Sony PS3 price cut is not happening

You heard the man Activition. jump ship.

The Captain is an idiot and I guarentee that the PS3 will sell even less this year than it did last, and will arrive dead last on the list of gaming consoles come December. Congrats Sony, you took the PS3 and through corporate buggery drove it so deep into the dirt there is no hope of it even being a contender in the next-gen fight...

Was the blu-ray worth it? Was it? Everything is going to digital format now anyway so what's the difference...

In an age of Dual cores and onboard memory controllers... was the Cell Processor necessary? Does it even provide a benefit? Do any of the games use more than 2 threads? It's been years since the release of the PS3 - you can't cut costs ANYWHERE? You overspent on the hardware that much that you have too keep the 2007 prices, even after removing features from the box?? If you can't figure out your supply chain, can't find a cheaper manufacturing process for that Cell CPU now, or for the mainboard and onboard memory, if all of your vendors are still using the same pricey manufacturing processes... I cannot believe that.

Desktop CPU's are down to 45nm - the Cell CPU should be able to take a similar step, thus reducing costs as you don't need to make it faster...

Before you people jump on me as a Sony hater I'll explain a few things:
I own a PS3 - I bought a REAL PS3 - the kind that can play PS2 games. I had to go out of my way to find this thing, and paid more for it... and Sony didn't see a dime of my money. Why? I had to look on EBAY for a refurbished unit... granted I got a 320GB harddrive out of it, but I had to go to a fellow who fixes old PS3's for profit because he knows there's a demand for the Emotion engine that's in the older PS3's...

HEY SONY WHY DON'T YOU PUT IT BACK IN AND JUST CHARGE THE SAME PRICE!!

I hate Microsoft... a burning passion fuels my distaste for all things Xbox ever since they ripped off the Sega Dreamcast controller design for the original monstrosity... yet I cannot argue with numbers. The 360 sells... it sells a lot. It has games that come out for it that are great... and apparently since it has a large footprint that's not likely to change.

I have 3 games on the PS3... all of which are on the Xbox 360... They say the picture is better on the Sony... not that I can tell having placed both a 360 and a PS3 on the same HDMI cable at 1080p on my Vizio screen... least nothing that I could really notice.

My main issue here is:
Sony screwed up the PS3 from the start.
I'm a Sony fan... despite being bitten twice (PSP bite marks still hurt but my DS is nursing it back to health...) I probably will buy a PS4... I just hope they don't do this song and dance again... it's very frustrating.

As far as activition is concerned though... Guys you may as well just jump ship and make good on your promise because you'll just mark the very start of the end of the PS3 as other vendors jump from the expensive platform and onto something that people both can afford and have more of.

They call the combo a Wii60... yes that's right, They act like it's a package, a Wii60... get a Wii, and a 360... and bang, you just spent the same cash as you would for a PS3... with no drawback.

in that case then:

"ps3 sales increase is not happening"

they think that all their customers have massive disposable income

it just proves how out of touch they are with the market and potential customers

i mean, who would create a product with huge costs per unit and expect punters to be enchanted by bling?

its like that film 'land of the dead' where the zombies are successfully distracted by fireworks

I am waiting for the Early Adopter Price to be dropped. It is waaaaaaaaaaayyyy too expensive. Having said that I was just forced to buy a laptop for a lot of english money but i really really need that and i don't really need a PS3 especially at University.

Sorry to say but epic phail sony. Hurry up with the price drop. (Will probably be forced to buy an overpriced brick when FFXIII comes out yes I know its on XBOX buy something that goes wrong more often than it goes right is not something I want to own.

Everyone I have known who bought one had to return it to have it fixed (in some cases multiple times as each replacement failed) etc and lost all their data because the gpu ate itself on a regular basis.

"The Captain is an idiot and I guarentee that the PS3 will sell even less this year than it did last, and will arrive dead last on the list of gaming consoles come December."

Lmfao
This is not going to happen. Sony have a much better exclusives list this year, which is the single most important factor to sell a console. Killzone2, inFamous, Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, Final Fantasy XIII(exclusive in Japan), Tales of Vasperia + Exclusive Content, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,Demon's Souls, prepare to see an enormous spike each time a new game is released. Even if they could not catch up with Xbox 360 by the end of this year, it will not be by far. If you are following the NPD, do take note that they are only the sales in the US.

"Was the blu-ray worth it? Was it? Everything is going to digital format now anyway so what's the difference..."

