Capcom: Sony likely to cut PS3 price again
 

Capcom: Sony likely to cut PS3 price again
Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:25AM BST
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 11 (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is likely to lower the PlayStation 3 price again by the year-end following this week's $100 cut, a senior executive at Japanese game software maker Capcom Co. Ltd. (9697.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said. "The number of PS2 users is still growing and a shift to the PS3 is on the back burner," Capcom Chief Financial Officer Kazuhiko Abe told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"But, the price has been cut once and it is likely to be cut again towards the end of the year. I expect the (PS3's) installed base to grow gradually."

Sony on Monday cut the price of the PS3 to $500 in the United States in a move to breathe life into sluggish demand.

The new price is still $20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 and twice as much as that of Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) Wii.

Abe, visiting Santa Monica for the E3 video game exposition, also said sales of its action horror title "Resident Evil 4" for the Wii will likely exceed its target of 420,000 units for the current business year to March 2008.

Well shit, if Capcom is saying it ...

Will we see a 100gig ps3 at 600 then?

They're only going to cut it by $50 so it'll be a 90gb model at $600.

It almost sounds like Capcom made this statement to make the news about their own software sales higher profile.

And/Or they are giving Sony a public hint as to what they want them to do.

Yeah, it doesn't sound like they have some kind of inside information on it or anything...

I have a friend at Goldman, Sachs who told me a month ago that Sony let them know a price cut was coming. Sony said they'd cut the price $100. GS told them that $100 wasn't enough, and recommended $200.
Also MS will be cutting the 360 price for the holiday season - after the big game launches.

MS price cut is inevitable.... but Sony's another price cut, damn, just ordered one... but still with five free BDs, it's still a good deal....

You bought a second PS3?

Yeah... And isn't $500 still a fool's price? :hscratch:

Wow. Could you imagine the losses Sony would be taking per unit if that happened?

Isn't this a cyclical downward spiral? If the PS3 base isn't radically increasing while the PS2 continues to grow, what would inspire a software company to spend the extra effort to develop new or exclusive titles for the PS3? Instead they could tap the PS2 market by making the title for the PS2 and backward compatibility leaves the PS3 install base open for purchase of the title without having to develop for it directly. Hmm.

Does Sony itself do software development like Nintendo? I mean it could at least then guarantee that there'd be SOME exclusive PS3 titles...

Maybe Sony should just drop the PS3 as a gaming platform and focus their efforts on the PS2.

I can't believe it's true, but it seems like that would be a better business decision.

That's exactly what's happening. Developers can make a ton off a Wii game that can be ported to the PS2 and vice versa. There's no need to support a console that doesn't make you money.

We've seen this before as well. Atari rode the 2600 as long as they could and we see how well that worked out for them. Nintendo came along with the NES and blew them out of the water. Granted this time around is a tad different but the idea's the same.

And yes Sony has plenty of first party games they could trot out. That's not the problem. The price is. I've owned every Nintendo console they've put out, even the Virtual Boy and the old Game N Watch games. I buy their consoles for first party games, but If they put out a $500-$600 console, I doubt even I would pull the trigger on that one.

I was (still am?) an Atari fanboy. Didn't the Atari 7800 come out at about the same time as the NES, or not too much later? I was bitter that the 7800 didn't catch on at all. It should have beaten the NES. Hardware was close, and it supported all the old 2600 titles. It died a fairly quick death, bludgeoned thoroughly by the NES and Sega MS I guess.

And the Atari Lynx came out at the same time as the Gameboy, and should have won that battle easily. Color, 16 bit vs 8, great multi-player link games..... Sigh

Things aren't that bad for Sony. They have to support the PS3 for better or worse.

They risked a lot to win the HD war so they had better hope that prize is worth losing a chunk of their market share to MS and Nintendo.

You know, I'm shocked to hear myself saying this, but you're probably right. Who would have thought that the PS3 would be so far behind at this point, with the PS2 still selling more consoles? It really is quite a surprise to me.

i believe most knew when they annouced the price point of 599 from the start

The PS3 hasn't even been in the market a full year yet. Sony execs should just weather the storm and wait for the AAA games to come out. On the other hand, as a Microsoft exec, I would be concerned if frustrated gamers of broken 360s change their allegiances to the PS3.

Yeah, i guess that's true. I just didn't expect them to be THIS far behind.

They certainly are weathering the "Perfect Storm".

I'm pretty sure it was called this way by the majority once the PS3 announced the price. Many underestimated just how successful the Wii would be, but the PS3 failure was pretty much a given.

I'm going to buy mine in August of 2014 just before the Playstation 4 comes out and hopefully it will be below $200 by then.

It didn't surprise me really. NO console priced that high has been anywhere near successful. (See the 3DO and Neo Geo). $200-$300 really is the magic price point where the mass market consumer starts to buy. IMO, the ONLY reason that the PS3 is selling at all is because of brand name recognition and Sony's previous successes with the PS1 and PS2.

I would imagine that the PS4 will be out long before 2014. Every console generation typically has a 5 year life span. The 360 is in its second year. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear the first rumblings of the "720" at next year's E3. Then, at E3 '09 we will probably see the "720" for the first time, and it will probably be released in 2010. Sony will have to step up and have a next-gen system out by 2011 if they want to stay in the race.

You are forgetting the main function of the PS3 - Blu-ray Disc.

It is regarded as the best Blu-ray Disc player and is also the cheapest? available.

It is also the reason why I just bought one Friday night, it certainly was not for games, that is a bonus this time around. (At least for me, at least right now).