PS3 Price Drop
Had a bunch of folks pinging me about today’s PS3 price cut (and removal of back compat support). Although currently only announced for Europe, it’s very likely a US announcement is in the works.
As a quick bit of background, I wrote multiple posts on the subject in the past. I also wrote that I’m not going to be commenting further on competing platforms since some press have taken my thoughts as official Microsoft statements. To quote myself:
…even though it was my personal opinion, some press (particularly some gaming blogs) spun those opinions as official Microsoft statements, even though they quite obviously weren’t. And that isn’t cool, especially as it can cause extra work for folks (and friends!) here at work who have to deal with clarifying that fact.
The ironic aspect to this is that unfiltered and unfettered access to the thoughts of people working in the industry is what the “gaming press” (however you care to define it) most craves. Unfortunately, taking a sensationalistic tack for the sake of driving traffic simply causes that access to dry up. I’ll still be posting things of interest (for those of you who care!), but in general I’m going to avoid commenting on console platforms for a while.
What I will do to close this out this topic is answer the most common question I’ve gotten today: ”How did you know?” Unfortunately, the answer won’t be satisfying to most of you.
Simply put, it was an educated guess. There’s a lot that’s predictable when you understand how the console market works and what it takes to build a platform (both hardware and software). I’ve been lucky enough to work in this industry for almost 20 years (scary thought, that), and it gives a lot of perspective. The interesting thing is that that perspective is shared by a lot of industry folks – even those who are friends while working on opposing platform sides. Conversations happen all the time, and I can tell you that many people expected price cuts this year – there was no surprise there.
Many of the more specific predictions were based on likely price-cutting targets. It was obvious BluRay wouldn’t be removed, but memory card slots, hardware support for backward compatibility, and WiFi were all candidates for removal (as well as reducing hard drive size). Some of those removals only save a dollar or two, but over millions of units you’re talking real money. I guessed all three would be removed; I landed on two out of three (plus hard drive reduction).
Anyway, hope that gives a bit of perspective on this whole thing. As I’ve said, I won’t be commenting on this subject beyond this post, but will look forward to a fun, conversation-filled evening with a friend over steak sometime in the coming year!
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That’s going to be one tasty steak. I can’t wait to read N’Gai’s reaction. You da man Ozy.
At £299 the PS3 is an attractive buy as a blu-ray player plus games will appear in time.
Microsoft seem to be having alot of problems recently.. for example:-
- Peter Moore a great spokeman for xbox left Micosoft for EA, EA being a producer of average standard games with famous IPs
- Bizarre brought by Activision and no longer developing the PGR series
- Bungie Microsofts flagship wants to leave MS and go solo, obviously due to some negative feature with MS or why do such? Whichever way MS spin it its def bad news for Microsoft, you have to wonder what MS is doing to pee their developers off so much? Remember that MS woman who oversaw Gears? B*tch..
- Finally 3 red lights of death still occurring, this is the bane of the 360.
So what is the saving grace of 360? The games and LIVE but will PS3 come back strongly in 2008..maybe!
Didn't we have a "major price drop" just a few months ago – which was answered with a quick burst of sales but no overall sales increase?
Oh well. Microsoft's been on the market two years now. Even if PS3 started selling like hotcakes, it'd still be two years behind. And MS can probably afford a price drop as early as Spring, putting the 360 on par with the Wii on price.
JJS UK, this is a play for the holiday season more than a 2008 comeback story. Sony is so desperate for a sustainable jump in PS3 marketshare they are willing to mortgage their future. Just look at their attempts to sell off the Cell processor manufacturing plant which is rumored to be worth about $1 billion dollars. In addition they raised $2.8 billion dollars with the initial public offering of its insurance unit. All that money in attempts to cover loses and be able to drop PS3 prices in strategic markets. In addition, this sku is not for PS2 customers because it doesn't offer backwards compatibility. So who are they after, the 1st time/casual gamer…if so, I think the entry level price point is still way to high for that segment.
As for you comments towards XBox business. Your average customer is not going to give a rats ss about whats happening at game studios…as long the games releases are flowing and there are marque titles that differentiate the platform. My guess is you'll see a significant drop in red lights/freezing service requests. I think Microsoft has already mentioned that. In any regards, XBox 360 has alot to look forward too…of course Halo3 is going to carry them into the holidays, a fairly major Fall Update (IPTV & stuff) and who knows what kind of promotions Microsoft has in store.
I am not planning on buying a Playstation 3 until there are some great and PS3 exclusive titels like Ratched and Clank etc etc. Until that time i keep enjoying al the great games that are out now and will come out in the next weeks.
My comment from yesterday hasn’t posted yet. Is there some sort of filtering turned on? Thanks
JohnCz
I agree Sony's £299 PS3 is aimed surely for this Christmas also, shame there's not many games. The only one's of note bar multiplatform are: Heavenly Sword(s), Warhawk and Resistance. But I still think £299 for a Blu-ray player is good value especially as there will be games coming in 2008.
Concerning the average joe worrying about MS losing developers solely focussing on the 360 platform.. err.. no most prob totally unaware but it will be intereting to see what impact this has on future games on 360. For example you can bet your last dollar(or pound) that Sony would pay $$$$$$$$ for Bungie to make an exclusive title for PS3.. imagine the hype.. the 360 fanboys!!! It would be a nightmare for MS no other way to put it.