Actually yes, it was worth it, the Bluray player helped Sony win the format war, which was MUCH more important than the console war. And you probably will not see digital format to be the norm because digital format do not have resale value(people want a physical object for something they paid good money for). And would you really want to DL a 40GB game to your console every time?

"Do any of the games use more than 2 threads?"

Yes you should read the Killzone2 developers diary.. They used all 6 of the PS3s SPEs.

"I own a PS3 - I bought a REAL PS3 - the kind that can play PS2 games."

With the cost of the PS3 now compared to the launch price, you could easily buy a separate PS2. And there are rumors that Sony would allow full B/C via emulation.

"As far as activition is concerned though... Guys you may as well just jump ship and make good on your promise because you'll just mark the very start of the end of the PS3"

Sorry, it will not happen, the PS3 is still a source of profit, they are not so stupid to jump ship for no apparent benefit.

My 2cents.

If Killzone 2 used all 6 of the SPEs as you say then I've lost hope for the console on the basis it was not a ground breaking game whatsoever.

And the comparing the launch price PS3 to a PS3 + PS2 is somewhat redundant...not everyone has or wants to waste the space to have 2 consoles to do what 1 could do.

Also are you sure that the PS3 is a source of profit to Activision?
Sony development times have been long reported to be far more costly and drawn out than the Xbox's.

I'd be more inclined to trust Activision's top dog even if its for his own purposes than someone who thinks that exclusives are the only thing that matters in an economic recession when lots of people are cutting their spending.
Have to say this year is very important to the PS3 though, make or break effectively. Needs the sales so they can strong arm certain 3rd parties into staying on and generate further interest by already loyal parties.

However...have to say this year is looking great for games! (On all platforms)

willdreamz - if the ps3 is still a source of profit then sony would have gone with a price cut - the reason they have not is because the ps3 is already a loss-maker.
sony only profit from game licence income and genuine hardware/peripheral tat.

income solely from game licences was a success for the ps2 but only because the console itself was widely affordable. this sold in vast numbers and thus generated the large demand for games.

how could they be so stupid as to miss this critical piece of the puzzle?

as 'curl one down' states they are out of touch with customer finances and sense of good value. sony's response was to argue that it is good value but they were not tactful and ended up virtually insulting the public who then voted with their feet.

sony - they had the console market in the palm of their hand and shot themselves in the foot

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are practically the same thing manufactured by different companies and there are a lot of games released for both systems.

So why would you want a PS3 if you don't care for Blu-Ray? Or are after some PS3 exclusive titles? As for RROD, just get the latest Jasper version of Xbox.

Sony's losses aren't all attributable to the PS3. They do a lot more than just make game consoles.

I like how everyone wants to compare the PS3 to the cheapest XBox 360, and leave out XBox Live charges.

The XBox 360 Elite is what compares to the PS3 base model, and XBox Live adds to the cost at $50 a year (if you pay annually).

Even if you compare the $199 cheapest XBox 360 to the PS3's $399 price tag...after a couple years the savings are eaten up.

If you ask me the biggest mistake Sony has made is the lack of advertising. For the life of me I can't recall seeing a single ad on TV in a couple of years. Sure, you see ads from the game companies, but only to mention their titles are "ALSO" available for the PS3. The PS3 is a great console. For the most part if it is shaped like a CD the thing plays it.....and plays it well.

This is bloody Hilarious, To someone who has owned both the X360 Elite and the PS3 it's a joke.

I see people saying the PS3 is way overpriced blah blah blah.

I got mine for £200 Brand spanking new out of a shop on my local High Street that's literally the same price as the Elite and I'm not paying for XBox Live anymore.

Not to mention the benefits of Streaming on the PS3 over the X360, Imagine having a perfect set up 5.1 the works and then finding out you can't stream HD content with 5.1 to the X360 Magic!

U can also see this from another prospective.
no one is buying ps3 in the subcontinent because there are no pirated games available for the ps3. unlike wii and xbox360 whos games can be bought for mearly 1$ while for ps3 u have to buy an original copy worth around about 50 USD.
every one i know off bought and xbox360 over the ps3 only for this reason.

ps. the xbox360 has no warrenty because it dies to much. atleast in the city i live in

Well you have to pay for online gaming by some means, ever noticed that ps3 games are more expensive than xbox360 games.

