bee said:
ive already seen it on sale for as low as £350 and u can regularly get them for around £360-70.
I've heard that Grainger Games are doing PS3s in store for UK£350. Still doesn't seem to be helping. Nor does the bundling that's occurring at UK£399.
Obviously, if this price cut is true then it's a start and it brings the PS3 back into line with the Wii and 360 in terms of the %-premium over the US pricing. UK£425 is US$850 which is 70% more expensive than the 60GB model now is in the US, whereas the Wii and 360 cost around 40% more than the US equivalent.
However, UK£350 is still too high. It needs to hit the pyschologically important sub-UK£300 price point of UK£299.99. That's when the 'hardcore' (if you will) will be prepared to start buying on impulse.
The mass-market price is UK£199.99, but that isn't where the PS3 needs to be targeted at the moment and is rather where it needs to be by Christmas 2008 (provided the Wii hasn't already eaten the mass-market by then and Microsoft fail to grow market- and mind-share). At the moment, it needs to get the core gamers on board - something it still isn't capable of doing. At UK£299.99 though, a lot of the core gamers will think nothing of impulse buying it on pay-day.
But... will Sony swallow their pride and actually give us a UK£75 price cut so soon after launch? They have to balance it between those people who are going to be seriously pissed off because they paid full price (who will make a lot of noise, and consumer advocacy groups and programmes have a lot of clout here in the EU), annoyed retailers and trying to avoid the perception that it's a panic move whilst dealing with a UK£350 price point still being too high.
If Sony had actually bothered to offer the 20-gig SKU in the EU then they could have dropped that to UK£299.99 to make the key price point and lowered the 60-gig to £399.99 (achieving at least some psychological advantage - "hmm.. 400 quid" as opposed to "****... over 400 quid") with a nice little Value-Added bundle and also given a 'reward' to the loyal fans who paid full retail for the 60-gig unit. Hell, it may even be worth them implementing a 20-gig SKU in Europe just to hit that important sub-£300 price point.
The worst thing Sony could do would be to leave the price where it is and just do some Added-Value bundling as part of the SRP. That's what's happening unofficially at the moment, and it ain't helping.