PS3 price drop by the end of the year CONFIRMED

[Spidey17]

Not to stradle the fence, but I can honestly see both sides of the Wii argument.

I have a feeling it will be around for years to come, and isn't a failure on any level. However it does scream gimmick, like it or not. That's not to say it's a bad system, but it's not a gamers system in my eyes. It's like virtual reality, or anything else. It can be fun, and will hook the mass public, but a lot of gamers want substance rather than something that's just blasting and swinging your arms for no reason. Wii will however put out some quality games like Nintendo always does.

To me Wii is like WoW. It's an introductory level gaming system. With World of Warcraft it was an introductory level MMO. WoW is fun, it had a record amount of people subscribe, and got people generally hooked. It's cartoonish graphics appealed to kids and adults, it had just enough content to hook some hardcore MMO players, but not too much to overwhelm people new to the genre. However it didn't feel like a normal MMO, it didn't have that everquest hardcore MMO'ing feel. It's the same for Wii, it feels like a beginners game console. It's cheap, it has a fun extra in the controllers, but I can't imagine playing a final fantasy heavy story game RPG on it.

Of course with the Wii having a small price tag I doubt they were going for a state of the art graphics console. I think Nintendo picked their target audience as the general audience and catered to them, but will give some bones to the long time nintendo fans too. Many probably did buy it thinking it was cool looking, had a cool motion capture deal, and hey it's Nintendo! Not everyone did though, a lot bought it because they've followed Nintendo from console to console, and I don't blame anyone as Nintendo has a good track record.

I will say though that I share Zenien's worry of that being the future of consoles. It's why at first I disliked the X-box (later I just didn't like the original X-box's game line up, but that's another topic). I felt the X-box was trying to bridge the gap inbetween consoles and computers, and honestly I didn't want it to. I wanted console games to feel like something I couldn't get on a computer, and computer games to stay like they were. If I wanted them to be similar I'd just stick with my computer since I play it more anyway, and not buy consoles. If Wii were to set the standard and every console that came after it had some gimmick with the controls and motion capture I'd probably get sick of console games too. It's nice for awhile, but in the end I just like setting down with a normal PS2 like controller and playing a fighting game, RPG, or sports game or something.

I totally agree.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Not to stradle the fence, but I can honestly see both sides of the Wii argument.

I have a feeling it will be around for years to come, and isn't a failure on any level. However it does scream gimmick, like it or not. That's not to say it's a bad system, but it's not a gamers system in my eyes. It's like virtual reality, or anything else. It can be fun, and will hook the mass public, but a lot of gamers want substance rather than something that's just blasting and swinging your arms for no reason. Wii will however put out some quality games like Nintendo always does.

Yeah, the Wii-mote is gimmick-y, but it's just as or less gimmick-y as the PS3, what with it's motion sensing controller, blu-ray, the upcoming Home... Nintendo also isn't resting just on the gimmicks and is working on follow-ups to their top franchises, games with a lot of substance. I think as the system progresses in age, the motion sensing will feel less like a gimmick and more just like a new way to play a game, hell Nintendo introduced the rumble feature as a gimmick, but now it's just a standard.

To me Wii is like WoW. It's an introductory level gaming system. With World of Warcraft it was an introductory level MMO. WoW is fun, it had a record amount of people subscribe, and got people generally hooked. It's cartoonish graphics appealed to kids and adults, it had just enough content to hook some hardcore MMO players, but not too much to overwhelm people new to the genre. However it didn't feel like a normal MMO, it didn't have that everquest hardcore MMO'ing feel. It's the same for Wii, it feels like a beginners game console. It's cheap, it has a fun extra in the controllers, but I can't imagine playing a final fantasy heavy story game RPG on it.

Of course with the Wii having a small price tag I doubt they were going for a state of the art graphics console. I think Nintendo picked their target audience as the general audience and catered to them, but will give some bones to the long time nintendo fans too. Many probably did buy it thinking it was cool looking, had a cool motion capture deal, and hey it's Nintendo! Not everyone did though, a lot bought it because they've followed Nintendo from console to console, and I don't blame anyone as Nintendo has a good track record.

What's wrong with it being an introductory system, new gamers gotta start somewhere, the big 3 can't rely on the previous generation's hardcore gamers. Wii is more kid-friendly and the price tag is more parent friendly. When looking for a system for their 6-10 year old, the future generation of gaming, what's a parent gonna pick? A $400-600 machine with state of the art graphics and mostly Teen-Mature games or a $250 system, that maybe doesn't have the best graphics, but has a bunch of kid friendly games that they'll be able to have fun playing with their kid. Also Nintendo is will give their long time fans sequels to the franchises they love and probably a few new great franchises as they always have.

