Sony Moany But Is The Price Cut Phoney?
Will they, won't they, can they, won't say! Yup line up for the one thing consumers the world over agree upon, and then listen to the official denials. Here we go on the Sony PS3 price cut bonanza!
So rumours and speculation are rife that Sony is preparing a price cut on the PS3. Frankly the dropping of the costly (to Sony) 20gig SKU, the Emotion Chip and resulting manufacturing savings of a single SKU have only been underlining what everyone has said since E3, it's just too expensive for the casual gamers. And lets face it, casual gamers are the majority of the market here and they've hardly bitten Microsoft's hand off at the $500 mark either.
What should they do? What will they do? I have my speculator spectacles on, lets find out.
Denials aside, because most of the time they're as reliable as the rumours, what should we expect from such a cut? Well more than anything, I hope it's a sign Sony are going to aggressively attempt to win customers and drop this whole Godly "They don't deserve us" attitude. If they have some balls I think the cost cutting might enable them to discount $100 to $125 off the console while still meeting projected loses, I say $125 to firmly smash the $500 barrier rather than some miserly wish list. Anything less than this is probably going to see a weak response at retail anyway, this is a psychological barrier they need to break not a financial one.
Helping that along is my favorite, low cost, value added items. Putting a rumoured larger drive in the system instead of 60gig would be a nice bonus and probably not cost them much, if any more, to purchase. Why not push people online and give them a Playstation store credit of $25, in fact I guess with some advertising you could make a $500 console look to be worth $475 with just such an offer. Other extras like movies, games, cables would also be fairly cheap to include. All of a sudden, that $500 console is getting you $25 off online purchases, a $40 BDR and a $50 game! Oh don't forget you won't need to root out a cable when you leave the store, we've got you covered there too. Just go home and enjoy your PS3 then come back and grab some more games and movies when you've seen how powerful the system really is.
Phew, I must stop licking toads!
Still, reality bites, and it leaves marks! I doubt even in an attempt to kick start retail enthusiasm they would be that bold. Perhaps $50 off and a bundled game although if they push the 60gig down to $550 and introduce a 80gig+ at $600. Then I'll know they've lost the plot totally.
Launch will most likely come soon after the 360 Elite is on the market so that they can price and strategise knowing Microsoft won't be in a position to respond. If however they leave that window open too long, I wouldn't be surprised by a trumped offer by Microsoft, they have built up a nice war chest since the PS3's unexpected slow launch and I bet they are itching for this fight to kick off proper.
Nintendo, LOL, they're going to stay at $250 for a long while yet. Deny all you want but $200-250 is most definitely the casual gamer and casual consumer's sweet spot.
So rumours and speculation are rife that Sony is preparing a price cut on the PS3. Frankly the dropping of the costly (to Sony) 20gig SKU, the Emotion Chip and resulting manufacturing savings of a single SKU have only been underlining what everyone has said since E3, it's just too expensive for the casual gamers. And lets face it, casual gamers are the majority of the market here and they've hardly bitten Microsoft's hand off at the $500 mark either.
What should they do? What will they do? I have my speculator spectacles on, lets find out.
Denials aside, because most of the time they're as reliable as the rumours, what should we expect from such a cut? Well more than anything, I hope it's a sign Sony are going to aggressively attempt to win customers and drop this whole Godly "They don't deserve us" attitude. If they have some balls I think the cost cutting might enable them to discount $100 to $125 off the console while still meeting projected loses, I say $125 to firmly smash the $500 barrier rather than some miserly wish list. Anything less than this is probably going to see a weak response at retail anyway, this is a psychological barrier they need to break not a financial one.
Helping that along is my favorite, low cost, value added items. Putting a rumoured larger drive in the system instead of 60gig would be a nice bonus and probably not cost them much, if any more, to purchase. Why not push people online and give them a Playstation store credit of $25, in fact I guess with some advertising you could make a $500 console look to be worth $475 with just such an offer. Other extras like movies, games, cables would also be fairly cheap to include. All of a sudden, that $500 console is getting you $25 off online purchases, a $40 BDR and a $50 game! Oh don't forget you won't need to root out a cable when you leave the store, we've got you covered there too. Just go home and enjoy your PS3 then come back and grab some more games and movies when you've seen how powerful the system really is.
Phew, I must stop licking toads!
Still, reality bites, and it leaves marks! I doubt even in an attempt to kick start retail enthusiasm they would be that bold. Perhaps $50 off and a bundled game although if they push the 60gig down to $550 and introduce a 80gig+ at $600. Then I'll know they've lost the plot totally.
Launch will most likely come soon after the 360 Elite is on the market so that they can price and strategise knowing Microsoft won't be in a position to respond. If however they leave that window open too long, I wouldn't be surprised by a trumped offer by Microsoft, they have built up a nice war chest since the PS3's unexpected slow launch and I bet they are itching for this fight to kick off proper.
Nintendo, LOL, they're going to stay at $250 for a long while yet. Deny all you want but $200-250 is most definitely the casual gamer and casual consumer's sweet spot.
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