Analysts urge Sony to drop PS3 price
Analysts are warning Sony that even games like LittleBigPlanet won't help them shift consoles without a price cut.
According to EDAAR analyst Jesse Divinich, who spoke to GI.biz about the matter, even top-quality software like LittleBigPlanet may not help Sony to shift consoles this Christmas thanks to fierce competition.
While the Wii is still selling very well thanks to massive appeal, with Wii Fit still regularly in and out of the UK Games Chart, Microsoft will be pinning a lot of hope on Gears of War 2...no matter what we thought of it in our latest hands-on preview.
"We still urge Sony to consider a possible hardware price cut this holiday season," said Divnich.
"We should note that if Microsoft’s first-party titles perform significantly better in quality and popularity than Sony’s this holiday season, we could begin to see a considerable amount of potential PS3 owners, who may be waiting for a PS3 price cut, to choose the Xbox 360 over the PS3."
"[The USD 399 price point is simply too steep to entice the casual and mainstream markets, regardless of how great Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet may be," he stated.
Microsoft of course is still suffering fallout from the hardware concerns many people have with the Xbox 360 (Damn you, RROD!), but has addressed this with several price cuts and extended warranties.
Which platform do you think will do the best this Christmas? Call us biased, but between Fallout 3, Left4Dead and continued Spore sales we think the PC has a chance still. Give us your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyIt's hardly the worlds most expensive thing ever. Hell, I picked an 80gb model and a game up for £312. That's less than my graphics cards alone, and these days, it's barely more expensive than a low-end PC.
It's not exactly Sonys fault that Microsoft are engaged in trying to out-price the Wii. As for facing fierce competition, I was under the impression they already were?
What about slightly improved draw distances, an extra 30fps in some games, and free online!
Oh.. Wait. They're not that important.. Bugger, back to the drawing board!
What games give you improved draw distances and an extra 30fps in some games on the PS3 over the 360? As far as I understand the 360 has a slightly better graphics card and is said to be an easier platform to program on so I would be surprised if this is true! Case in point, Half life 2 on the 360 vs PS3
As a recent PS3 to 360 convert I have to agree that to stay in the battle sony has to drop their RRP price, I picked up a 360 60Gb in the currently ongoing) sale at sainsburys in the UK where I got it for £139, I had sold my PS3 for over £200! (whoohoo profit!). Now also got a HD-DVD player for £20 and can get all the cheapo HD-DVD's from ebay/HMV ect for £2-3 each! Bargain
It's hardly the worlds most expensive thing ever. Hell, I picked an 80gb model and a game up for £312. That's less than my graphics cards alone, and these days, it's barely more expensive than a low-end PC.
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I think what they are getting at is that most of the consumers cant afford to spend £300 just like that and when presented by the PS3 at £299 and the 360 at £169 I think its obvious which they would choose to save cash!
You got ripped off! I paid £300 with 1 game.
Tbh, these analysts are probably just trying to justify their jobs. There's not much real need for them IMHO.
There are a lot of reasons not to choose the 360. Mine are mainly the RROD and the noise. But I also don't like to pay for things that are free on the PS3 (online play, wifi, blu-ray). As for exclusive games, most of them are also on PC, contrary to exclusive PS3 games.
The PS3 more expensive when you buy it intially, however in that £299 price tag you get WiFi built in (£50 ish extra on 360) Recharable pads (extra £12 on 360) Free unrestricted online (£35 pounds yearly on the 360) non-monitery advantage a plenty. e.g less noise, even after all the 'improved' hardware revisons i have a mate who almost quaterly had to send back a 360 cos it died... So an elite might be 229 but it would cost an extra 97 pounds to bring it up to the same out of the box spec as a PS3, taking it up to £326. Thats not even taking into account the on going extra cost of the live subscription... so in the long term a 360 will cost you significantly extra.
Even if you include a 120gb hdd upgrade to the PS3 (£35) and an HDMI cable (£6) the difference is still the cost a game. (just realised that the PS3 and Elite cos the same once you get to this point in my argument)
Also I've been hard pushed to find any major difference in the terms of image quality on maultiplatform release's after comparing using the same monitor and cable on a borrowed 360 and a PS3...
Although after all of that the analysts have a point the consumer is only going to see the price on teh shelf and not sit down and look at it how I did... but then I am a complete geek....
