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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."
People need to think like a business to understand Sony's pricing. Sony built a machine that is a game console, a Blu-ray player, DVD player, computer (with a far more powerful processor than most people's home computers), music player, communications/chat server, web browser and much more. It does all this but is nearly silent. It does a lot for the price and it has plenty of room to be extended in the future. People complain about the fact that there are no games because developers haven't figured out the best way to code for the cell processor--shouldn't that be a good sign that the console has a future and won't become obsolete by year end?
Sony also backs the player as a quality company--the chances of a system failure are low because Sony makes quality equipment. They are selling a brand, not just a device. That is worth a certain amount of money.
Price is not everything, believe it or not, when you are selling something. People pay for brand, quality, and the knowledge that if they buy from you they are getting a valuable product. I might save a couple of hundred bucks on a different console, but does that console match the specs I desire and does the brand support the product?
Sony is selling below production costs--what more could people want? If I sold my products under what I paid for them my company would fold within a few months. Sony is counting on long-term profit from game licensing, peripherals, and Playstation Store purchases, all of which are the consumers choice to buy or not to buy.
Quit complaining about price--the reason you complain is that you want one badly but don't have the cash to pony up and buy the device. The price is what the price is. Either you buy it or you don't. Do what I did--accept that you want the device, check your budget, save up (it took me eight months of small odd job income), buy it and enjoy the device. I've found that straight out of the box and with an internet connection the thing is a blast for my wife and I and my two children (3 and 5 years old). I also bought Oblivion and am totally sucked in. I'm looking forward to the games and functionality to come.
I'm in the same boat -- especially right now. The local EB Games has a nice deal on -- trade in 10 games and you can get a PS3 for $399 Canadian. It's not a bad deal. In fact, it's similar to the deal they had for the XBox 360 before release.
The big problem is that while it's tempting to pick up the system at that price, as you said there are few games that I really want to play that won't available on another system. Even in the fall when new games start flooding in, there are too many good games on the way for the 360 and the Wii for me to want a third console.
It's a good problem for a gamer to have. Not so good for Sony. Even if the price did drop, I just simply don't have the free time anymore to juggle three solid systems.
Even a $100 price cut won't do much for the PS3. Even the 360 Elite would still be cheaper - and let's not forget the games.
Even if Sony managed to drop the price of the PS3 to $400 - matching the 360 Premium - I still have doubts that it will sell as anything more than a dedicated blu-ray player to the ignorant and impaitent.
Sony still has the problem that there just aren't many good exclusive games for the PS3 and what we've seen so far has just been "OK" to "Good" at best. There isn't a "SSX" in terms of gameplay, or a "DOA2" in terms of graphics for the PS3. Worse still is the fact that many of the PS3's games are also available on the 360, with virtually no difference in graphics, gameplay or content. When there are differences, the advantage almost always goes to the 360.
Finally, there's strong rumors that Microsoft has gotten their manufacturing costs down to the point where they may actually be making a small profit on each 360 they sell. If this is true, they could easily match any price drop by Sony, if not exceed it.