June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., which is battling Microsoft Corp. in the $8 billion market for video-game machines, regained the top spot in North America after it cut the price of its PlayStation 2 in May, an analyst wrote.
Sony probably sold 260,000 PlayStation 2 machines in May, or 47 percent of all game-machine sales, after cutting the price to $249 from $179, analyst P.J. McNealy at American Technology Research in San Francisco wrote in a report. PS2 was the top game machine in North America, said Sony Executive Vice President Jack Tretton, citing information from retailers.
Microsoft led in April for the first time since shipping its Xbox machine in November 2001, after beating Sony to a price cut. Xbox, which came out a year after the PS2 and has sold 15.4 million units worldwide, still trails the PS2's 70 million, according to McNealy and data from Sony. Sony won't cut prices again this year, Tretton said.
`` A lot of people will be looking for price cuts down the road,'' Tretton said. ``As long as they get on board by the end of the day, I'm happy,'' he said, referring to gamers who may buy the machine in years to come. A price cut by Microsoft to $129 or less won't compel Sony to cut again this year, he said.
Sony wants to maintain its price to avoid making another version of the PS2, one that connects to the Internet, seem much more expensive, thereby limiting its sales, McNealy said.
Online Gamers
``Sony's main goal is to get more online gamers,'' said McNealy. Sony in May lowered the price on a version of the PS2 with network connections to $149 as well. About 70 percent of PS2 sold since the price cut were the networked version, said Tretton, compared with 30 percent before the cut.
Sony is selling 150,000 units of PS2 a week since it made the price cut, Tretton said.
Shares of Sony's American depository receipts fell $1.33 to $35.93 at 3:57 p.m. New York time in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had risen 7.5 percent this year. Shares of Microsoft rose 9 cents to $26.85 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading and had fallen 2.2 percent this year.
Sony probably sold 260,000 PlayStation 2 machines in May, or 47 percent of all game-machine sales, after cutting the price to $249 from $179, analyst P.J. McNealy at American Technology Research in San Francisco wrote in a report. PS2 was the top game machine in North America, said Sony Executive Vice President Jack Tretton, citing information from retailers.
Microsoft led in April for the first time since shipping its Xbox machine in November 2001, after beating Sony to a price cut. Xbox, which came out a year after the PS2 and has sold 15.4 million units worldwide, still trails the PS2's 70 million, according to McNealy and data from Sony. Sony won't cut prices again this year, Tretton said.
`` A lot of people will be looking for price cuts down the road,'' Tretton said. ``As long as they get on board by the end of the day, I'm happy,'' he said, referring to gamers who may buy the machine in years to come. A price cut by Microsoft to $129 or less won't compel Sony to cut again this year, he said.
Sony wants to maintain its price to avoid making another version of the PS2, one that connects to the Internet, seem much more expensive, thereby limiting its sales, McNealy said.
Online Gamers
``Sony's main goal is to get more online gamers,'' said McNealy. Sony in May lowered the price on a version of the PS2 with network connections to $149 as well. About 70 percent of PS2 sold since the price cut were the networked version, said Tretton, compared with 30 percent before the cut.
Sony is selling 150,000 units of PS2 a week since it made the price cut, Tretton said.
Shares of Sony's American depository receipts fell $1.33 to $35.93 at 3:57 p.m. New York time in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had risen 7.5 percent this year. Shares of Microsoft rose 9 cents to $26.85 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading and had fallen 2.2 percent this year.
T, Ninja Gaiden, Rallisport, Thief 3, etc, I would've thought that they'd be able to increase sales year-to-year.