Well, I was taking the piss out of the Ps3 fanboys to be quite honest. The number of times I've seen the argument for which console to get boiling down to those three totally retarded points is unreal. Theoretically the 360 is capped at 30fps, where as the PS3 is capped at 60. It's all academic, because frankly, no one is going to notice that on a console, but again, taking the piss :p
As much as I don't believe it, a friend rabbits on about GTA IV having better draw distances on the PS3 (I cba buying another copy of GTA IV to test it for myself, and he's a bit far away at the moment for me to go borrowing his copy to test :p) than the 360. I expect, if he is right, that they will be so small as to be totally indistinguishable when playing the game rather than looking down the road.
Oh, I know the average consumer is going to do the simple math and go with the 360, no doubt and no argument there. My point is that only a select few are going to buy the console anyway - There's nothing on the console that makes it truely remarkable to 90% of the consumer market. A lower price is unlikely to bring in new customers, because there's still insuficient exclusive content. The only price drop making people buy it over a 360 is to bring it down to either match or be cheaper than the same model (Same in terms of the average user who doesn't give a toss about blu-ray/hd-dvd) 360. That isn't going to happen, I can assure you of that, so lowering the price a little bit is entirely academic and will probably do nothing much to help sales. Best way to improve sales would be for Sony to revert to 'buying' exclusivity again, but then they would probably lose just as much as having an averagely selling console.
Eh, I had a few other things on there, a pack of those 'real trigger' things for example (Which are a definite improvement IMO), also, shopping at Game, probably did :p
Prices are based on perceived value. If it's too low, you devalue your product and people lose interest in it. However, there seems to be a bar/level for consoles where they become an impulse purchase, it seems to be the 'a little over a hundred pound' mark.
If anyone paid £300 for their PS3 recently.... I have this problem trying to get money out of Nigeria, send me a mail, I need your help.
The fact is the PS3 should have been dropped to £250 in the UK months ago. That's JUST to fall in line with what other countries are charged. Then you guys can actually argue whether it needs to come down more than £250. Really this news is whether it should now be £200. That's where it's competitive with the 360. The additional cost £140 -> £200 is justified because of it's value as a Blu-Ray player.
The Price has nothing to do with it. Sony just need to market the dam thing and get more great games on it like, LBP, MGS4, R&C, MS 2, UC etc etc.
The price is very good for what the PS3 has to offer hardware wise.
The difference we get shafted by compared to the rest of the world is (or was) down to our economy being stronger (Seems like a useless point at the moment, with the way things are going). It's unlikely that we will ever get close to American, for example, pricing schemes for consoles/hardware unless the UK is officially made a US State and we adopt the dollar.
I doubt that the PS3 will see a £200 price tag within the next 12 months, I expect I will be wrong having said that, but eh. I just don't see it happening.
MS2? Microsoft 2? UC? Umbrella Corporation? Not joking, seriously nfi which games you're talking about :B
I think the 'problem' with the price is when its competition can cost half, or in some sales, a third of it. I doubt it's going to get much cheaper, now, until the end of life starts creeping up over the hill.
I had the hd-dvd drive add on and the noise of the machine just does not lend itself to be a multi media machine. The PS3 I never hear it, is excellent for blu-ray as well as playing divx's etc
The games Im playing or going to play (COD4, COD World at War, Rock Band, GTA4, Fallout 3) are on both.
The fact you dont pay to play online is major. When I had a 360 I could never justify the £35 subscription for the number of times I play online instead relying on 48hr codes you sometimes got with a game. Now on the PS3 I probably play online a lot more when I feel like it not because I feel I have to to get value for money from a subscription.
Lastly my 320gb replacement drive turned up today so guess what I am doing tonight. This cost me £45 I paid £70 for my xbox 20gb drive.
I also find the PS3 menu and playstation store to look nicer than the xbox arcade. In my opinion these just have that end user consumer sheen you expect from sony products making the PS3 seem less like a toy.
Make a silent 360 designed to be more aesthetic in the living room and I would possibly buy again (depending on killer 360 only games (its not Gears as I am probably one of the few who just didnt get on with the first one - same goes for resistance on ps3)
Yet.. the 360 has always fallen roughly in line with exchange rate + vat... so has the Wii, the ipod, phones, cameras. Some times things have a 10% price hike to cover import charges but the PS3 price hike far exceeds that. Certain consumer electronics can be cheaper here. Also until recently we were also shafted with a smaller hard drive and less backward compatibility.
