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[Cloud]

Yes, it does speak to something. It speaks to Sony pricing the system too high to begin with. It speaks to Sony having difficulty cost-reducing to the huge extent required to lower the price of the system without taking a complete bath. It speaks to Sony being in last place. It speaks to Sony being in a very difficult position during very difficult financial times.

When Sony does get the PS3 to $300, the competition is going to be even cheaper, holding even more marketshare, and even more mindshare. This kind of thing is a slippery slope, and Sony has been flying ass-over-applecart down the hill for two years now. I wouldn't expect them to regain their footing this gen.

Just enjoy the good games they're putting out and don't worry about the sales. It'll be next gen before you know it.

You're kidding yourself if you hope that Microsoft is going to further reduce 360's price in the forseeable future. PS3 will reach 300$ way before Microsoft drops 360's price again. They're already losing money with the latest price cut.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

CNN.. shouting iceberg on a crowded ship huh?

Writing the whole thing off because they did poorly in November.. GG

Yes, clearly everything is going according to plan on the good ship PS3.

 

[tino]

Words are words, they don't mean much to me. All I know is that one year ago 360 had much more exclusive than PS3. I had to buy a 360 to play Dead Space, BioShock and Mass Effect. Two of them are system movers for me.

One year later. Now I don't see any third party exclusive for 360 except Left 4 Daed. Most games, more importantly the ones I care about like Fallout is out date and day for the PS3. The other difference of the two systems are minimal at best. I don't care about any first party shooters from both Sony and MS. So to me the 360 has no advantage. If I am buy a system now I might op for the 360 arcade but I have already brought a system so this sinking ship argument is cosmetic.

Wake me up when EA/Uni/Take2 actually stop making PS3 ports.

 

[Gibb]

Just enjoy the good games they're putting out and don't worry about the sales. It'll be next gen before you know it.

My long lost brother!.. Is it really you?!

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

You're kidding yourself if you hope that Microsoft is going to further reduce 360's price in the forseeable future. PS3 will reach 300$ way before Microsoft drops 360's price again. They're already losing money with the latest price cut.

I don't have any "hopes" of a price drop. I gave away my last 360, it's going to be quite some time before I pay any amount for another one. I wouldn't bank on which one is going to win that race, though. Sony's liable to go for a $50 price drop for their next drop, and even that is going to sting badly. So if we're talking two PS3 price drops (to get to $299), then I think there's a fairly strong chance MS will have done another drop of some sort (albeit possibly only $20 or some such) by then.

Sony's just in a bad position right now. Of the Big Three, they're the company that is getting hit the hardest by the recession, which means they've got a lot less flexibility when it comes to taking a further loss. Nevermind that Sony isn't completely stupid, I'm sure they're well aware a big price drop at this point is just cutting their wrists for no real benefit.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I am pretty sure the PS4 will return to the PS1 legacy. Non-custom hardware [...]

What?

That console was filled with custom HW, the GPU, the CPU (added onto the main MIPS core... GTE, MDEC, hardware assisted back-to-front sorting for "Painter algorithm" style of Z-buffer-less rendering, etc..), SPU (sound processor), etc...

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

The PS was a fucking masterpiece of hardware design. Ken really outdid himself with that thing.

 

[TheIroning]

Why do people keep banking on a single game to reverse Sony's fortunes? This next generation card has been played already (LAIR,HS,MGS4...).

I'm not banking on the one game itself (although killzone 2 would probably be your safest bet if you were to go down that route..). I'm talking about it's technical achievements raising the bar for ps3 games. MGS4, LAIR, HS are all typical of 'next gen' technology. Killzone 2 is on the other hand is a whole big step ahead, and if other games can follow in its footsteps, surely the ps3 is going to become a much more attractive console?

In fact I already said this exact thing in the post from which you quoted me..

This is all assuming that more games, at least internally developed ones, will come close to the standards of killzone 2.

 

[Psychotext]

Killzone 2 is on the other hand is a whole big step ahead, and if other games can follow in its footsteps, surely the ps3 is going to become a much more attractive console?

Based on previous gens, the amount of power your console has compared to the competition is largely irrelevant. At least from a sales perspective.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The PS was a fucking masterpiece of hardware design. Ken really outdid himself with that thing.