I will say though that I share Zenien's worry of that being the future of consoles. It's why at first I disliked the X-box (later I just didn't like the original X-box's game line up, but that's another topic). I felt the X-box was trying to bridge the gap inbetween consoles and computers, and honestly I didn't want it to. I wanted console games to feel like something I couldn't get on a computer, and computer games to stay like they were. If I wanted them to be similar I'd just stick with my computer since I play it more anyway, and not buy consoles. If Wii were to set the standard and every console that came after it had some gimmick with the controls and motion capture I'd probably get sick of console games too. It's nice for awhile, but in the end I just like setting down with a normal PS2 like controller and playing a fighting game, RPG, or sports game or something.

Motion sensing probably will be the standard and Wii and PS3 are the systems that will go through the growing pains. To discount it so early is very short sighted, it's the next step like 3D enviroments, online gaming and like those there'll a lot of misses, but when it works it'll be great. There were a lot of fighting games/franchises that didn't work in 3D, but a lot that were also brilliant, sports and rpg's haven't changing much fundamentally as the systems have evolved. I can see the great sports franchises using motion sensing well, but I don't see it affecting RPGs that much. It's gonna have to just be used sparingly, like CGI in movies, use it to enhance the movie, not to be the movie.

 

[Kritish]

The 20 GB should have been priced around $300-350, if they had priced the PS3 at the normal cost it would have dethroned the 360 and the satanic wii wouldn't have even gotten off the ground. That and making more than ten during the first week of launch...

 

[Fran]

Did Shigeru Miyamoto rape you as a child, Kritish?

 

[Kritish]

Did Shigeru Miyamoto rape you as a child, Kritish?

Yeah, and I didn't even get a ****ing gift card for it!

 

[Zenien]

After some digging and listening to a fewpodcasts.

160K

Is apparently how many 360's were sold during the month of Febuary in it's first year versus 127k that the PS3 sold in it's first Febuary, so really, not that much of a difference.

 

[Deleted User]

After some digging and listening to a fewpodcasts.

160K

Is apparently how many 360's were sold during the month of Febuary in it's first year versus 127k that the PS3 sold in it's first Febuary, so really, not that much of a difference.

It would be worth mentioning that the Xbox 360 was also still hard as hell to find on shelves by February unlike the PS3. Also, are those worldwide sales numbers for the PS3 or just US sales numbers? Because the Xbox 360 sold 161000 units in the US in February 2006. Not altogether worldwide.

 

[BatMatt]

It would be worth mentioning that the Xbox 360 was also still hard as hell to find on shelves by February unlike the PS3. Also, are those worldwide sales numbers for the PS3 or just US sales numbers? Because the Xbox 360 sold 161000 units in the US in February 2006. Not altogether worldwide.

US numbers for the PS3, if I'm not mistaken

 

[Zenien]

NPD only reports on American and Canadian sales numbers, separately.

As long as we're playing the worth mentioning game back and forth. Remember we're talking about a console that is 100 and 200 dollars more expensive, with the 20 gig version being very hard to find in stores (because of shipment ratios).

 

[SupahSaiyangirl]

I doubt a drop in price infact i see this happening a year or two from now sony loses nearly $200-300 on every 20gig produced and $400-500 on the 60 sony is going to have to rely more than ever on the ps2 continous sucess but it may soon come to an end because sony has to get rid of the ps3 stock somehow. No price cut are going to happen sony with sony reeling from the laptop battery recalls, the dualshock lawsuit, price of developing blue ray, the cost of having to airlift ps3 to america to replenish stock from the crazy shortage in christmas, the price of the ps3, the price of the launch parties that have been utter failures, and on and on sony wouold be crazy to drop the price.

Sony would go the way of sega(at least sega had their own ips) previous consoles still selling but you still have a *****load new products that arent selling but you still lose money through production costs. bankruptcy anyone? sony will not drop its price unless they can find a way to brak even befor the end of the fiscal year. And with psp bombing in japan(after price drops notice the ds still sells without one) and barely afloat in other teritories sony has to maintain current prices unfortunately(for my wallet). Dont forget betamax, umds, and maybe blueray if we have learned anything when sony goes way outside of the box they get burned bad.

sony has placed everything on blueray and if microsoft was right with hd-dvd dear god sony will have a major problem on their hands. Lets not forget about our friend the wii those who say the remote is gimicky give it a chance all good ideas need time to develop look at the ds when it first came out ill even admit that i thought the stilus thing was a little um..weird and here we are playing the damn thing as though this has been the way things have always been done. the wheel was not the way it was today in day. In closing rumour ps3 drop is nothing more than a what it is a rumour if you add up all the things i have mentioned you'll see it near impossible for this to be conceivible.

now if you'll excuse me im off in search of the elusive wii. *_*

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

why can't people get the point that sony is not in any danger of dying anytime soon?! thier gaming division would be closed down thats a slight possibility. but the company as a whole ain't going under. sony has the new CPU and Blue ray to make money off of. they're not in any real danger.

