CNN On The $500 PS3

Chris Morris reports in CNN's Game Over column that analysts have pegged the price point for the PS3 at $500. Despite the high price, you're getting a lot of tech for your buck. From the article: "The strongest argument behind the $499 price point is the PS3's inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive. This bleeding edge technology will give Sony significant bragging rights, but it comes at a cost. Pioneer last week at the Consumer Electronics Show unveiled a standalone Blu-Ray player for $1,800. Obviously, Pioneer's earning some profit there - and Sony will almost certainly subsidize the cost of the drives, but you're still looking at an expensive bit of hardware. The PS3 will also feature other pricey items, such as a hard drive, the Cell processor and a new graphics chip from nVidia."

Comments

doesn't matter

[muel]

Bang for the buck, blah blah, but the mainstream target audience will never flock to this price point. What's worse is that the technology inside the PS3 ensures that the common competitive strategy of frequent price drops will be that much harder for Sony to stomach--are those Blu-Ray drives REALLY going to drop significantly enough to make MS's likely price cuts easy enough to match? Certainly, gaming hardware drops in price over time. That's a given. But this generation, Sony might not get to wait long enough before having its financial hand forced.

Re:Ouch.

[amrust]

They'll make it up easy in game sales, even at standard pricing (around $50). All companies take a huge loss on consoles, and make the loss up on game revenues.

And with all the bad hardware news on the early Xbox 360 consoles, Sony will reap the rewards of coming in later, with a "more stable product". Not that the PS3 actually WILL be more or less stable... but since it comes out later, it will be likely be perceived by many to be "more heavily tested" before release.

I also don't think it will be end up priced at $500. More around $400, I'd think.

Any point to being an early adopter?

[Dr. Spork]

If the initial price is $500, it's clear that discounts are not far behind. I mean, if they really want to get this into living rooms, $500 is just too much.

Compound this with the fact that the early games will be quick rewrites of last-gen titles... and remember: Netflix/Blockbuster will not be renting Blu-ray movies for a long while.

I have no doubt that in 2008, a sub-$300 PS3 will be an attractive purchase. By then, game coders will figure out how to program the Cell, and a decent catalog of Blu-ray movies will be available. Before then, though, buying a PS3 gets you bragging rights and little else.

As it happens, I'm planning a $500 investment in gaming hardware soon: a new mobo, CPU and graphics card. I'm confident that the results in 1600x1200 will look as nice as the PS3, and I won't be paying Sony to lock me out of using my hardware in the way that I see fit.

Article is front-page news, summary is not

[The-Bus]

From TFA:

None of the developers, by the way, echoed my hypothetical theory that Sony might be pulling a head-fake on Microsoft with the high price warnings...

Sony, while [PSP price speculation] went on, smiled enigmatically and did nothing to dissuade anyone that the device would be $300 or more. It launched at $249, still incredibly expensive by handheld standards, but lower than some consumers were expecting.

We're seeing much the same thing with the PS3. After an onslaught of information last May, the company hasn't released any information of substance. Even at CES, the device was an essential no-show. (A hardware design was there to be gawked at and a video loop of potential gameplay footage, but no new information was announced.)

There's one other possibility about the PS3 that few people have discussed: Dual-pricing strategies. It's frustrating from a consumer standpoint, but Microsoft proved it can work - at least in the U.S. Whether Sony's willing to risk fragmenting the market by offering both "bare bones" and "bells and whistles" versions of the PS3 is another matter.

Pricing the PS3 below the price of the Xbox 360 (or at the same price as the $299 Core version) may very well sound the death knell for MS. As great as the Xbox 360 is in many things, it cannot in any way compete with a Blu-Ray player that is $100 less. Sony, not being smart, or perhaps not wanting to fight against cash-rich Microsoft or not wanting to lose out on automatic profit, won't go that route. They're also not giving pricing information out because they want to let the market figure out pricing. Obviously, people ARE willing to pay $700 for a console. (Check ebay the weeks after the 360). Sony could well sell the PS3 for $699 with a game and two controllers and wait 6 months for a price drop. I have no doubt that even at $999, it would sell like sugar-fried hotcakes. At least to the fanboys and/or early adopters. Is that a smart long-term strategy? No.

Re:Blu Ray & HD-DVD, two solutions to a non pr

[rts008]

Arrgghh, Mates! Ya gotta stop the PIRATES! It has nothing to do with consumer's viewing experience, it has all to do with a far better DRM/copy protection (anti-piracy) for the media industries. Don't kid yourselves- the only way this concerns you (us consumers) is how to coerce us into maintaining thei profits, nothing more.