Sony's Stringer Admits PS3 Price Too High

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

Sony CEO Howard Stringer admitted in an interview that the price of the PlayStation 3 needs to come down, but provided no estimate as to how much of a price drop consumers can expect.

"That is what we are studying at the moment. That's what we are trying to refine," he told the Financial Times on Thursday. He also admitted that the Nintendo Wii had broad appeal to consumers, and acknowledged his success.

"I would be the first to say to you that Nintendo Wii has been a successful enterprise and a very good business model compared to ours," he said, adding much of its success had to do with price.

Sony has lowered the price by 20 percent in Japan ahead of its November launch, however it did not lower the price elsewhere. Even with the price cuts, the PS3 is still struggling, being outsold by the Wii there by a five-to-one margin.

Sony's gaming unit is increasingly becoming a liability for the company, and is beginning to cause concern among investors. For the fiscal year ending March 31, the once powerful unit posted a staggering $2 billion loss.

High losses due to the PS3 are drowning out successes in other aspects of its business, including strong HDTV sales and improving performance in its Blu-ray division.


FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

[traumatism]

whats the matter, they finally realised that they aint selling enough units?

apparently in the uk, you cannot play ps1 or ps2 games on it but you can in japan and usa. i wonder if this is true.

[calebshung]

they were deffinately trying to sell them for 2 damn much, that's why i haven't gotten one yet. never get a system within a year of it's release.

[traumatism]

yeah im the same. but in this case i never will own a ps3. i have pc and xbax and thats all i need at present

[houstonshemalefan]

I have the money so it didn't bother me one bit when I spent $600 on a PS3. It was worth every penny as I play it for around an hour just about every night.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

it's not about the $$$ you or others might have as much as it is Sony giving up their position as the top game platform maker

[ARMANIXXX]

I prefer PC games over console games.


I would prefer to play games on a console over a PC for various reasons, but in many cases, games on the PC are just more sophisticated.

[thewarmachine]

well here are some reason why i think that sony is not selling any PS3 well to begin with the price is to high and the shitty thing is that Microsoft is going down on its price for all 3 systems on November 22 another reason is that bluray is a new technology and it is competing with HDDVD so we dont no witch one will come out the victor. another reason is the developers do not like to make games for it so there is a shortage of good games. also the PS3 BLOWS

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

I enjoy NFS: Carbon on my pc over a console anyday

[Quinn]

Sony CEO Howard Stringer admitted in an interview that the price of the PlayStation 3 needs to come down

Fucking duh!!! How much is Stringer's annual salary anyway that it took him that long to reach such an obvious conclusion?

-Quinn

[Harrys Boy]

You can't even play ps1 or ps2 games on the ps3 in Europe so how can they expect to sell a machine thats overpriced and with a complete lack of interesting titles, I was thinking about buying one until I saw the launch games that were being released, this all reminds me of Sega releasing the Mega CD and overestimating the appeal of it and ending up losing out on the console market for good. Bad times for Sony.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

the joke is all would be forgiven if Sony dropped it to $300 by the end of June

[Zodiac_2K99]

Come on!!! Shout out! How many hot hung angels play video games? That be teh hawtness...

[blckhaze]

the joke is all would be forgiven if Sony dropped it to $300 by the end of June

agreed. they may even try to wait till thanksgiving to kill over the late christmas rush.

[Yetanothervickilover]

man, PS3 jokes are so last winter.

Price has to be high to manufacture that kind of technology.

Lack of exclusives/worthwhile games causes a lack of motivation to buy.

that said...can i get a woot from my fellow 360 owners?

[Solitary Brother]

I dont have a PS3 but I will get one soon........IPHONE first.
Hell yes its worth what they charge!
It has a BLUE RAY optical drive in it and a 3.2 ghz cell processor!
You can run Linux on it and program on it.
All it needs is a version on LISP that takes advantage of it SPE's.
It could be an AI monster!
Wait until the next iteration of the cell processor comes out

5 GHZ!

[TJT]

Sony has gone to hell in the past year or so. New management?

[Oli]

In the high-definition DVD war between Blu-ray and HD DVD, Blu-ray is pulling ahead. On Monday, Blockbuster announced that its next batch of high definition DVDs will be exclusively offered in the Blu-ray format.