So was PS2, PSP was a bit over-engineered, PS3 is a lot of great components by themselves that are put together in a so-so way (I do not buy the 2 years in development thing ... and ask devs how happy they are about having CELL read/write from the FlexIO bus at that kind of speed) and with OS/libraries which still a lot of work to do.

 

[Joey Styles]

It's a bit misleading, but YOY, the sales did plummet. I would say any time where your competitors see significant gains and you decline, a sinking ship is not a bad analogy.

Looking at the numbers, it was an 88K drop with every other month posting YoY increases. Definition for plummeting:

1. To fall straight down; plunge.
2. To decline suddenly and steeply.

I think some of you are trying a bit too hard to stretch this into something it's not. If an 88K drop in one month is something horrible, then what did you think about the 105K increase in May? The 153K increase in February? The 307K increase in June? I've only become a full member a day or two ago, so I don't know, maybe you were exceptionally optimistic about those increases then as you are exceptionally pessimistic about an 88K drop now.

 

[John Dunbar]

If an 88K drop in one month is something horrible, then what did you think about the 105K increase in May? The 153K increase in February? The 307K increase in June?

That PS3's sales in 2007 were laughably pathetic.

Also worth noting that unlike Wii and Xbox 360, PS3's sales also dropped from September to October. Combined that with the fact that its November sales actually dropped from last year, it's just not pretty.

 

[Patryn]

This thread has been amusing to me, but the comparison and plea that if we just give Sony more time the PS3 will bounce back has been troubling me.

I think it's been insinuated, but shouldn't Sony be worried about any 360 or Wii sold? I know that hardcore gamers such as we own multiple systems, but does the average person (I'm really asking....anyone got statistics?) If it does turn out that they tend to buy their one system and that's that, doesn't it mean that for almost every 360 or Wii sold, that's one less potential PS3?

That's what troubles me. Sony may claim to keep supporting the PS3 8 years down the line, but will people want to buy it, or will it become like another Gamecube that just sits there on the floor at Best Buys and GameStops despite being notably cheaper, likely partially due to the stench of 3rd place(at least in the US)?

There are signs this may not be the case (look at this summer's sales figures, after all), but the longer PS3 goes without making up major ground on the 360, the more entrenched public perception will be.

 

[Gamecocks625]

That PS3's sales in 2007 were laughably pathetic.

Exactly. Didn't the PS3 have a few sub-100K months last year?

Ah, I remember the good ol' days when the NPD charts were full of PS3 v. GBA gifs.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

I bet Sony will be pretty happy if the PS3 ever even comes close to the old Saturn numbers in Japan.

 

[test_account]

The GC was making money almost throughout its entire run by most accounts and certainly had a fraction of the R&D costs that the PS3 did. It (the PS3) has a great chance to be the largest failure in VG history given the success of its predecessor and the money lost from it.

Ok, thanks for the info! I just wanted to show that position between the competition doesnt necessarily means that a console is a sinking ship. The way i understood some of the comments earlier was that the PS3 was a sinking ship based on that it was outsold by the Xbox 360 and the Wii, but maybe they were taking other things into account, like that the PS3 is being sold at a loss of money for each consoles etc. If that is the case then i missunderstood, but please correct me if i am wrong

Ye, the PS3 might be the console who have lost the most money when this generation of consoles (the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the Wii) is over. As i mentioned earlier, i guess it depends on how people are defining a "sinking ship". Is it about selling the fewest consoles or is it about losing the most money? Or a combination with both things.

The CNN article seems to only focus on the numbers of consoles sold though. It might be that the writer of that article had in mind that Sony is losing much money on the PS3 as well when he said that the PS3 is a sinking ship and the sales are plummeting, but i cant see anything mention about that Sony is losing money on the PS3 in the article, so i dont know if the seller takes this into account or not.

 

[knitoe]

You're kidding yourself if you hope that Microsoft is going to further reduce 360's price in the forseeable future. PS3 will reach 300$ way before Microsoft drops 360's price again. They're already losing money with the latest price cut.

If PS3 drops to $300 / $400, no way Microsoft will still sale the X360 Pro $300/ Elite $400. At least a $50 drop is given.

 

[sangreal]

The Washington Post/PC World have put out a point by point rebuttal/rant in response to this article:

Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship?