There's no excuse for this.
Just checked, and frankly, they're so close it's unreasonable to expect it to be cheaper.
Game.co.uk: 80gb MGS4 bundle: RRP 339.99, actual price, £309.99
Gamestop.com 80gb PS3 + MGS4 (Couldn't find a bundle), $459.98. UK price EX VAT: £263.26, VAT of £46.07, total of £309.33.
I'd say that's pretty ****ing close.
Edit: Just as a reference:
Game.co.uk: Xbox 360 Elite + Kung Fu Panda+Lego Indiana Jones: £289.97
Gamestop.com: Elite + Kung Fu Panda+Lego Indiana Jones: $399.99: £228.91 EX VAT: £268.97 INC VAT.
Also pretty damn close.
Second edit: Not to say that we don't get shafted, we do, but in this situation the shafting is not as bad as it seems.
id rather go love a roll of fibreglass insulation then a 360 and the **** being made for it.
Liratheal:
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4
Ratchet and Clank
Motorstorm 2
Uncharted
I figured out most of them (Especially MGS4.. On playthrough six on that badboy), LBP and R&C, but I've never seen the MS2/UC abreviation in relation to those games :B
I managed to pick up my 40GB PS3 for £150 (2nd hand) and I'm very happy with it - it oozes quality compared to the cheap 360, but lacks a great software library.
Don't get me wrong, they're both great consoles, but in my eyes the reduced price of the 'core' 360 doesn't make up for it's Microsoftisms (hardware failures, jet engine inspired fans etc).
Just an FYI: The 'core' is not a console, it's a.. Thing :B Also, I did an indirect comparison of an elite and a PS3 a few posts ago - There's only £30 difference, so the whole.. 'it's cheaper' argument is a fat load anyway :p
PS3 80GB - £299.99
X360 Core - £129.99
20GB HDD - £64.99
Play and charge kit - £12.99
WiFi dongle - £54.99
3 month Live subscription - £15
= £277.96
...but swap the 20GB HDD for the 120GB one and that brings the total to £302.92.
Elite: £219.99
or 60GB: £164.99
So adding up:
Elite: £302.97 (WTF? More expensive by 5p???)
60GB: £247.97
That 5p is the black dye and HDMI :B
DOH. Forgot they all transfered over.
In that case, it's just some very good plastic dye :p
And Iâm not trying to make a point here, Iâm just curious. Iâd do it myself but I donât know much about whatâs in the consoles these days.
If we were to compare (apple to apples) both consoles based on MSRP then the scenario would be:
Arcade = 200 console + 50 Live + 100 20GB HDD + 100 Wireless = $450 + tax = ~$483
80GB Core = 400 console + 60 HDMI = ~$494
360 in the end is $10 cheaper.
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If we base it on PriceGrabber (products still new & including shipping) then the scenario would be:
Arcade = 202.98 (Circuit City) + 38.92 (Newegg) + 62.94 (Amazon merchant) + 81.06 (Amazon merchant) = $385.90
80GB Core = 402.98 (Circuit City) + 17.98 (Sony 5' @ PriceGrabber merchant w/ good reviews) = $420.96
PS3 is $35.83 more.
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In both examples, don't forget that:
It depends on how you compare the two, as well as what you expect/want from a console. In PS3's case, consumers are comparing the two based on initial cost, not features and/or longterm cost which isn't really fair IMO.
P.S. Of course there are great deals out there, but to keep things fair, these were the best/fairest comparisons I could put together.
alot of the games on 360 bar Gears just dont interest me, im not joking GoW is the only 360 game to make me go "WOW" i havent been impresed by any other xbox game, but this is my opinion and its the reasohn why i have a PS3.
A price drop would be welcomed by everyone but sony cant afford to drop the price unfortuneatly(sp?)
(Parents point of view btw)
If I was an analyst then yeah I'd probably say Sony could do with a price-cut before Christmas just for the momentum and the associated press attention, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did one at the end of this month.
