Sony Announces New PS2 Bundle

Thanks to Yahoo!/Reuters for their story describing Sony's amended PlayStation 2 hardware bundle, explaining :"...the $199 PS2, with a network adapter that allows users to play games online... [will now be] bundled with the game 'ATV Offroad Fury 2'." Sony also said "it would continue to sell the PS2 without the online hardware for $179", although it had expected to phase out this deal. However, "...demand is currently running about 20 percent for the online bundle and 80 percent for the stand-alone unit", and GameStop executives quoted in the article "... noted that they thought the $199 PS2 online package had not been selling as well as they believed Sony had planned" - seems Sony are trying to sweeten the online bundle deal.

Comments

No kidding.

[Inoshiro]

According to the Sony people, the network bundle is supposed to be the new official PS2 bundle. After the slow sales numbers, the chain of stores I work at reduced the price to sell more of the units. All chains in the area that sell it have matched the price, and most give away a game with it (although the game is either Turok Evoluton or Everquest Online Adventures, both of which are big flops).

The "normal" PS2 bundle is supposed to be discontinued, and the 179$ US (249$ CDN) price point is supposed to be a clearance price. We actually ran out of PS2s a few weeks back. They were listed as discontinued in the computer from our supplier, and the chain had to shift our on hand-PS2 units around stores in the region. We received a shipment with PS2s last week, though. I don't know if that's because Sony is acknowledging that the general public doesn't care about online with PS2, or because we had more PS2s is a wharehouse somewhere.

The bottom line is, Xbox with Xbox live and easy to do system link has a couple of great features. Of the Xboxes shipped, about 1 in 20 are online. If each person renews their Live subscription, that's about $30,000,000 CDN every year that MS gets just for running a service. 1 in 100 PS2s are currently online; Sony knows that this is partially because the games (which is why they're pushing to have 50 online titles by fall 2004), and partially because console accesories that aren't memory cards or controllers with rumble features typically don't penetrate very well. By making the network adaptor standard, they hope to catch up with Microsoft and not just hand them a potiential new market.

Of course, I think it's way too late for that with 50 million PS2 units already shipped. IMO, their best bet is to just get something ready for their next-gen console. The Sony people I know seem to think that with the HD and EyeToy, the PS2 will become a new digital media hub that will have people using the PS2 as an online video phone, TiVo, etc. The network adaptor is supposed to be the first step to all the pieces of equipment that upgrade the PS2's features. We'll see what happens when FF 11 comes out, since it's rumoured to come with the HD in North America.

That's great, but...

[Man In Black]

It's the price of the games that keeps me from buying new consoles. I don't mind dumping $200 on a new system, but when the games are as expensive as they are (In Canada, finding games between $70-80 is not uncommon), it's a much bigger investment. Of course, if there were more worthwhile games, then I might be less opposed to spending as much.

I'm waiting for the Gamecube price drop (The current price is fair in my opinion... but with the rumors spreading, I'll feel like an idiot if the price drops a few days after I buy one!). The games for it are getting fairly cheap, and the local EB has a lot of pre-owned games for $40 (CDN) or so. Coincidentally, this is almost the same situation that made me buy my beloved Dreamcast...

Re:Other factors might help

[Fammy2000]

I agree, but the profit margin on memory cards are huge. Essentially, it's an 8MB flash card. I can get a 64MB Compact Flash for the price of a PS2 memory card.