Then there's the PlayStation brand overall, which when you factor in the PSP and PS2, topped 1 million units, more than the Xbox 360's 836,000. The PlayStation brand has in fact pretty easily muscled past the Xbox brand practically every month since the PS3's launch. Sony's margins on the PSP and PS2 are almost certainly better than the PS3's, so which company's actually been more profitable in overall unit sales is less obvious than it seems.

I think these guys pull their talking points right out of the NPD thread

 

[KernelPanic]

The Washington Post/PC World have put out a point by point rebuttal/rant in response to this article:

Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship?

Article says it best:

What's more, Sony rightly points out that the PS3 has seen hardware sales grow 60% year-to-date. I realize the PS3 wasn't selling well in 2007, so that figure's less impressive than it sounds, but growth is growth, any way you slice it.

Growth is growth.

Something that is "dead" does not experience growth.

 

[Zoe]

If PS3 drops to $300 / $400, no way Microsoft will still sale the X360 Pro $300/ Elite $400. At least a $50 drop is given.

However, it's already been proven that a lot of people will overlook a price difference of <$100.

 

[John Dunbar]

Then there's the PlayStation brand overall, which when you factor in the PSP and PS2, topped 1 million units, more than the Xbox 360's 836,000. The PlayStation brand has in fact pretty easily muscled past the Xbox brand practically every month since the PS3's launch. Sony's margins on the PSP and PS2 are almost certainly better than the PS3's, so which company's actually been more profitable in overall unit sales is less obvious than it seems.

So basically Sony only needed 2 consoles and a handheld to barely outsell Xbox 360 and that's considered a positive. Boy, Nintendo sure slaughtered Xbox then, and only needed 1 console and 1 handheld.

 

[TheGrue]

So basically Sony only needed 2 consoles and a handheld to barely outsell Xbox 360 and that's considered a positive. Boy, Nintendo sure slaughtered Xbox then, and only needed 1 console and 1 handheld.

Exactly. Not sure how Playstation as a brand helps the PS3 sales in this case.

 

[test_account]

Article says it best:



Growth is growth.

Something that is "dead" does not experience growth.

I agree

The PS3 sale did plummet in November 2007 compared to the sales in November 2008 though, so i think that it is fair to say that, but when the CNN article wrote "plummeting", it sounds to me that it is something that have been going on for a while, or something that is going to happend.

I think it is too early to say if the PS3 sales are plummenting, but it did indeed to that in November compared to last year's November as the article mention, so that is correct i would say. I guess that we will see how things turns out for the PS3 in the time to come

 

[Blame!]

I bet Sony will be pretty happy if the PS3 ever even comes close to the old Saturn numbers in Japan.

ouch....way to put that into perspective.

 

[Mahadev]

I agree

The PS3 sale did plummet in November 2007 compared to the sales in November 2008 though, so i think that it is fair to say that, but when the CNN article wrote "plummeting", it sounds to me that it is something that have been going on for a while, or something that is going to happend.

I think it is too early to say if the PS3 sales are plummenting, but it did indeed to that in November compared to last year's November as the article mention, so that is correct i would say. I guess that we will see how things turns out for the PS3 in the time to come

Nice thread bump dude, thumbs up. I guess all the system warz and trolling in the other thread weren't enough for you.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Nice thread bump dude, thumbs up. I guess all the system warz and trolling in the other thread weren't enough for you.

I know you really want this thread to die but what the hell are you talking about? It isn't a forum sin to bump a thread after a couple hours of inactivity.

 

[Zoe]

I know you really want this thread to die but what the hell are you talking about? It isn't a forum sin to bump a thread after a couple hours of inactivity.

The thread with a rebuttal article got locked right before he bumped this thread.

 

[test_account]

Nice thread bump dude, thumbs up. I guess all the system warz and trolling in the other thread weren't enough for you.

I didnt check the replies in the other thread (if you mean the counter article in Washington Post or something?), i just read the article itself, sorry. I know that i bumped the thread, but as Jive Turkey said, it was a few hours of a bump, maybe 4-5 hours, of bump, i hope that is no problem

I dont want to put more fuel or anything in a system warz. I like to discuss things about the consoles and the sales, but i dont want to put any system warz into the discussions I just wanted to reply to that guy's post and discuss without having to have a system warz. I am sorry if if i led to more discussion around any system warz, since that wasnt my intention!

