blasted thing and be on everyone's wishlist (everyone being those who didn't fork out the introductory price of an arm, leg and firstborn!)

They could actually drag this out for a year after that and FINALLY in Christmas 2008 be the console that the rest of the masses finally can afford to get. A long time line that hedges against other game devices stealing their thunder and eventual market... but next christmas when the 360 is old news and the PS3 is only $499 there's going to be a lot of peeps who decide they JUST HAVE TO have that this year...

Comment by: Smee342 (Apr 21, 2007 03:49)

Originally posted by duckNrun:

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Naw, as much as I despise Sony...

They are catering to those people who WILL pay the outrageous price they are asking for their machine. And proof shows that SOME people will at least pay it (I think 'some people' is to the tune of just under 200,000 units in the states last month). While this is far behind the WII and not so far behind the 360 they are hedging their losses with the higher prices. As soon as demand for the product at these prices dries up you will see them reduce the price A BIT but not too much. This will bring in the next group of consumers who will be willing to pay say $500 instead of $600 for the thing while benefiting from the decreased manufacturing costs that always occur as time marches on. This Cat and Mouse game of decreasing demand, lowering manufacturing prices and lowering MSRP of the PS3 will reap Sony the most income (and when selling at a loss, the least lost income!) that will be possible from this machine.

Yes, it WILL take a while before this marketing technique will fully saturate itself within the consumer market and homes... but then that IS partly to Sony's benefit. If they can drag this out till Christmas and then offer their first significant price drop they will essentially be able to 're-introduce' the blasted thing and be on everyone's wishlist (everyone being those who didn't fork out the introductory price of an arm, leg and firstborn!)

They could actually drag this out for a year after that and FINALLY in Christmas 2008 be the console that the rest of the masses finally can afford to get. A long time line that hedges against other game devices stealing their thunder and eventual market... but next christmas when the 360 is old news and the PS3 is only $499 there's going to be a lot of peeps who decide they JUST HAVE TO have that this year...

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i agree with you on alot of wat u said. and i can say when there 2nd price drop comes along i will probably be one of the many inline to get one. by christmas this yr the 360 should have out Halo 3,halo wars, and mass effect out if and i use the word IF loosly here those games make release by christmas that will push the 360 for that extra yr time frame u have suggested the 360 fab should drop. and the ps3 will have a nice little fight up there hands becouse as of right now i dont see a line up of games for the ps3 in that time frame

and i will also state i havent looked up wat the ps3 has line up either so plz dont flame me with a list of games suppose to be released by then.

and i would also like to state i just recently bought my 360 in febuary so im not a fan boy, however i use to be a sony fan boy ^^


Smee

Comment by: duckNrun (Apr 21, 2007 04:57)

lol people don't flame around here do they??? ;-)
Your well thought out comments are appreciated :-)


The games are definately a HUGE setback for sony and a plus for the others. I would hope for Sony's sake (well not really since I dont care lol) that given the time frame from now until xmas that there would be at least a few 'must have' games for their 'newest' console.
And a line up of 'long awaited' 360 games plus a comparitive price drop for the 360 definately could cause Sony a little heartache next Xmas.

I dont have any game consoles currently, nor plan on any in the near future, although the 'interaction between a user and the WII sports games do intrigue me (maybe my ex and I would still be together if we could have entered the virtual boxing ring of the WII world pmsl)

It's not that I CANT afford the $600+ on a system, I'm currently looking at spending a few thousand when I move soon to convert my living room theater into a theater room theater and get my living room back to being mainly a place to read a book, talk to company or whatever. It's more of a sense of apathy about the whole do I NEED or desire to spend that kind of money on a game system to entertain myself?

And of course I have no idea WHAT Sony's game plan is or what they are thinking in regards to their marketing strategy, only throwing out errant thoughts on my take on things.

