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PS3 Price Cut To Follow End of Blu-ray Laser Shortage?
Via Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog, a DigiTimes article reports that the shortage of Blue-ray lasers is ending. Back in April Sony Shiroishi Semiconductor, a maker of the blu-violet laser diodes needed to make the PlayStation 3, ramped up production to fully meet the needs of production for Sony's new console. As a result of more readily available components, the article theorizes that a price cut may be possible sometime later this year. "Until now, the question has been: how could Sony afford it? If the Blu-ray supply chain is indeed poised to pump out Blu-ray PUHs, perhaps this is the first major step to seeing $50 to $100 shaved off the cost of the console. Would $100 off the cost of the PS3 bring in more buyers? I don't think this can even be considered a serious question. With few exceptions, and leaving aside a handful of loyal fanboys, the PS3's biggest problem is its price. We look for a Sony price cut later this year if sales stay ho-hum."
I'd hope Sony is well aware of the disdain towards PS3 pricing and will cut prices sooner than later. A price cut before the release of GTA IV could help a lot, especially since the 360 will have a lot of momentum heading into the Halo 3 release.
So, one of those Egg Council creeps got to you too, huh?
In my area, there are plenty of PS3's on the shelf, waiting for someone to find them a home. They should've lowered the price long ago, if they were going to. The shortage of drives doesn't seem to have hurt the availability any, and a lower price would go a long way toward getting some people to buy it...maybe. There's still a lot about the PS3 I don't like (and price is one of them, even with a $100 price cut).
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
I think the prices will come down, but the U.S. version will probably omit the PS2 hardware emulation chip and go with the same emulation as the European chip.
The point is, the price will drop, but it won't be just due to a blue diode prices.
The big thing right now is the games. However, to be fair, Spring/Summer has always been a slow time for new game releases.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Are we really supposed to believe that Sony's tiny diode-making division were charging Sony's huge games division $100 more than expected for the diodes because they were in short supply, when that short supply was entirely the diode division's fault?
Are Sony's internal purchasing systems really so screwed up that one department can make a huge unexpected profit out of their cock-up at the expense of potentially killing the PS3 by making the price ridiculous and pushing back the rest-of-world launch for many months?
This looks like an internal face-saving ploy to me, Sony's Games division knows it got the PS3 horribly wrong and are looking for a way to make some other division else carry the can.
You only have to walk into a games shop to see that there is no shortage, Sony's games division were simply far too optimistic about predicting sales figures. Compare the stacks of unsold PS3s to the real and continuing Wii shortage, which is due to people actually wanting to buy them, rather than the use of unobtainium in the manufacturing process.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
GTAIV is the only next gen game that I really want to play, but £425 is to much. It's considerably more than what Americans are paying for. I'll buy a PS3 when it reaches £325, but if GTAIV comes before out and the Xbox doesn't limit the game well Sony you've lost yourself a sale.
Sony still hasn't demonstrated a good reason for me to buy a PS3 when the only console games I want to play are Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2, both of which I can play on a significantly cheaper PS2.
If that's how a business is thinking they risk not being a business for much longer.
Instead, the business has to think like a consumer.
Yeah, Sony built a machine that is a game console, Blu-ray player, DVD player, computer, music player, etc, etc.
You know what? Nobody really cares about anything but the game console part, and MAYBE the Blu-ray player. Even the Blu-ray part will only be college kids and real savers who want the latest greatest movie format but don't have the cash or desire for a "proper" player (take note for example: aside from the group I just mentioned, almost ANYONE who has a PS2, also has a standalone DVD player in the same cabinet).
As such, we're not gonna bow down and thank generous Sony for their wonderful gizmo which costs a fortune. Instead, we simply don't buy it. Sony getting stuck with all these things isn't good for that business, and they certainly better have a better plan than whining "but it washes dishes too!" to try and entice people to buy it.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
The crux of your argument seems to be that the value of the console isn't realized because developers have not "figured out how" to get the maximum our of the cell architecture. There's a problem with this.
The continued popularity of the 360, coupled with the surprise success of the Wii has made many game designers rethink what console they're developing for. Look at the sudden increase in Wii titles in the pipe.
Also, by the time they "figure it out" there will be newer products out. Do you think there won't be an upgrade to the 360? Do you think Nintendo plans on never making another console upgrade?
Sony put all their eggs in the "look at this fantastic new technology and pay for it now on the promise that uses will be made for it later" basket. They should have taken a few eggs into the "have some killer apps ready for it on release day". And this doesn't start to address the fact that whereas you're a hardcore who will pay for the console if it can't find a mass market it won't have legs in the long run.
If the most innovative technology with the best capacity won the fight we'd all be using RISC driven Mac's right now.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
It might help if they HAD some games.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I don't think it's so much "can't afford" as "don't value the PS3 at the current price." I can afford a PS3 (well, could have afforded a PS3 until I had to spend $1000 to repair my car, but you get the point), I'm just not willing to spend $600 on one. It's not worth $600 to me, and I get the impression that it's not worth $600 to a lot of other people.
What I can afford and what I'm willing to spend are two completely different things. If I were willing to set aside the money, I could already have bought a PS3. Instead I spent the money on other things that I find more worthwhile (such as car repairs, but also a new digital camera and a Wii).
Now I'm not saying that I'll never buy a PS3 - I expect I will, eventually. I just don't plan on spending $600 for it. If it comes down in price to $300 I'd be much more willing to try and buy one.
Really, though, it all comes down to games. The Wii is backwards compatible with the Gamecube, and since I skipped the Gamecube, I'm planning on using the Wii to play some of the Gamecube games I missed. Since I already own a PS2, the PS3's backwards compatibility isn't much of a draw for me. All this adds up to different personal valuations for the consoles. The Wii is more valuable to me than the PS3 is. Therefore, the $300 I spent on the Wii (plus game) is a better value, to me, than $600 for a PS3.
It's not that people can't afford the PS3, it's that people simply don't think it's worth $600.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
There's no fooling you, huh? Stock on shelves = not selling. Who are Apple fooling with those fabricated iPod sales statistics? They're never out of stock, they're clearly not selling. I'm not sure how it works elsewhere in this ball we live on, we have have some retail witchcraft in the UK that we call "RE-stocking". It's er like.. you have some stock, and some muppets buy some stock and you er.. like.. you get some MORE stock. Stop me if I'm going too quick for you.
"Even the Blu-ray part will only be college kids and real savers who want the latest greatest movie format but don't have the cash or desire for a "proper" player"
I don't agree entirely.
The cheapest Blu-Ray player at this point is somewhere well north of $600, and so the PS3 right now is basically a game machine, Blu-Ray player, and it has an HDMI output. Right now, you may not want to commit $700 to a player for a format that isn't well established, but the PS3 at a minimum will play PS1/PS2/PS3 and oh-by-the-way blu-ray disks.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you