PS3 price cut signals Sony bid to protect fortress Japan

Stan Beer
Saturday, 23 September 2006 17:26

Opinion and Analysis

If there's one place that Sony games consoles reign supreme, it's the world's second largest games market Japan. It's also a market where Microsoft has barely been able to get a look in with its latest generation console Xbox 360.

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To date, Microsoft has sold less than 160,000 Xbox 360 consoles in Japan, a figure that Sony can expect to surpass with PlayStation 3 within two days of its release on November 11.

With this in mind, it has come as a surprise that Sony has slashed the price of its PS3 console two months ahead of its release. It is also surely no coincidence that the new PS3 price will be roughly equivalent to that of an Xbox 360 plus the recently announced add-on HD DVD drive.

Much has been made of Microsoft's renewed efforts to crack the important Japanese games market by teaming up with Japanese content providers and making a serious attempt to cater to the Japanese gamer's psyche. However, some analysts have suggested that it is not Microsoft but rival Japanese company Nintendo and its new low-priced Wii console that has Sony worried.