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Gerry Patterson. The world's most humble blogger |
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The Console Market Gets Bloody |
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Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:58:32 +1000While Microsoft is otherwise pre-occupied with Bing and patent law suits, Sony is experiencing some pain also. The strong yen and declining sales have cut deeply into Sony's profits. Now as everyone predicted, Sony have announced a dramatic cut in the price of the PS3. Not only is it cheaper and slimmer, but as to be expected the chip set has been upgraded and the hard drive capacity is now 120GB. The competition in the games console arena looks like it is going to get rather fierce and bloody! Your humble blogger will have to avert his eyes, dear reader. All this blood in the water leaves him rather squeamish. |
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In the USA the price of the new PS3 will be $299. As usual, the US market is getting the best deal. The price in Australia will be $499 (Aus). However, since the $Aus is currently worth .83 $US, it's a bit hard to understand.
Still, considering the price of a new blue-ray player, the PS3 might seem a good deal, if you are considering purchasing one ... You can buy a blu-ray player and you get a free game console included (with 120GB of hard disk)! Some bloggers estimate that the PS3 may cost Sony $250 to manufacture and ship. However Sony have done their maths. If someone is tempted to buy a blue-ray player with a free games console included, the customer then only has to buy a couple of PS3 games, and Sony are doing Ok ... Well not that one should refer to the parlous state that Sony currently find themselves in as "Ok" (unless of course you are Microsoft).
But this must put pressure on Microsoft also. So far they are holding out. At the recent GamesCom press conference, Microsoft announced a new role play game, which today's gamers seem to refer to as --- RPGs --- so don't go thinking of rocket-propelled grenades next time you read some gamer's blog, dear reader --- The new game will be called Fable III. On the question of price cuts, Microsoft could be preparing to circle the wagons ... But along with declining sales, and downward pressure on prices, it's hard to see the how they are going to hide the Bing haemorrhage ... Over the next few months, all that blood in the water is going to spread ... And it might encourage sharks!
That's Ok, dear reader, do not be overly concerned ... Microsoft is proficient at jumping sharks.
The stand-out winner in the console wars is Nintendo. To date they have resisted price cuts, and kept their number one spot. Nintendo have kept their eye on the ball and kept doing what they know how to do, and amazingly had some big wins, first with the DS and then the giant killer, the WII ... It's kinda ironic that everyone was writing them off ... Only a few years ago. But it all goes to show how quickly things can change in the games console market.
Update: Thursday, 2009-08-27. Microsoft have announced a price cut for the Xbox 360. The Xbox will cost the same as the (new) slim PS3.
The only thing that kept us guessing was ... When exactly they would announce the price cut!
Dear me the waters do seem to be turning red! Will this put pressure on Nintendo to drop the price of the WII? Nintendo can't afford to rest on their laurels and hope that Microsoft and Sony tear each other apart.
Update: Thursday, 2009-09-24. Nintendo announce a 20% cut in the price of their WII consoles in the USA and UK. At least that will put an end to speculation about when exactly the price cut will occur. Now we can all get back to the bloody business of competition ...
Sony, meanwhile, have announced they will bring out a motion controler for the PS3 in 2010 ...
Don't you wish you'd waited a couple of months to buy that WII?