 

[Avalanche]

i doubt a drop in price infact i see this happening a year or two from now sony loses nearly $200-300 on every 20gig produced and $400-500 on the 60 sony is going to have to rely more than ever on the ps2 continous sucess but it may soon come to an end because sony has to get rid of the ps3 stock somehow. no price cut are going to happen sony with sony reeling from the laptop battery recalls, the dualshock lawsuit, price of developing blue ray, the cost of having to airlift ps3 to america to replenish stock from the crazy shortage in christmas, the price of the ps3, the price of the launch parties that have been utter failures, and on and on sony wouold be crazy to drop the price. sony would go the way of sega(at least sega had their own ips) previous consoles still selling but you still have a *****load new products that arent selling but you still lose money through production costs. bankruptcy anyone? sony will not drop its price unless they can find a way to brak even befor the end of the fiscal year. and with psp bombing in japan(after price drops notice the ds still sells without one) and barely afloat in other teritories sony has to maintain current prices unfortunately(for my wallet). Dont forget betamax, umds, and maybe blueray if we have learned anything when sony goes way outside of the box they get burned bad. sony has placed everything on blueray and if microsoft was right with hd-dvd dear god sony will have a major problem on their hands. Lets not forget about our friend the wii those who say the remote is gimicky give it a chance all good ideas need time to develop look at the ds when it first came out ill even admit that i thought the stilus thing was a little um..weird and here we are playing the damn thing as though this has been the way things have always been done. the wheel was not the way it was today in day. In closing rumour ps3 drop is nothing more than a what it is a rumour if you add up all the things i have mentioned you'll see it near impossible for this to be conceivible.

now if you'll excuse me im off in search of the elusive wii. *_*

Arrrgh! The last sentence was the only one I could be bothered to make the effort reading. Paragraphs aren't that difficult!

 

[Zenien]

There's a lot of misinformation in that O_O

 

[SupahSaiyangirl]

there you go all my sources i assure you even though i am a sony fan i wont make up lies to make them look bad.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775340p1.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/16/analysis-sony-losing-240-on-every-ps3
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775302p1.html
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775302p1.html
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775342p1.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17741395/

and about my paragraphs 7 hours of school will do that to you!

 

[Spidey17]

We know Zenien, every single post she has is like that. I'm not trying to be rude SupahSaiyingirl, but can you rant less, or at least break up your posts, so they're like four medium-sized paragraphs, instead of one massive one???

 

[SupahSaiyangirl]

i did edited it yesterday but since the quoted me before the change it still shows up as one long thing.

 

[MangleBoP]

Here's the thing: Nintendo refuses to cater to the hardcore gamer. They have, by far, the fewest M rated games per system, and they tend to censor them. Sony and Microsoft, however, take great pains to appeal to adult gamers, which is where the real market lies: 18 to 34 year olds with disposable income.

 

[Fran]

What the hell?

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Here's the thing: Nintendo refuses to cater to the hardcore gamer. They have, by far, the fewest M rated games per system, and they tend to censor them. Sony and Microsoft, however, take great pains to appeal to adult gamers, which is where the real market lies: 18 to 34 year olds with disposable income.

This argument has never made sense to me, as a 29 male am I only supposed to be buying or interested in M rated games? I really don't even look at the ratings for the games I buy, more controls and fun factor and because of that I've owned every Nintendo system because no other company can match first party Nintendo games in control and fun factor. Are M rated games the only ones considered "hardcore"? Nintendo isn't censoring these games, third party developers don't release those games on Nintendo systems because they don't believe they'll sell. A lot of this is due to the one time Nintendo censored a game, way back in '93 with Mortal Kombat, kinda sucks that Nintendo still has that stigma from so long ago. Also, limiting the scope of your audience to 18 to 34 year old males is dumb because you're alienating a large potential audience. Look at hand helds, do you think Nintendo has dominated that market for what 18-19 years now by catering to only 18 to 34 year old males?

 

[Kritish]

Here's the thing: Nintendo refuses to cater to the hardcore gamer. They have, by far, the fewest M rated games per system, and they tend to censor them. Sony and Microsoft, however, take great pains to appeal to adult gamers, which is where the real market lies: 18 to 34 year olds with disposable income.

Your font makes you look like a dumb ass but you're right. The fact is that Nintendo would rather cater to pre-teens than adults. Sure, there's plenty of adults that will play Nintendo games but Xbox and Sony care about their adult fanbase and that's what matters to me.

