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Japanese Stores Lowering PS3 Prices
Kotaku is reporting that the 20GB PS3 is down by 20% the the Akihibara district of Tokyo. Reports from both here and in Japan would seem to indicate that PlayStation 3s are sitting on shelves, as gamers wait for price drops or new games. The Tokyo merchants are anxious, it seems, and ready to get their consoles out the door. From the article: "The 20GB version originally books at 49,980 yen (US $412), but is being offered for 39,980 yen ($329) in a sale ending February. The shop is knocking a flat 10,000 yen ($82) right now. Japanese bulletin board 2chan reports that this at other Don Quijotes as well. It's interesting to check out the PS3 vibe at 2chan; Reasons for not buying go from 'there are no games I want' to 'video stores don't rent Blu-ray movies.' Well, not yet that is."
Bidding on the 20GB on Ebay dropped off first as well - why would buy the 20GB when for $100 more you get a 60GB with the wireless, card readers, and the extra disk space? A lot of the early adopters probably had a PSP as well, which really doesn't talk to the 20GB at all. So all in all, while this is something to note, I doubt you'll see this in the US any time soon.
I think that the price doesn't have quite as much to do with the (lack of) adoption of the PS3 as people seem to think. The biggest problem seems to be that the system doesn't have any friggen games worth a crap.
I have a PS3, and I only have 3 games for it (Resistance: Fall of Man, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Genji:Days of the Blade), and two of them are absolute and utter crap (Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Genji:Days of the Blade), and one of those isn't even an exclusive (Marvel Ultimate Alliance). Compared to the Wii, which has been getting great games at a fairly good clip (Zelda, Elebits, Wario Ware, Metal Slug Anthology, Super Monkey Ball) or the 360, which has had a year to get some good games.(Kameo, Oblivion, Dead Rising, Gears of War- all system sellers)
I would like to see the PS3 do well (after spending that much money on it, I would say I have a vested interest) - but c'mon sony, not many people are going to buy these things just to be able to install Linux on it!
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Yes, check out eBay prices. The 20GB units are now selling below retail.
Remember, price is not what the seller is asking. The price is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller. When it won't sell, the asking price isn't a real price. eBay makes this so obvious, but it's also true in retail; if there's a huge stack of unsold stuff, the price is going to drop.
Stores: Hey, will you guys buy back X number of unsold units?
Sony: Pfft! We're SONY. Our systems sell like hotcakes! You won't NEED to sell any back to us!
Stores: Oh ok.
It depends upon the agreement between the manufacturer and retailer. In the 1980's this practice was uncommon in the video game sector, and resulted in the video game crash of '83/'84. When Nintendo introduced the NES, they promised to purchase unsold stock back from the retailers as a method of reassuring them.
So... it sort of depends. I honestly wouldn't be surprised either way. With the Playstation 2 having sold well over 100 million units, I imagine the retailers weren't too concerned. Of course, we're technically talking about the Japanese market were American retail policies don't apply. So most likely, the store is on the hook to get rid of them.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Don Quihote is a discount store here in Japan. Understandably their stores have a windmill theme, but for some reason the Don himself has been turned into a penguin.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
In my view, Sony's major mistake was putting marketing in charge of development. Basically, Sony promised the moon and beyond, and delivered something that one would have realistically expected. However, they managed to deliver it in such a way as to alienate many of their customers and suppliers.
Let's list out their recent Mistakes individually:
Delivering a 6 hundred dollar console. Any rudimentary survey of the market would show this is just too damned much. But they wanted to expand the market for blu-ray, and somehow convinced themselves that it wasn't too much for the next generation of gaming. Then realizing the losses, they actually raised the price for launchs in other parts of the world. Again, not engendering affection from their customers.
Really bad statements about the cost of the console... like that people should want to get a second job to buy one. Or that the first 5 million would sell without any games anyway. Or... the list goes on and on. Somebody's PR guy should have been fired a long time ago with the string of "damage control" that only managed to alienate people who had been thinking about the system.
Repeated slippage of launch date. A little slide here and there is understandable, but if you haven't shipped dev systems out, you have no intention at all of hitting that date. This bit of tactical marketing enraged those customers most likely to line up and buy the console on launch day. Nintendo did the same thing with the N64, and paid the price.
Only 1 anticipated good launch title actually made it to launch. Ok, so that's not bad compared to the legions of 360's stuck playing Geometry Wars for a few months after launch, but it's still about 5 system-sellers less than promised.
Last-minute Sixaxis. This doesn't necessarily hurt the system, it's just a somewhat obviously rushed feature that is, currently, too laggy to be useful. Hopefully future games will find ways to use it despite the obvious shortcomings. In the mean time, they should have focused on improving the other parts of the system which could have used the polish time.
Promising a Live-equaling service, then shifting the burden onto developers while delivering a service that pales in comparison. A lot of 360's live stuff is integrated into the shell or on their servers, which takes a tremendous amount of the work off of the shoulders of developers. Sony, on the other hand, is making promises and leaving them up to us to fulfill. This fits EA's server model, but not many other people's.
HDMI waffling. If you're going to require the expensive version of your system and a potential HDTV upgrade to get the selling feature of your new movie format to work, don't waffle back and forth on whether or not it will be required, then pass the buck to movie studios. Either own up to it and require the protection, or don't. Leaving the people unsure if they need the upgrade or not simply makes them put off the decision.
Two words "Rrrrridge Rrrrracer!"*
* horrible presentations leading up to the system launch that basically insulted the intelligence of the audience. The hype machine was in full swing, but the pictures and games simply weren't congruous with what the speakers were saying.
The PSP UMD debacle. Sure, not directly related to the PS3, but taints them nonetheless with the faint wift of late 90's Sega. This was one of Sony's most public claims about the PSP, one which they staked a large portion of their credibility, and they lost an obvious fight.
Suing Lik-Sang out of business for selling imported hardware, while many of their most prominent executives were customers. Quite frankly, I've never worked at a gaming company that didn't purchase random devleopment bits from Lik-Sang at one point or another. Going after them for something as cherished as importing systems was bad PR amongst the development community.
Things weren't all bad for Sony. For one, Blu-Ray does provide a lot more breathing room for content on dis
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