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PS3 Price Drop Won't Happen Anytime Soon
1up is reporting on comments from SCEA's Jack Tretton, who responded to the question "Will we see the PS3's price drop?" with the point blank answer of not anytime soon. Mr. Tretton responded with what has now become the Sony party line: it cost a lot to develop, and gamers are getting a lot of machine for their money. Therefore, the high price is justified if you consider what is being offered. From the article: "By way of comparison, the PS2 dropped a hundred bucks in price during the first 550 days of its lifespan -- from $299 to $199 USD. Tretton's words would seem to suggest that the PS3's price point may take significantly longer than a mere year and a half to reach the same threshold. Given that scenario, one would really hope that Sony has some kind of ace-in-the-hole for keeping our collective attention (and purchasing enthusiasm) squarely focused on the PS3."
That's funny, I went with my buddies cousin to get her a Wii, and everywhere we went sales people were laughing at us with their eyes.
With their mouths, they were asking if we would rather have one of the umpteen PS3's they had. Currently, they were using them to help support the checkout counters...although, in one store we went to they were out of PS3's...
'Course, that was Safeway...
Living With a Nerd
Nintendo consoles have historically sold very well during November and December and then sold like crap for the next ten months. The release list for the Wii is starting to look disturbingly very similar to the GameCube. Companies like Ubisoft are treating the Wii as a dumping ground for shovelware. Only Nintendo has major titles lined up for the system outside of stuff like the usual EA sports lineup.
Even though 250 dollars isn't that much money, buying a Wii just to fool around with games like Wii Sports is unlikely to continue to generate sales outside of the existing GameCube userbase. Even though there is lots of talk about the Wii attracting non-gamers there is so far no evidence to support that other the anecdotal stories from Nintendo fans. So far sales for the Wii are pretty much in line with the GameCube launch. Nintendo needs to step up to the plate and show some major third party games that actually use the Wiimote for something other than trivially moving aiming from the thumb to the wrist.