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Banned
BKK said:Right, end of Q2, with the full effects seen in Q3.
Sony forecast 15m PS3s last year, but only sold just over 14m. It wasn't a big deal then, and it won't be if they miss their forecast by 1m this year.
14.5m x $50 = $725m (well over $1B taking into account next FY), just to crow that they beat their forecast by 1m. Last FY is forgotten, they don't have to "make up" for it.
It really isn't a tough choice, Sony don't want to be selling PS3 for a loss at this stage in it's life. The past has shown that they've repeatedly missed PS3 forecasts, and they'll choose to do so again rather than massively increasing losses.
The last year was the first time since launch that Sony missed their stated target and by 700k.
It's not as simple as you make out. 14m at $249 is around $3.45bn in revenues, 16m at $199 is $3.18bn in revenue so the decrease isn't so much, but the added increase in software sales (up to a 20% increase with so many additional new owners) will give a profit boost that will balance out the extra revenue losses.
The extra $50 cut will also give Sony a lot of forwards momentum for Vita and PS4, almost like a halo effect that Apple had with the iPod. Look at Nintendo's fortunes, they had a huge success with the Wii, but because they waited a year too long to announce and release a successor they are losing the plot completely. 3DS sales have been well under expectations, so much so that they cut the price by a massive amount just months after launching and lowered profit projections by 82%.
Anyway, I suppose we'll see what happens in a few weeks or at TGS...