The Blu-ray boost, expected in mid-July, will feature 170 titles to be distributed at 1,700 Blockbuster stores.

Shares of Blockbuster were up 2.4%, or 11 cents, to $4.69 in pre-market trading from $4.58, Friday's closing price on the news.

Since late 2006, the movie rental company has offered both formats at 250 stores across the country. Both formats were given equal billing, but Blockbuster soon realized that Blu-ray outsold its competitor by 70%.

Blockbuster will continue to rent the HD DVD titles it already offers and may expand its HD DVD inventory in the future but, for now, the company has placed all its chips on Blu-ray.

“We intend to meet the demands of our customers and based on the trends we’re seeing, we’re expanding our Blu-ray inventory to ensure our stories reflect the right level of products,” Blockbuster executive, Matthew Smith, said Monday.

Blockbuster’s news is a major victory for Sony, the maker of Blu-ray DVD players, which has been locked in a heated race with Toshiba which makes the HD DVD players, to dominate the high definition market. The battle recalls the showdown between JVC's VHS and Sony's Betamax in the 1980s, when customers were forces to pick one format over the other. While all HD DVD and Blu-ray players can play standard DVDs, they can’t play competitor’s discs.

In the format war, Toshiba had the head start with the introduction of its player in March 2006. However, since then, Sony crept up on Toshiba by forging strategic alliances with movie studios. Blu-ray now has exclusive partnerships with a handful of studios including Sony's holdings, Disney and 20th Century Fox. In a bit of a role-reversal Sony looks like its borrowing a page straight from JVC's old playbook, when it courted major film studios to tighten the noose on Betamax.

The strategy seems to be working. This month, Sony predicted Blu-ray player sales could jump from 100,000 to 600,000 units in 2007 because of the popularity of DVDs exclusively released on the format. Meanwhile, Toshiba lowered its 2007 estimate 44.4% to 1.0 million units from 1.8 million.

Shares of Sony were flat on Monday morning, down 0.2%, or 12 cents, to $54.53.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/06/18/bluray-blockbuster-hddvd-markets-equity-cx_er_0618markets06.html

[tsntx]

Come on!!! Shout out! How many hot hung angels play video games? That be teh hawtness...

topics been covered... should LG catch this.. he can sport the links for you... but i play

atm i play either:

star wars legos - original and new trilogy both
gta-vice city/ vice city stories/ san andreas
fantastic four 1 & 2 --- just got part 2 on saturday

[Legend]

New PLAYSTATION 3 Model Coming Soon

Cheaper model to be launched this November

Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced the upcoming launch of a new 40GB model of its PLAYSTATION 3 console. Beginning November 2nd, the new 40GB PS3 model will come bundled with Blu-Ray movie Spider-Man 3 and will be available in North America for a suggested retail price of $399 (USD/CND). The company also announced that effective immediately, the current 80GB PS3 model will be available in North America for $499 (USD/CND). Check the press release for details on the new model.
www.gamershell.com

[hwbs]

i would never buy it because sony has lost most of the exclusive titles .. as far as online goes : it is free but my friend says he can never get online to play resistance . it does run cooler and quieter. i would never buy blu ray because i am not paying $40 for a dvd. anyone that has a 360 knows how fucking loud that beast is.

[Night Rider]

the ps3 is the daddy of gaming...i bought mine a few weeks ago for £425 w/ 2games and now they're going for much cheaper.....pissed off

[Legend]

i would never buy it because sony has lost most of the exclusive titles .. as far as online goes : it is free but my friend says he can never get online to play resistance . it does run cooler and quieter. i would never buy blu ray because i am not paying $40 for a dvd. anyone that has a 360 knows how fucking loud that beast is.

You don't have any intentions of playing the new metal gear or ratchet and clank game?

[hwbs]

i would never buy it because sony has lost most of the exclusive titles .. as far as online goes : it is free but my friend says he can never get online to play resistance . it does run cooler and quieter. i would never buy blu ray because i am not paying $40 for a dvd. anyone that has a 360 knows how fucking loud that beast is.

You don't have any intentions of playing the new metal gear or ratchet and clank game?


zero. i will play those on psp when i travel . not to spend 500-600 on a console... plus i don't want to see goonies or top gun with my free blue ray movies ,lol. with that said i wouldn't buy the 360 for halo . i bought mine for gears of war and still enjoy playing it