Where are they more expensive? In the UK the price of PS3 & 360 games are identical. Almost PS3 & 360 games start off at the £40-£45 mark. The Wii & PC games are generally about £10 cheaper.

I keep hearing about this PS3 games are more expensive, but I've yet to see it in any games shop I've been in.

Strange that!

PS3 has only a handful of games that really worth and as about Bluray it is a waste of money and destined to continue failing unless things change drastically in the next year.

@An Indian Prospective

I understand that the cost of hardware and software in the third world high. However, I do not believe that legitimizing piracy is considered a way by which to increase console sales by their manufacturers. In fact, piracy is a serious issue in the entertainment industry and it has deleterious effects on all of the people who work to produce these games. Consequently, console manufacturers should attempt to proactively protect their investments and their clients.

I got an Xbox 360
The PS3 and Xbox 360 are practically the same thing manufactured by different companies and there are a lot of games released for both systems.
So why would you want a PS3 if you don't care for Blu-Ray? Or are after some PS3 exclusive titles? As for RROD, just get the latest Jasper version of Xbox.

it still has 17%-33% failure rate (rrod)

i won't accept mediocrity such as xbox

i will get the Trey.

check Elpresador on youtube.

BETAMAX anyone???

Sony insists that their little executive boys are going to lose money on every play station if they drop the price, right? Is bankruptcy a better plan. I for one will not buy the ps3 for more than 300 dollars, no matter what. Xbox is starting to look real good to me just about now.

Nobody mentioned the fact that X360 has DirectX, which is an old acquainted to most programmers, and despite of being a M$ product, it´s darn easy to use.
PS3 has crappy compilers, and one still has to learn how to use the Cell efficiently. Let's remember that the original PS3 design didn't have the RSX (nVidia GeForce 9800). They put it there in the last minute, to avoid being tronced by the X360.
That's exactily what happened in the PS1 vs Sega Saturn battle. This time PS1 had a much streamlined design, ease to code for. Saturn was created to be a advanced 2D video game. But when PS1 specs became public, Sega bunged another processor in it, just to make it expensive and difficult to code.
History shown that Saturn failed miserably and PS1 made Ken Kutaragi CEO of SCEI. And PS3 made him to retire early.

Why dn't people stop talking about this price cut thing?

I don't think those people asking for a price cut will buy the PS3 if there was a price cut anyway because they will not be able to afford it still when it goes down to $299.

So stop whining - If you cant afford to buy the PS3 at its current price, don't buy it and stop complaining.

@ Facts "Let's remember that the original PS3 design didn't have the RSX (nVidia GeForce 9800). They put it there in the last minute, to avoid being tronced by the X360"

It still doesn't have a 9800 in it... it is a modified 7800 with 24 PS and 8 VS.

Just for the info guys,

1st : In France this thing costs 400 € it means 558 $.

2nd : I just got my hands on a 1 day special discount offer (35th birthday of Cactus Luxembourg means -35%) for 259€ = 361 $

3rd : Without this heavy discount I wouldn't have bought it.

i have the dough to buy one right now if i want but i dont want to feel like a ripped off mug

it would be better value to spend a fraction of the amount on a red hot graphics card for my pc which would trump the ps3 considerably

and i would be able to sit down afterwards because i wouldnt have had my ar$e kicked!

Sony predicted 10m PS3 sales last year and they hit that exactly. This year (with a growing recession and cheaper Xbox360) they predicted 13m...

Actions speak louder than words. The Sony boss saying that it will drop in price in 3 months is like he is saying "You know, don't buy it now, you can find one later cheaper".

No one in the history of business with half a brain ever said they will drop the price so far in advance.

Sony are just waiting for the holidays when it will make the most impact and they will advertise it anyway...

Plain and simple. Sony lost this generation. They will end up dead last as they are now when this is over.
It was theirs to win or lose and they blew it.
They created a "jack of all trades master of none" system for a launch price factoring with inflation that rivaled the Neo-Geo and 3D0 of its time.
No console in HISTORY has sold better then its competition at a $500+ price point. NEVER. What was Sony smoking when they announced a $600+ price point???
Adding insult to injury, the PS3 IS suppose to be this all powerful beast and yet time again almost all cross platform titles look and run better on the cheaper costing Xbox30.
When you consider that most average gamers buy cross platform 3rd party games over 1st party stuff, you know Sony is in for trouble.
They were too arrogant this generation telling everyone
"even if the system has no games people will still buy it.."

I have a PS3 and a 360. The PS3 almost never gets turned on.