Comment by: NexGen76 (Apr 21, 2007 12:43)

Its funny how people can have short term memory went 360 launched they didn't have one title on launch that was a must have & also LIVE was horrible.It took Microsoft 6 months to get a least one good game for that system.It took 7 months of people bitchin about how LIVE didn't have any content before LIVE got there act together.Now lets look at Sony RFM was a killer app on launch & by march they had the second killer app motostorm.Sony for some reason just can't get a fair shake but people had no problem with Microsoft charging them for something at the time was really bad.If you got a problem with the price that one thing because it is high but to think M$ wasn't in the same boat as Sony a year ago is totally untrue.

Comment by: ThaJazz (Apr 21, 2007 14:36)

well the ps3 has been out now almost 7months and where the hell is the games.i have all three of the new systems.and the 360 is the one i enjoy the most the wii is for my kids really.all people say is the ps3 is better because of the blueray and the cell bs thats in it.who cares whats in if there is no games.come on people hardware cant prove itself.

Comment by: hughjars (Apr 21, 2007 17:50)

I found this from a serious business market type magazine.

Strangely they obviously don't have a clue how this is done normally, they stuck to topic and never mentioned microsoft or the XBox 360 once.

.....and this lot at Forbes are no better - they're obviously a bunch of microsoft fanboys, they've made this whole story about Sony game division lay-offs, I mean, where's the talk about microsoft or the XBox in that one!?

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/...afx3623844.html

What the hell is wrong with these suits? :P

Quote:

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Research firm Chart Track shows that PS3 sales dropped the three weeks in a row after the game console went on sale in the UK.
The press in that country has even suggested that Sony needs to cut price to pick up customers.

Over at Sony, the CEO says that the Playstation 3 launch in Europe is a clear success. The record-breaking success of the PlayStation 3 in Europe has rescued the games console from “the perception wars” that hit sales in Japan, says Sir Howard Stringer, he told the FT.

Maybe sales in Switzerland were good enough to make up for the short-fall in the UK.

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http://www.247wallst.com/2007/04/is_sony_playsta.html

Comment by: georgeluv (Apr 21, 2007 18:39)

the pound is booming, thats like 780 us dollars

Comment by: borhan9 (Apr 21, 2007 23:40)

I still would have to wait cause that price in Aussie dollars would still be too high. And in regards to the comment of making a loss i really doubt that.

Comment by: pigfister (Apr 22, 2007 06:13)

its a very expensive bit of kit but the fact that now square and ea have both announced that the games are going multi format why would you purchase a ps3 for £400 when a 360 costs £150 at the end its about games and if you can get the same experience at a fraction of the cost that's what ppl will choose.

i know the arguments about performance differences between but they look pretty much the same to me especially with the pc ports that are ever more common now.

the only thing that can help sony imo is a price cut and with the amounting hdcp and flat screen compatibility issues lack of 60hz via a sdtv and green rgb dvd playback they better have somthing big up their sleeves as home(second life without the porn) will not hold ppl for long especially the mature gamer!

this has to be a big nail in the coffin for sony:
Square Enix Confirms FFXIII Is Not Exclusive To PS3

Originally posted by link:

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by Michal Birecki on 17/04/2007 Views: 88420

In news that is sure to rock the gaming world it has been confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII, the blockbuster RPG highly anticipated by millions of fans of the series, will not be an exclusive game for the PlayStation 3 console.

The Final Fantasy XIII project as of right now consists of two games for the PlayStation 3 as well as a mobile game. Motomu Toriyama of Square Enix has come out and made the confirmation that other consoles will be receiving Final Fantasy XIII on top of the PlayStation 3.
Continue Article

This is pretty big news and could lead to speculation as to which Final Fantasy XIII games are going where. The obvious rumors are going to be that FFXIII is heading to the Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3.

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Comment by: ZippyDSM (Apr 22, 2007 09:08)

I belive the 360 was only 100-190 above the US price while the PS3 is 200-400 above the US price....