EDIT: Ironicaly this post of mine is a bump too, but i just wanted to reply, i am sorry!

The thread with a rebuttal article got locked right before he bumped this thread.

Ah ok, i didnt see that, thanks for mentioning that! I am sorry that i bumped this thread then!

 

[dak1dsk1]

I don't even think the PS3 will be a collectible in the future. There is simply no love between the consumer and the product/company. I wonder what Sony will look like 'on the other side'. Maybe they will go down the Sega-route and produce software for other consoles?

 

[Byakuya769]

I don't even think the PS3 will be a collectible in the future. There is simply no love between the consumer and the product/company. I wonder what Sony will look like 'on the other side'. Maybe they will go down the Sega-route and produce software for other consoles?

It would make perfect sense for a hardware company to make that switch.

 

[Azelover]

I think it's been insinuated, but shouldn't Sony be worried about any 360 or Wii sold? I know that hardcore gamers such as we own multiple systems, but does the average person (I'm really asking....anyone got statistics?) If it does turn out that they tend to buy their one system and that's that, doesn't it mean that for almost every 360 or Wii sold, that's one less potential PS3?

Yes, especially at a higher price and also the fact the handhelds are more prominent this time around. A lot of people just get a Wii and a DS, and that's their two systems. More than enough for a large majority actually. A lot of people will get an Xbox 360 and most of those will probably be getting something that differentiates from it a little more than the PS3 does. So yes, it's very easy to see.

There's a lot of denial going on, it may still go on for a remarkably long time, at which point I really don't care. Frankly I'm tired already, at this point in time the console wars are usually over and the secondary competitions left off carry less weight, but I get the sense that the weight is very high and that's becoming a tad tedious right now.

Maybe we do need a "console wars is over, battle for second place moot" moment to close this vicious cycle. Sony jumped at the chance and Microsoft would have too, but I know we're not getting it from Nintendo, not under Mr. humble Iwata anyway.

 

[a.wd]

killzone 2 would probably be your safest bet if you were to go down that route..

Wasnt Riddick the best looking FPS of last gen? Only deliverable on the Xbox? a complete generation ahead of everything that was out there? how did that work out?

 

[AniHawk]

Wasnt Riddick the best looking FPS of last gen? Only deliverable on the Xbox? a complete generation ahead of everything that was out there? how did that work out?

It got a sequel and a remake at the same time.

 

[tahrikmili]

The Washington Post/PC World have put out a point by point rebuttal/rant in response to this article:

Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship?




I think these guys pull their talking points right out of the NPD thread

Holy shit, is that a Sony PR advertorial in washingtonpost.com? Playstation family vs XBOX.. family?.. :lol

 

[a.wd]

It got a sequel and a remake at the same time.

This gen, it got a remake. Last gen it was the best looking (arguably) and one of the best games, and it was launched on the original Xbox, and it didnt make a huge dent in sales. I see Killzone 2 in much the same situation, good game, beautiful, I dont think it will turn the tide though based on experience from former gens.

 

[AniHawk]

This gen, it got a remake.

And a sequel.

It's coming in the same package. At the same time.

 

[Tormentoso]

Holy shit, is that a Sony PR advertorial in washingtonpost.com? Playstation family vs XBOX.. family?.. :lol

You could very well say the same for the other article as well,the PS3 has not games.? come on is 2008 already not 2006.

 

[FrankT]

Holy shit, is that a Sony PR advertorial in washingtonpost.com? Playstation family vs XBOX.. family?.. :lol

Matt really botched that article.

 

[M°°nblade]

The Washington Post/PC World have put out a point by point rebuttal/rant in response to this article:

Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship?




I think these guys pull their talking points right out of the NPD thread

I like this part

CNN says the differences between Blu-ray and DVD are hard to see on a TV less than 50". I suppose that'd be true if your eyes are somehow genetically fixed at 720 x 480 (NTSC).

 

[John Dunbar]

I like this part

I like how he assumes a casual reader of the article would know what the fuck that means.

 

[M°°nblade]

That's because it was written for PCworld, no?

 

[dave is ok]

Ugh, stop thinking that Home/God of War 3/Killzone 2 will save the PS3. If MGS4 couldn't do it, no game can. The only thing that will help the PS3's sales at this point is a pricedrop.

