Sony: 100K PS3s Selling Out Every Week in US; Wii is Just an "Impulse Purchase"

if SCE wants to start selling ps3's they need to cut $150 off the price and include a game. yeaaa riiite

 

1) Buying a stick of gum while in the supermarket checkout line is an impulse buy; purchasing a $250 video game system is most definitely not. I don't know about the rest of you, but I sure as hell don't randomly walk into a store and shell out $250 "just because". And, considering the Wii is freaking sold out everywhere, who really has the opportunity to buy one on impulse? If people are buying Wiis on impulse, I'd imagine the panic over the shortage of units has something to do with their rash behavior.

2) I don't understand how a price cut is going to help Sony. Their top-of-the-line SKU is $600, which, we all agree, is expensive. If they reduce the price by $50 to $550... well, gosh, that's still expensive. Sony would have to cut $100-$150 off the price of the (high-end) PS3 to spur any real demand. At that lower price, though, Sony will just end up further in the red, and will thus have farther to go to reach breakeven. Plus, if they cut the price in the next few months, everyone who bought a PS3 at the $600 price tag will scream bloody murder (and the press will have a field day reporting on Sony's lack of confidence in sales). The company has gotten itself into one hell of a hole.

 

IMO I sense 360 bias in this thread.

Firstly, Sony doesn't make money off of systems, they make it off of games. Casual gamers won't buy tons of games, probably 1 or 2 a year. Whereas hardcore games would buy 10 or 12 games a year(maybe more) this evens out the discrepancy between units sold/profitability.

The Wii IS a casual system, no denying that, but, outside of Zelda/Mario freaks, no one is going to buy a TON of games for it, this is a MAJOR LOSS. Less games sold = less developers making games for it.

Secondly, the PS1/2 both sold over 100 million consoles, the xbox sold 20 million, the gamecube 22 million. I believe this is because of system familiarity, the Playstation brand is more powerful than Nintendo and Xbox combined. The "casual" gamer will see that as well. "Oh, what is this? What is a Wii? Oh hey look here, here is a Playstation, I know what that is, I definitely think my son is going to like that."

With this OMG it is so much more expensive thing, just look at the IPod, and you will see Americans have price below functionality and the cool factor. The Ipod is EXPENSIVE, but people eat it up, people buy it over the many times cheaper Creative Zen Vision, who has the SAME features but lacks the recognizability. When you tell someone you have an Ipod, they immediately know what it is, tell someone you have a Creative? They don't have a clue.

The IPhone is GOING to sell well, that's $600, Apple has taken the EXACT SAME strategy Sony is, more functionality, super brand, eventually it will sell.

Don't forget loyalty, most people will stick with the same brand even if there is a little bit of a difference in price. I see the "Hey, I had the PS2, and I loved it, I'm sure I will love the PS3 as well." attitude.

 

Obviously you didn't read the thread because prior to your post there are only 2 instances of "360" in the entire thread while there are over 40 instances of "Wii". Perhaps the thread is about the Wii versus PS3 as the article stated.

 

the edit button alludes me!!!

anyways I did read it, it was a typo.

 

It think it will only grow. People will buy tons of games eventually. They have barley scratched the surface of the Wii remotes possibilities. It is truly revolutionary.

 

Just how much money do you think Sony makes on games that aren't in house? Do you not know how much money they have to PAY to keep a title exclusive??

The DS is a casual system too then, and the PSP is the "hardcore" one right? I'd like to see how that's working out.

I'm sure the unsold PS3's sitting on shelves through the holiday season justify your statement. the IPhone doesn't have to sell 20 or 30 million units to be considered suceesful or even break even.

PS1 debut = $299
PS2 debut = $299
PS3 debut = $599 (the $499 model is so unpopular that Sony isn't even offering it in Europe)

 

I don't own or want an XBox, and I think your reasoning is off. As far as brand familiarity and loyalty, consider what happened to SEGA (Atari).

PS3 is a superior product in almost all respects, I plan on getting one, but I'm nowhere near as excited about getting it as I am the Wii.

The PS3 is, if anything, a little ahead of its own demand. The one thing that really separates it from 360 and Wii is that it is an inherently Hi-Def system. For it to stand above the competition it needs to be played on 50+ inch HDTVs (and maybe those with 1080p to really stand out). That alone cuts down your target consumer. I have one, many others here have one, but not the majority of the country and maybe not the majority of the game console buyers.

Hardcore gamers just might be outnumbered by parents with kids. Kids just might be more excited about a completely new way of playing games (Wii) than a higher-graphics version of something they already have (PS2/360).

It's pretty apparent: The Wii is half the cost and appeals to a broader consumer base. I don't think it's unrealistic to think this might end up like PSP vs Gameboy DS.

Evan

 

Sony must be really smoking some good stuff if they're expecting the PS3 to acheive PS2 sales success. Don't they understand price is the ultimate driver? The general consumer does not care about all those features at that price point. Most people aren't going to sit there and run a feature/cost analysis...

too much too soon

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=72194

It's actually sad. The PSP has so much stuff you can do with it, but $249 for the premium pack was ridiculous. I think once PS3 has more AAA titles out, that price might not be as much a factor, but I really can't see the PS3 going anywhere unless they drop that price at least 15%

 

I think it;s kinda unfair t put those expectations on the PS3 though. The PS2 had no real competitors.

 

That's a quote from Sony's, not the opinion of the writer. I doubt Sony would have wanted to highlight this since it essentially admits a mistake on their part to have the two separate SKUs.