A - It really doesn't have any must own exclusives. And its going to have even less as its install base falls further and further behind. Killzone 2 sucks! Only game that got ANY playtime on the PS3 was Infamous - and Crackdown was more innovative and had better opponents (I like Infamous' graphic style and storyline better).

B - When given a choice of buying a game for 360 or PS3 I take the 360 EVERYTIME. There is no difference in graphics. I have a 65" 1080P TV, a top of the line Sony reciever and HDMI 1.3 - nothing! I also have very high-end speakers and no difference there.

Why do I choose the 360? Sony's controller is CRAP! Its too small, to0 light and feels cheap. And what is with that 3' cable they give you! The 360 controller is great, but what I really like about the 360 is its interface. No one wants to spend anytime in the PS3 interface -but I love poking around in Marketplace for videos, arcade games and expansion content. In fact, I usually turn on the 360 just to do that, and then end up playing a game.

C - Bluray is DEAD! MS got this one right. They built a throw away HD-DVD (which I bought), but they put their eggs in the digital download basket. Blueray disks simply aren't selling like DVDs did. Even if Sony cut the cost of disks in half - why would I want to spend $15 to buy a movie I might watch 2 times? Hell I did this with DVD and I regret it. I probably spent $5,000 building up a 350 disk DVD library - and I haven't used it in 5 years!!! I'd rather spend $3-$5 and rent the movie I want to watch exactly when I want to watch it. Between expanded cable + DVR, High Def On Demand and Marketplace, I can get anything I want - when I want it. I used to "rent" Blueray's via Netflix - but the killed that by raising fees. I started at $15 a month for 3 disks at a time - and eventually they raised it to $22 so I cancelled. Its not about the money - although that pissed me off. Its just that I don't know what I want to watch (or eat) until 5 min before hand. Blueray still have a quality advantage - but it will be 1 year max before that is gone. Vudu HD is pretty close - just waiting for that to show up on Marketplace.

D - The 360's failure rate is completely exxagerrated. I have 2 360s (1 in the Media Room - 1 in the Bedroom). 1 - I got the day of launch. Neither have ever had even a minor glitch. The failure rate is in the single digits - which is unacceptably high - but not the 1:3 BS you hear on the forums. And MS and retailers have been AMAZING in adressing the issue and replaceing defective units.

E - Finally - when you start talking about the economics of the "console war" you have to break down the universe of potential buyers. 5% of potential buyers are hard-core gamers. Money is no object because their parents buy them whatever they want or they love gaming so much they are willing to forego everything else in life to have the latest and greatest. Some of these buyers will buy 1 of everything - some have a personal vendetta against one of the companies (I'm a Wii hater myself - although I totally get why its successful with the masses of soccer moms). But lets face it - we all had one or more of these systems before the installed base crossed 5 million. We are no longer the incremental buyer.

The other 95% of potential buyers view gaming as an occassional distraction. They have jobs that eat up 8 hours a day. They have families that eat up the rest. They happen to like watching TV, and most importantly going outside. So they only have a few hours a week to play games. Some like to play an occassional game of Madden before going out to a bar. Some like to have friends over for diner and game night. Others simply use it as a way to keep their kids busy so they can get an hour of peace and quiet. Among those people, some are rich, but most make $50,000 a year or less, have a family to support and can no longer take out a home equity loan to buy whatever they want. When you start talking about getting your install base over 20mm, you are talking about trying to reach people who might make $20,000 a year AND have a family to support. For them - they are looking for the lowest cost way of getting a console that they will use as an occassional distraction. So yes - comparing the cheapest 360 to the cheapest PS3 is correct - FOR THEM. I understand that a PS3 might be a better deal for a hard core gamer that wants wireless internet, online play and Blueray - but that's not the audience that drove the PS2 to 100mm units (and it had none of that). To get past 20mm units you have to get your price under $200 and cater to an audience that doesnt have an HDTV and might still have dialup. MS and Nintendo get that. Sony doesn't.

Doug,

Where do I start...

A. Exclusives - Little Big Planet, Motorstorm (x2), Heavenly Sword, Killzone 2, Infamous, Crash Commando, Flower, GT5P, Metal Gear Solid 4, Pixeljunk Eden, Ratchet & Clank (x2), Resistance (x2), Siren:Blood Curse, Uncharted, Warhawk, Wipeout HD. The PS3 exclusive list used to be lacking, but that's an out of date argument, & we've got so much to look forward to - God of War III, FFXIII VS, GT5, Heavy Rain, Mag, ModNation Racers, The Last Guardian, Uncharted 2 for a start.