 

[David H Wong]

I like how he assumes a casual reader of the article would know what the fuck that means.

Yeah, that's a perfect illustration. "WHAT? You can't see the difference between this TV and that one?!?!? Well I guess you must not be able to see it has FIVE TIMES the transpixel co-magnifier shader pixel resoltions!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

95% of the users of both TV's and video games don't give a shit about that stuff, and can't tell the difference unless you point it out to them. This is why most HD TVs still don't have HD signals (people buy the TVs but never bother to upgrade their box) and that's why there's so little excitement for Bluray. Yes, they care on a videophile forum where they have long threads arguing which $100 cable gets you that last tenth of a percent of screen resolution and they get into screaming matches over whether plasma or LCD gives you the deepest shades of black. But in the real world, nobody gives a fuck.

 

[bro1]

I think this generation is going to last a lot longer than most people on GAF assume. With the worldwide economy melting down, the hardware manufacturers will want to keep this generation alive for as long as possible to recoup their R&D costs. I wouldn't expect to see a new console any earlier than 2011. Probably 2012 is more realistic.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Just enjoy the good games they're putting out and don't worry about the sales. It'll be next gen before you know it.

it took 1046 posts for segata sanshiro (THE MAN) to come out and actually say something worthwhile.

well said.

 

[a.wd]

And a sequel.

It's coming in the same package. At the same time.

I know buddy! :lol I was commenting on the fact that the best looking FPS of last gen, that couldn't have been done anywhere else (last gen), didnt propel the Xbox into the stratosphere, in terms of sales, I dont think KZ2 will do that either this gen.

 

[w3stfa11]

I think this generation is going to last a lot longer than most people on GAF assume. With the worldwide economy melting down, the hardware manufacturers will want to keep this generation alive for as long as possible to recoup their R&D costs. I wouldn't expect to see a new console any earlier than 2011. Probably 2012 is more realistic.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

One could argue Sony's PS3 ship has already sunk, because they've lost billions of dollars on the PS3 that will probably never be recouped. On the other hand, as a gaming system and sales, I'd say it's a fine system.

 

[brain_stew]

The PS was a fucking masterpiece of hardware design. Ken really outdid himself with that thing.

Quite possibly the best designed piece of hardware there ever was, at least in the gaming industry, quite possibly in any industry. That thing was cheap, completely outperformed all consumer 3D hardware and was easy to code for. Oh it didn't hurt that it was small and looked quite cool as well. Its just a shame that KK forgot about what made the original PS1 such a "perfect" design and instead decided to go down the Saturn school of thought to hardware design.

Ye, the PS3 might be the console who have lost the most money when this generation of consoles (the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the Wii) is over. As i mentioned earlier, i guess it depends on how people are defining a "sinking ship". Is it about selling the fewest consoles or is it about losing the most money? Or a combination with both things.

The harsh reality is that the PS3 is taking both of these dubious honours. Oh and Sony stand to lose a massive chunk of market share, whilst both their competitors make significant gains. Honestly, given all that, I really do go along with the belief that the PS3 is the biggest ever videogame console failure. Sure other consoles lost money. Sure other consoles lost market share. Yet, none of them came from such a commanding market position and certainly did not lose anything close to as much share or money as the PS3 has.

 

[Falafelkid]

The Washington Post/PC World have put out a point by point rebuttal/rant in response to this article:

Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship?




I think these guys pull their talking points right out of the NPD thread

I have compiled all the comments on the article and the current PS3 sales figures I could trace on the net and here they are, for your amusement:

A little hard to swallow

It's hard to argue with their conclusion that the PS3 needs a price cut soon, and a substantive one at that. Ten year lifespan or not, it stands on the brink of falling behind the Xbox 360 by an insurmountable margin. (...)

Acknowledging the price issue, the other two [key reasons given] fall into a much more gray area. Blu-Ray shows more signs of life with each month that passes since it won the HD format war. (...) Admittedly, the question of whether the PS3 has a library of must-have titles is more subjective. But dismissing Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBIGPlanet, Resistance 1 and 2, and Uncharted alone is a little hard to swallow.

PC Magazine (via Yahoo News)

What were the Sony execs thinking?

The Nintendo Wii remains the most popular system in the land, and, at $250, isn't necessarily a budget buster. XBox 360 has made serious inroads by dropping the price of its core system to $199. So how did Sony respond?