As to your point about 3 RLOD I think it has damaged the 360 image, not so much with the core but maybe with the casual gamer more who wants no hardware concerns plus technical failures would go down like a lead balloon in Japan.. eeerrr how's MS doing there? I think it's the 3 RLOD creates a huge negative for MS who really need to rid the net of this.. how can this be done? Well make sure the Falcon is reliable marvel that's how, then MS would have it all nearly.. the games, LIVE and reliability.. They'd just have to worry PS3 game developers dont utilize the Bluray storage to create a gameplay advantage foe PS3.
On your point of IPTV, BT are in partnership with MS in UK, who's target is to have the framework(network) in place to handle IPTV by 2010, will they achieve such it's doubtful from what I hear, will IPTV be the next big thing for MS? Yes I think so but I dont think IPTV will be a factor in this generation.
Yeah I look forward to the LIVE updates hopefully they will have some new gameplay features or user tools to help 360 owners to shape their 360 experiences more the way they'd like.
Is $399 40GB/Blu-Ray PS3 a better deal than $449 120GB XBox 360 Elite or $349 Pro models? For customers in the market for high definition DVD player..maybe yes. But Microsoft’s ace card it hasn’t played yet is IPTV…If only they can get IPTV released with reasonably priced IPTV services. It would really help here in the U.S. if they could partner with a deeply entrenched cable operator like Comcast.
I posted an hour ealier answering you points JohnCz but it hasnt appeared, I guessed removed.
@JohnCZ: Unfortunately, Microsoft has allied it’s IPTV service in the US with AT&T. And "Ma Bell" is taking her own sweet time getting the Lightspeed/U-verse infrastructure rolled out.
Sadly, I don’t expect that I’ll see U-verse in my area until the next Xbox comes out (figuring approx. 3 years). I’m not in BFE either; I’m in Chicago. Sad truth is, AT&T doesn’t even have DSL available in my area. I think U-verse is a long way off.
But 360 is unplayable console anyway lolz
Quote:
Yes said:
But 360 is unplayable console anyway lolz
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yea thats why I play mine everynight since launch…riiiight!
>But 360 is unplayable console anyway lolz
Your astonishing, deep reasoning and well-structured arguments convinced me. That’s it. I’m no longer in the Microsoft camp!
PS3 LOLZ LOLZ LOLZ Micro$uxxx is dead WHOOO WIIII WHO NEEDS GAMES I HAVE SONY STUFF AND MOTION CONTROL!!1
But 360 is unplayable lolz
Nice to spend $399 seeing you get RROD when you first turn it on, lolz
RE: "I’ve been lucky enough to work in this industry for almost 20 years (scary thought, that)"
20 years? WOW. The console sector, at least, is barely older than that to begin with. It is interesting to think about how different the industry is now compared to those early beginnings, both culturally and logistically – But I bet it is fun to have a job that allows you to think about and shape those next 20 years, too. :-)
Re: "20 years? WOW. The console sector, at least, is barely older than that to begin with. It is interesting to think about how different the industry is now compared to those early beginnings, both culturally and logistically – But I bet it is fun to have a job that allows you to think about and shape those next 20 years, too. :-)"
Yeah, but some of those years were definitely PC-focused. SSI only did PC games initially. It is amazing how quickly things have changed, though… and I’m really excited to see what happens in the next 20!
BTW, have released all comments that weren’t obvious spam… so those of you who were missing your comments should be ok now.
>BTW, have released all comments that weren’t obvious spam…
I would like to vote to have the "360 unplayable lolz" comments be included in the ’spam’ category. Really, let the haters go troll some other site.
Wait a minute, I think X360 is unplayable too lolz
No wait PS3 is unplayable console lolz
No wait PS3 is unplayable console lolz
You need some reality check.
PS3: 0% death probability
X360: 100% death probability
don’t get me wrong, I am elite owner with 64 games and +40k gamerscore. And my console never had a problem, but I know how bad this situation is. the 360 is not engineered strong enough to withstand heat, simple as that.
Another Sony troll lolz
PS3 can’t do MSAA + HDR at same time so get over it
>X360: 100% death probability
Someone does need a reality check, and that ain’t me.
Here it comes: the most preposterously anti-Microsoft numbers claim that the RRoD affects less than 20% of 360s out there. Sure, it’s high – but it’s also the worst case scenario. Real number is probably between half and two thirds that.
High? Yes. Dramatic? More like dramatically overblown by those infected with a terminal stage Microsoft Derangement Syndrome.
>PS3 can’t do MSAA + HDR at same time so get over it
So you believe the issues I’d have with PS3 amount to that? ‘Lolz’ indeed. I’d ask you to stop impersonating me, but that’d require more maturity than you could possibly bring to bear.
‘Someone does need a reality check, and that ain’t me.’
Microsoft should be doing a recall for what they have done on X360s, some people have gone through multiple X360s. Let’s face it, it is only matter of time before X360s will fail, because though what MS claims is that they are going through rigorous testing, their quality assurance is nowhere near where they should be. They simply rushed the hardware just because of Sony. They will fix the problem with 65nm GPU, but surely they DID make a mistake on current H/W design.
I love my Elite, some Xbots like Xwar let me down as true XBL gamer.