B. Graphics - for multiplatform games I completely agree with you, if you prefer the 360 controller, & xbox live then it makes sense to get the 360 verison, but for exclusives the PS3 graphics are really starting to show off - KZ2 is the best looking game on any console at the moment - it doesn't matter what crap you say about it being generic, or using tricks to make it look better - almost every review from known & legimate sites has agreed that on looks it can't be surpassed (yet). Uncharted 2, GOWIII, The Last Guardian, Heavy Rain, & GT5 are also looking stunning.

The 3' cable is just for charging - the controller is wireless, the original Sixaxis might have been light, but the Dual Shock 3 is just right - the size thing is personal preference. At least I don't have buy batteries, or pay extra for a charge & play pack.

C. Blu-Ray - is selling faster than DVD was at this point in it's life & you don't need to replace a single DVD as all Blu-Ray players play DVD's. The PS3 does a damn fine job of upscaling. You can't do 1080p over the internet without compression, & that compression isn't lossless. The internet in a lot of countries still isn't up to full on hi-def online distribution, download caps, restrictive speeds, unreliable connections & a lot of people actually like to have a physical product to hold onto, I know I do.

D. 360 failure rate - although I agree that it's exaggerated by PS3 fanboys, the 360 is still an unreliable piece of kit. The first batch was a 30%+ failure rate, & I know that they have improved considerably since then, but I have been told by shop staff at Game (main UK video game outlet) that they still get 360's back everday with various faults (mainly RROD, & E74) & this includes Falcons, Jaspers, & Elites. They just don't see PS3's go faulty that often.

E. 5% of people are hardcore gamers - you pulled that figure out of your @rse, sorry but it's true.

On the point of cost, I agree that the baseline figure of the 360 when you walk into a shop does look more enticing, & a lot of people don't look at the "value for money" argument, but the after market add-on costs for the 360 will come back & bite you later (especially the Arcade when you realise that you actually do need a hard drive).

Just one final note - then PS3 has been selling pretty much as well as the 360 since it's release...worldwide...don't make the mistake of believing the American media are representing everybody, they are not - the PS3 is doing very well especially in Japan & Europe & the 8 million unit lead the 360 had at the PS3's launch is actually down to about 6 million (30 million 360's to 24 million PS3's if recent announced figures are to be believed).

RE: Piracy is not a legitimate factor of sales.
@An Indian Prospective

Well maybe not amongst children but amongst older gamers lets say 20-35 aged experienced gamers its a different story even in Europe/US. I would never buy a console that i would be forced to buy games i maybe even would get bored @ after 1-2 hour and spend 40-60€. Thats simply a mistake you only do once in your youth. PS3 simply missed their target or reaching out to most PC gamers that rather still keep buying new GFX units from ATI/Nvidia once a year or so.

This is the death of Sony.

Let's backup. Where is this alleged 4.4 billion dollar loss? Cell development, retooling/setup for ps3 product manufacture, business setup, present future product development, past marketing, hopefully not other company losses? How much did they get for the sale of the cell interests? These are investment. Sony is only making a loss per PS3 if they are making a loss on the present production costs, which I find hard to believe, otherwise they are making a profit that goes towards paying off previouse investment debt, and they can make less profit and still pay off previouse debt. All they have to worry about is at least covering costs over the entire lifespan of the PS3.

There is also an issue that comes up in the press, about the PS3 threatening blu-ray player sales. The PS2 did the same thing to DVD, but it also established DVD, and the intellectual IP that Sony licensed out to rival manufacturers. The same issue about blu-ray exists today, and the PS3 offers that opportunity to establish Blu-ray as wide spread and therefore the IP and the IP in disk sales. Sure enough, PS3 can threaten sales in the player division, but also generate far more sales in the game and IP divisions. The gross pricing of the late arrival of the PS2 home entertainment and digital TV recording (DVR) product lead to how many sales, how much market dominance... if they had sold it at half or a third the price the market could have been dominated by Sony DVR's. How many of the cheap Asian DVR's would have been sold if people could have bought a PS2 competitor at these still more expensive reduced prices. The strategy needs to be based around the PS3 and a PS3 based player product, and then non PS3 based products. Sony got away with pricing last time, but the price needs to drop.