By releasing a new version of the PS3 ... that's $100 more expensive. Yes, it comes with a game, and yes, it has more hard-drive space, to which I respond: Who cares? Was the marketplace clamoring for more memory from the PS3? Is that why its market penetration is so low compared to its predecessors and competition? What were the Sony execs thinking? (...)

Market penetration remains low, and every month people don't buy a Blu-ray player is a month they get closer to downloadable HD movies and the death of the format as a whole. Sony would be wise to step it up and do a better job at getting Blu-ray players into people's homes.

Washington Times

Sony has actually been playing catchup

Sony rightly points out that the PS3 has seen hardware sales grow 60% year-to-date. I realize the PS3 wasn't selling well in 2007, so that figure's less impressive than it sounds, but growth is growth, any way you slice it. What's more, look at PS3 and Xbox 360 units sold in total worldwide, and Sony pretty much throughout 2008 has actually been playing catchup. (...)

On the other hand, CNN's whacking the nail on the head when it raises the problem of the PlayStation 3's price. The recession's been on well and long enough for Sony to have reacted by now, and yet it's stubbornly clung to that $400 entry point.

Washington Post

Sony has put on a brave face

Sony has put a brave face on its Christmas failure. It said that over the last year sales have been picking up on the console. The figure it claims is about 60 per cent.

Now given the fact that sales during 2007 were even worse than 2008 that is not something you want to crow too much about. However Sony seems to think that means that 2009 will be even better.

The Inquirer

How far should Sony go?

The question is, how much of the PS3's sluggish sales are due to pricing? And if they do cut prices, how far should Sony go? $300? $200?

Firing Squad

Blu-ray awesome, exclusives are there

Blu-ray is catching on big time, and I think the first-day sales numbers of The Dark Knight and Iron Man will back me up on that one. As for the third point, LittleBigPlanet, Valkyria Chronicles, and Resistance 2 say "Hi.” Heck, even IGN declared the PS3 the place to go for exclusives in 2008.

It’s obvious that a price cut would help the PS3’s competitive position, but it seems silly at this point to brand the black beauty a sinking ship. After all, Blu-ray is awesome, the exclusives are there (with more on the way), and we haven’t even begun to review emergency procedures (it’s men and old people first, right?).

TVG blog

Sales will need to improve significantly, and soon

Sony is still trying to make the PlayStation 3 business profitable and start paying off the costs of developing the hardware. Its software sales are strong, despite weaker hardware sales, but both will need to improve significantly, and soon. Given Sony's ironclad devotion to profitability in the near term, the quickest route to higher PS3 sales -- a price drop -- simply is not feasible.

As an alternative, Sony could publish a must-have software title that attracts more consumers willing to pay the price for its hardware. Short of Metal Gear Solid 4 in June 2008, it would appear that no exclusive software has really driven hardware sales. Even Sony's flagship holiday title, LittleBigPlanet, only managed 141,000 units during November.

Gamasutra

A formidable presence in this industry

We're still seeing the PS3 business ramp up and that the story is going to take a little longer to unfold this generation than in previous cycles. Sony is a formidable presence in this industry and year-to-date has achieved a pretty significant increase over last year. I think we're just going to have to wait and see how 2009 unfolds.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier (via GameDaily)

Slow to react to the current crisis

We believe fundamental changes to its business structure are necessary. (...) Compared to its peers both at home and overseas, Sony has been slow to react to the current crisis. [These comments were made after Sony announced worldwide job cuts of 8.000.]

Credit Suisse analyst Koya Tabata (via Bloomberg)

Too overpriced to penetrate the market

If you’re worried about your job, are you going to buy a $400 PS3? (...) Christmas is not going to have the same glow. (...) The PS3 is too overpriced to penetrate the market we are in today.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey (via Bloomberg)

Between a rock and a hard place

Sony should be worried. (...) The value proposition for the PS3/Xbox 360 is now out of whack in favor of the Xbox 360. I think there will be some very hard decisions to make after the New Year. They might not be able to afford a price cut, but on the other hand they might not be able to afford their current price. They are between a rock and a hard place. Like I said, my biggest concern for the PS3 is if they let the Xbox 360 gain big momentum in Europe.

DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole (via GameDaily)

Plenty of time left to catch up

With both the PS3 and the PSP being the highest priced platforms in their segment, it is no surprise that both were the only next-gen platforms to post a year-over-year decline. (...)

In terms of cutting prices, currently, it wouldn't be financially responsible or beneficial for them to cut the PS3's price point; manufacturing costs are just too high. That being said, I do expect the PS3 to receive a price cut in early 2009. This is when Sony should reach a point of manufacturing efficiency that would financially warrant a price cut. (...)

We are not even at the half-way point for this generation, there is still plenty of time left for Sony to catch up and I believe in the long-term, Sony will gain a significant amount of ground on the Xbox 360. It just might take longer than what Sony expected; except in the handheld market – I think we can all agree there is no hope for the PSP in North America at this point.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich (via GameDaily)

A greater victim of the recession

I think Sony is a greater victim of the recession, more because they are a consumer electronics company than a video game company; people aren't buying HDTVs and that's why Best Buy has been talking about their same store sales being down 5-15%. It's really hard to get people to come in and spend on the super big ticket items. I think Sony is feeling the pain of that and I had expected that there would be a high attach rate this holiday of PS3s to HDTVs because Best Buy was pushing it... and that's not happening.

So that's the first problem. Secondly, you can't buy a PS3 for less than $399, and the average of all Xbox 360 SKUs in November was $270. So the Xbox 360 average price is $129 less than the PS3, and that's hurting [Sony]. The other factor is that the Wii is ridiculously cheaper. So Sony has all these things working against it, and then at the end of the day, their game lineup, which is very good, is still not sufficiently differentiated to induce people to say "I've just got to buy a PS3."

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter (via GameDaily)

The cash-haemorraghing disaster that has been PS3

So, they've decided to release HOME as a public Beta. That's HOME, the amazing virtual world that had game journalists and PS3 fanboys proclaiming the greatness of Sony and how it would be the best thing EVER! Except, it's not. Two years on, it turns out to be a half empty, badly thought out mess (queuing to play a game of Pool?!) and clearly nothing more than a cynical attempt to actually make some money out of the cash-haemorraghing disaster that has been PS3. And with nothing on the horizon, save GT5, surely the 'nail in the coffin'. Even ThreeSpeech can't be arsed to Big It Up like they did with Little Big Planet (already being sold for £19.99)

UK:RESISTANCE

Should the price be cut? No.

Yes the PS3 is in last place in sales in November. But once you look at the year over all and add in one other geographic sales area, Japan, suddenly the PS3 is in second place for yearly sales to date. Logic can be frustrating to those with a plan based on a house of lies. I am sure that if the truth were to escape, there are 360 fans that would be hurling themselves off the roof. I would not care for that but I would really like to see Eric Krangel and the staff of Kotaku take a header. The gaming community would be better for their absence.

With the combined sales of the US and Japan putting the PS3 in second place by just over 30,000 consoles, should the price be cut? Again, no. The main persons crowing for a price cut are the uninformered, the cheap, and those interested in Sony losing money. But what about Europe you say? Other than some spurts in the UK, the PS3 is soundly winning in Europe. The only place sweating that territory is Microsoft.

Playstation Army

I put the last two in as sort of a joke, for entertainment's sake. Just so you know. And all of this is taken from my blog. Enjoy.

 

[DongHungLong]

Yeah, that's a perfect illustration. "WHAT? You can't see the difference between this TV and that one?!?!? Well I guess you must not be able to see it has FIVE TIMES the transpixel co-magnifier shader pixel resoltions!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

95% of the users of both TV's and video games don't give a shit about that stuff, and can't tell the difference unless you point it out to them. This is why most HD TVs still don't have HD signals (people buy the TVs but never bother to upgrade their box) and that's why there's so little excitement for Bluray. Yes, they care on a videophile forum where they have long threads arguing which $100 cable gets you that last tenth of a percent of screen resolution and they get into screaming matches over whether plasma or LCD gives you the deepest shades of black. But in the real world, nobody gives a fuck.

I actually believe people are evolving. I witnessed a strange phenomenon the other day. I was at my 65 year old grandmothers house and while i've been away they had purchased an HDTV because the living room SDTV had went out. As we sit there going thru channels they proceeded to tune to channel 41. They left it there for a second then said "oh, I need to turn it to 41.1 it looks alot better".