Sony fiddling on PS3 price cut while Rome burns

Stan Beer
Thursday, 07 June 2007 07:09

Opinion and Analysis

There is a report from Japanese daily the Yomiuri Shimbun that Sony president Ryoji Chubachi has publicly said the company is not "ruling out the possibility" of lowering the price of the PS3. One wonders if those running Sony haven't taken leave of their senses and are trying to further sabotage the already dismal sales of the PS3.

After just undercutting its own PS3 Blu-ray market by slashing the price on Blu-ray players to US$499, a visitor from another planet may be forgiven for thinking that Sony's latest announcement is designed to bring PS3 sales to a complete halt.

Nintendo Wii is killing PS3 at the check-out counter all over the world. In Japan Wii is outselling PS3 by five to one. In response Sony slashes its Blu-ray prices to $100 below PS3, cutting out one of its new console's unique selling points, and follows up with hints from the top that loyal Sony gamers about to buy a PS3 should put their wallets back in their pockets because a price cut "may" be on the way.

Is it even worth asking why anyone in a position of responsibility at Sony, let alone the president, would flag a price cut in advance? Why didn't Sony just synchronise the inevitable cut with the recent Blu-ray player cut?

For Sony's sake, PS3 consoles had better be US$499 by this time next week or sales may stall completely. In fact, anecdotal evidence from postings on blog sites suggests that even slashing the price to US$499 may not give PS3 sales their much needed boost. Not when red hot competitors are already less than half the price.

Perhaps its time for Sony to realize that it's consoles market is not an impervious empire, bite the bullet, and slash PS3 prices to US$399. However, that probably won't happen and Sony, instead of taking decisive action, will continue to procrastinate and fiddle around while Nintendo and Microsoft burn its empire to the ground.