http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/07/11/sony-e3-nintendo-tech-personal-cx_rr_0711techsony.html
Sony Draws Yawns
Rachel Rosmarin, 07.11.07, 7:49 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - If the best Sony has to offer is a Darth Vader-branded PlayStation Portable, it may be in trouble.
Having already announced its big news July 9 a $100 price drop on the PlayStation 3 Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people )'s event at the E3 video game convention Wednesday didn't leave room for many surprises.
However, Sony made a point of picking a hardware fight with Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY - news - people ) on the portable front. Sony redesigned its PlayStation Portable into a slimmer shape, offered two new colors (one silver, and one etched with Star Wars' Darth Vader) and gave it the ability to export video to high-definition televisions, all to better compete with Nintendo's DS. Nintendo sells about 423,000 portable devices per month, while Sony sells only 221,000, according to NPD.
Sony executives made it clear that they know they need to do more than lower prices to woo consumers back to its flagging video game brand. Tepid audience response at Wednesday's event suggests the company hasn't yet done enough.
Our accomplishments bring no guarantees for the future, said Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton. We want to earn each and every one of our customers. While Monday's price cut is already reaping rewards Tretton said sales of the just-reduced PS3 have already doubled at the company's top five retailers it won't juice sales enough to give the company the installed base that it wants.
Sony tried to impress its bread and butter customers hard-core gamers with a slew of exclusive violent action games from third-party publishers and Sony's in-house studios. Footage of gruesome knife battles in Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4 drew cheers, but it might be too little too late: the game will be released later than expected in early 2008.
The company can't promise PS3 owners exclusive access to Grand Theft Auto 4 from Take-Two Interactive (nasdaq: TTWO - news - people ) it will appear on Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Xbox 360 as well so Sony's taking a stab at creating a game called Infamous, which features a similar style of play known as the emergent gaming sandbox.
Price cuts and new colors on hardware will only go so far to help Sony catch up to Nintendo, which is moving to take an even bigger lead. Earlier on Wednesday at Nintendo's E3 event, the company attempted to prove that it could expand upon its successful strategy of appealing to nontraditional gamers, while at the same time encroaching on Sony's hard-core gamer demographic.
Nintendo aims to get traditional gamers interested in the Wii with a new gun-shaped controller and a few first-person shooter games. For everyone else, Nintendo intends to capitalize on the Wii's motion-sensing features by selling a new suite of health-conscious games called Wii Fit. It requires the purchase of a floor-pad controller that looks a lot like a bathroom scale. :lol
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