So what caused PS3 to outsell 360 WW since December last year each week except the few select weeks 360 had a sales spike (price drop)? You are talking like the PS3 has been getting outsold all along. If you look at sales comparisons of what each console has sold the past month, the 360 had a huge sales increase because of massive price drop. The PS3's weekly sales dropped something like 20K at first and are now slowly going back up, while now the 360's sales are going back down to how they were before.
Obviously the price drop had a huge affect for the 360 as it has outsold the PS3 WW the past few weeks but the PS3's sales have not been affected very much at all.
If the PS3 was at equal price as the 360 it would be curb stomping the 360's sales.
My issue with sales figures is they don't take into account trade-ins - My local store won't accept any more PS3 trade-ins because they have too many. Conversly, they also don't reflect second hand sales.
The majority of the PS3 owners I know are 'loyalty' buys - they bought it on the back of their love of the PS2, rather than any of the technical aspects, but they're not playing them. Personally, on two Ps3's (Bought one on launch, sold it due to lack of use, bought a new one impuslively the other week), I've not had more than 40 hours of use out of either, of which most has been on the current one and MGS4. That's simply because that's the only game I can't get elsewhere.
What you also need to consider is that the 360 has been on the market a fair while longer than the PS3 - the sales are going to slow. Think about it this way. There are ~ 17m 360 owners, world wide. Expecting the sales to be anywhere near what they were in the previous year, or the launch year, is daft.
Theoretically, though, both consoles are within a whisker of each other price wise, barely even the cost of a game infact. Hell, if you wanted to factor in the rechargable battery packs (I wouldn't bother, I use regular batteries on all my controllers, easier to replace them than to go hunting for cables and being tethered to the console again. But for the sake of argument), a wifi dongle and an Elite bundle from Game, you're looking at almost the exact same cost.
I've not been meaning to sound like the PS3 has been out sold every week since its launch, but what I would suggest is comparing 360 launch sales with Ps3 launch sales - Comparing a product that's been out for nearly two years sales and a new products sales is always going to give false impressions.
My point is, the Ps3 is not selling aswell as it would do if Sony still 'bought' exclusivity, the negativity up to it's launch (Remember the controller uproar?) the lack of good numbers of good launch titles, the initial cost (For some people £425 is too much money for what, to parents at least, is a toy) etcetc was never going to help, and clearly hasn't. Sony would have to do something drastic to win back users that have moved over to the 360. I don't have a better alternative to a price cut, though, they could at least tie it in with a major launch, Killzone 2 for example.
Thing the is though, casual gamers dont look at all those accessories they have to buy to make the 360 equal to PS3. They see the 360 at the super low price and PS3 at the very high price. Obviously there is a reason for them buying the more expensive one.
I bought my PS3 last summer for $550 CDN. It was a little while after the price cut. I could have bought the 360, but the games I care about are PS3 exclusive or multiplatform. Only one game I have seen only on 360 would have me wanting a 360. That game is APB which I have no clue when it's coming out and I wouldn't get a system for a game I have no clue if it really will be good and that'd be the only game I get.
If I had an 1080p tv I would buy a PS3; bluraaay, and also being a PC gamer all decent 360 games are eventually released on PC. I've never wanted a 360 or wii, my old flatmate had both of those and I was quite unimpressed. If I wanted crap graphics (the wii mote was also disapointingly inaccurate) I would get a PS2 for the library of games, if I wanted a bunch of shooters, I'll play them online and get updates free on my PC (gogo TF2). The only thing missing from the PS3 is its backwards compatibility in newer models (?), I wish they still had an option for this.
@julianmartin Despite my my bias towards PS3, I have no idea why home will add anything of worth to the experience for the average PS3 user. Could you explain?
Lower price = higher sales.
That is thinking out side of the box right their my friends.
/sarcasm
Your forgetting that sales to great unwashed is about perception. The PS3 is always going to be percieved as much more expensive than the X360 unless it drops its prices to fall in line. Personally i can see the value of the PS3 as some one said it feels like a quality unit but since i've no kids and i'm not going to be purchasing them by the thousand at Christmas it doesn't matter what you, I or any one else on here thinks regarding the relative value since the perception in the target market for both these devices is that the X360 is much cheaper.
PS3 advertising seems to be more viral in nature. I've rarely seen any adverts for the PS3. I got mine purly based on geeky number crunching and the fact that i still have very fond memories of my PS1...