Sony has stated many times that a PS3 price cut would not come during their 2008 Fiscal Year. Well, that ended a few weeks ago. It’s time to drop the price.
While a price drop was announced to coincide with the company’s new Fiscal Year, it was for the PS2, which was both inevitable and disappointing. Gamers, journalists, and analysts alike are all clamoring for Sony to make a fairly major price drop for the PlayStation 3. It’s still by far the most expensive console on the market and has been lagging behind in sales with the cheaper Wii and Xbox 360 moving more product. With the economy still down globally, slashing prices is the best way to ensure more sales for your product.
While I absolutely love my PS3, I believe the longer Sony waits to announce and implement this much needed and overdue price drop, the more they’re going to lose out on sales. People cannot afford purchasing multiple consoles in this economy and will pick up a cheaper product if needed.
So, Sony, when will we see a cheaper PS3?
It seems no one is immune to the economy. Earlier today Microsoft released their 2Q earnings, and although it was in the green, it wasn’t as high as they would have liked; 16.63 billion vs the over 17 billion expected (which was low to begin with). However, their Entertainment and Devices revenue grew by 3% due to the high Xbox 360 sales. Microsoft has come out and said they are going to cut spending by 1.5 billion, and over 5000 jobs in the next 18 months; this is the first time in the company’s history they are going to cut jobs.
But this begs the question, what sectors of the company are going to be hit the hardest? It seems that since the Xbox 360 has increased in sales, they probably will not cut jobs and spending in the gaming sector. It also asks the question, what will Microsoft do with the Xbox 360 over the next 18 months when, as they said last week, they will not be creating a new console or instituting a Blu-Ray addition. It’s obvious, from companies like Apple and Nintendo, that innovation succeeds so Microsoft must begin thinking about how best to innovate and make, not only the Xbox 360 better, but the company overall. But from what I have heard around the news, “the future is so opaque it’s not going to be able to provide a forecast for the coming year.”
[Microsoft stock chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance]
The economy sucks and now Sony is feeling the hurt. According to a report from Reuters, the PlayStation maker will be posting its first loss in 14 years to the tune of $1.1 billion. With a “B”.
It’s believed that because of the global economic downturn, Sony has stock piling up all over the world and have been forced to slash prices to accommodate the changing markets. More bad news is that Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura said, “I think there’s a good chance the company will further accelerate its restructuring from what has been announced in December.” Accelerating job cuts is never a good thing.
No word yet from Sony on the issue or what departments will be the first affected by the restructuring. We’ll keep you posted.
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