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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.
...I'm hoping we can get some of those cool Blu-Ray laser pointers for cheap!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
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.
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.
YES
(The first two are blue, the wavelength is 405 nm. The rest are red)
It might help if they HAD some games.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
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.
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 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.