Monday, July 09, 2007

Sony Death Pool

So who had "8 months" as the over-under for the how long until Sony slashed the price of the PS3?

This is pure, unadulterated panic. At this point, Sony has only sold a few million units. If they were going to lop $100 off of the price this soon, they should have done it from the start, ate the additional $400 million loss, and been in a position not to be dead in the water eight months into the next generation of game systems. Four years from now when Sony is trying to figure out how to resurrect their brand with the PS4 (prediction: I think they'll drop the "PS#" from their next-gen console), that $400 million will look like a bargain.

Also, in furtherance of the argument that Sony is the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight, notice how they announce the price cute while simultaneously announcing another version of the $599 console--which is the price point that scared everyone away to begin with! Way to muddy the waters.

Also, also, as Galley Brother B.J. notes, "Nothing says 'Fuck you' to your base of early adopters like cutting the price less than a year into a new system."

2 comments:

Henry Wolf said...

They did the same thing with the PS1 and PS2. This is good for early adopters, like myself, that want more people to have the system. Why? More systems in customers' hands means more games for everyone.

Nintendo's Gamecube was off to an early start as well. You remember how that worked out, right?

Anonymous said...

I still think it is too soon to call Sony doomed at this point (And no, I don't own a PS3.) I say give it another year to really make a fair assessment.