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PlayStation 3 Pricing Revealed?
Jakhel writes "IGN has up an article on PS3 pricing information. Apparently it comes straight from Sony officials. From the article: 'According an article published in the May 17th edition of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, the PlayStation 3 could be one of the most expensive mass-market videogame consoles ever created. Officials from Sony apparently told the newspaper that PlayStation 3s would sell in Japan for "less than 50,000 yen each." That translates to about $465 US dollars.' So I guess they will be around $464.99 in the U.S. (plus tax of course). Granted, it does come with DVD Hi Def support out of the box, but is that enough to justify it's nearly $500 pricetag?" Commentary on this development available at GamesIndustry.biz as well.
Judging based on processing power, thats a bargain. It would cost in excess of $2,000 to get a comperable PC system. (Which don't even exist yet)
The "mainstream" console players, however, may find it harder to justify the higher price tag. Especially if the XBox 360 retails for a couple hundred less.
I'm sad to say that even with a $150 price difference than the expected price of the Xbox 360, the PS3 sounds to be a lot more bang for the buck. It's like comparing the DS to the PSP. I've owned both and frankly I wish I'd of saved my $150 from the DS to buy more PSP games.
I don't expect to see the PS3 come down at $450. If I were a betting man I'd say $299.
This is elementary marketing, you _must_ have run into it before. When touting your own product you want to make it seem as cheap as possible, so you pick how much it costs (or how much you think it will cost) add a tiny increment, and say it costs less than that.
If a store advertises that they have something for "less than $10" you can be pretty sure it will cost $9.99. That's certainly what a "betting man" would go with. Also note that there is a certain amount of psychology in the "look" of the price. Subtracting one cent has a greater psychological effect than the actual price difference merits, especially when you you're talking about a psychologically significant barrier such as $1, $10, $100 or $1000, and to a lesser extent $5, $25, $50, and any other multiple of 10 or 100.
If Sony _knew_ they were going to sell it at $299 they would be saying "less than $300" (or whatever the yen equivalent of that is.) The fact that they're not saying that indicates they think there is a reasonably strong possibility that it will cost more than that.
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Sony will match wahtever the Xbox comes out for. Both M$ and Sony have bottomless pits of money so they don't mind taking a hit on the harware. The problem for Sony may be when the PS3 come out at the same price as the Xbox and M$ slashes the price a week later just to stick it up Sony's ass. Either way, mass market consoles are not going to sell for more than $400. and even $400 is a lot for little johnny to hit his parents up for. It's going to be interesting.
that means LESS than $465. It is probably just someone saying the equivalent of "my car cost less than $100k." True statement, vague though.
I was going to post this exact thing - the fact is Sony probably doesn't know what the pricing is going to be yet. But there is an obvious ceiling that they can point to and say "we're pretty confident we can bring the costs in below this number". That doesn't mean they won't be able to bring them down even further, and it doesn't mean they won't choose to sell the system at even more of a loss in a grab for market share.
We don't know the original context for this. (As a side note, I don't know why the blurb here links to IGN - the official translation of the original article is on the Mainichi web site here, if you want to see the source for this.) We don't know what was said in the original Japanese interview (there's no actual quote here, it's all paraphrased) and we don't know what question was asked of Sony. It could have been something like "how much would you need to sell a PS3 for to turn a profit?" for all we know.
My guess is the PS3 will be priced to compete with the Xbox 360; whatever the Xbox is at, the PS3 will be at.
Also keep in mind that pricing in Japan and the US rarely correlates directly on game consoles. The disconnect can be upwards of $100 in some cases.
What makes you think the kids will be buying these systems? There may well be a 360 under the Christmas tree this year, but these days it's more likely that Santa left it for Daddy and not Little Timmy.
This comment was formatted for readability, but I forgot the line break tags
that paycheck you get is now worth perhaps half what it used to be a few years ago due to poor economic policy in the US
Actually, when buying japanese goods, the US dollar is worth only 10% less than it was two years ago. When buying from China, where most of the goods imported into the US come from, it's worth exactly the same amount it was two years ago.
The US economy is huge, so effects take a while to propegate. you will notice it first on imported goods, then local goods, then you will hopefully still be able to pay for food. I sure hope you arn't paycheck to paycheck right now with no ability to cut back.
This comment got modded up? Please go home Mr. Troll.
If you release it at $200, everyone will buy it for $200, including the folks who would have paid $500. So you relase it at $500, then when sales drop you figure you've tapped that market and you lower the pricepoint to get all those willing to pay $400. Then when sales dip you reach out to all those willing to pay $300. It's only after you've sucked those dudes dry that you lower the price to $200. Even if your cost to make it was $100 all along. Especially if your cost to make it was $100 all along.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.