 

[Tyrinus]

Here's the thing: Nintendo refuses to cater to the hardcore gamer. They have, by far, the fewest M rated games per system, and they tend to censor them. Sony and Microsoft, however, take great pains to appeal to adult gamers, which is where the real market lies: 18 to 34 year olds with disposable income.

"Hardcore" is a niche market, not mainstream. And the main thing so many "gamers" have forgotten is that gaming isn't about games being "mature," gaming is about fun. Nothing more...just fun. A game doesn't need blood, gore, and swearing to be fun. If someone thinks it does, well then I feel sorry for them for being so closed minded they miss out on a good time.

I've never been disappointed with my Nintendo products. They may not have had the selection of games at times, but there was always something fun to play. I have a PS2 as well, and I love it too. But why should I miss out on fun games by limiting myself to one system?

 

[Oerwinde]

I doubt a drop in price infact i see this happening a year or two from now sony loses nearly $200-300 on every 20gig produced and $400-500 on the 60 sony is going to have to rely more than ever on the ps2 continous sucess but it may soon come to an end because sony has to get rid of the ps3 stock somehow. No price cut are going to happen sony with sony reeling from the laptop battery recalls, the dualshock lawsuit, price of developing blue ray, the cost of having to airlift ps3 to america to replenish stock from the crazy shortage in christmas, the price of the ps3, the price of the launch parties that have been utter failures, and on and on sony wouold be crazy to drop the price.

Sony would go the way of sega(at least sega had their own ips) previous consoles still selling but you still have a *****load new products that arent selling but you still lose money through production costs. bankruptcy anyone? sony will not drop its price unless they can find a way to brak even befor the end of the fiscal year. And with psp bombing in japan(after price drops notice the ds still sells without one) and barely afloat in other teritories sony has to maintain current prices unfortunately(for my wallet). Dont forget betamax, umds, and maybe blueray if we have learned anything when sony goes way outside of the box they get burned bad.

sony has placed everything on blueray and if microsoft was right with hd-dvd dear god sony will have a major problem on their hands. Lets not forget about our friend the wii those who say the remote is gimicky give it a chance all good ideas need time to develop look at the ds when it first came out ill even admit that i thought the stilus thing was a little um..weird and here we are playing the damn thing as though this has been the way things have always been done. the wheel was not the way it was today in day. In closing rumour ps3 drop is nothing more than a what it is a rumour if you add up all the things i have mentioned you'll see it near impossible for this to be conceivible.

now if you'll excuse me im off in search of the elusive wii. *_*

there you go all my sources i assure you even though i am a sony fan i wont make up lies to make them look bad.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775340p1.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/16/analysis-sony-losing-240-on-every-ps3
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775302p1.html
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775302p1.html
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775342p1.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17741395/

and about my paragraphs 7 hours of school will do that to you!

The quoted sources destroy your loss numbers. $240 for the 60GB system is not $400-$500. Its also a semi old article. The costs of manufacturing are going down and I'd likely see the loss on the 60GB version down to around $100 by christmas. And if so, it would make sense for a $100 price decrease, which would increase sales, which would then increase game sales, which is where all their money is made. Also, having a $500 blu-ray player would make Blu-Ray even more accessable and drive up sales of those too. I could see the PS3 breaking even on every sale by next summer and possibly making a profit by next christmas. I doubt it will catch up to the 360 and Wii, but it will end up with some very respectable numbers.

And MS was wrong on the HD-DVD thing. Blu-Ray is winning and the more PS3s sell the larger lead it will get. And a lot of people forget that Blu-Ray isn't just a sony format. Sony may be the biggest supporter, but its not a proprietary format like UMD, Minidisc, Beta, etc. And because of that it has a much higher chance of success.

DS is selling without a price drop because it was already $100 cheaper than the PSP. If the PSP was the same price as the DS, I'd have likely bought it instead. It has more games I want to play, emulation support, built in MP3 player, movies, etc.

 

[MangleBoP]

This argument has never made sense to me, as a 29 male am I only supposed to be buying or interested in M rated games? I really don't even look at the ratings for the games I buy, more controls and fun factor and because of that I've owned every Nintendo system because no other company can match first party Nintendo games in control and fun factor. Are M rated games the only ones considered "hardcore"? Nintendo isn't censoring these games, third party developers don't release those games on Nintendo systems because they don't believe they'll sell. A lot of this is due to the one time Nintendo censored a game, way back in '93 with Mortal Kombat, kinda sucks that Nintendo still has that stigma from so long ago. Also, limiting the scope of your audience to 18 to 34 year old males is dumb because you're alienating a large potential audience. Look at hand helds, do you think Nintendo has dominated that market for what 18-19 years now by catering to only 18 to 34 year old males?

I'm not saying Sony and Microsoft should only support games intended to appeal to 18-34 year olds. I am saying Nintendo tends to alienate that demographic by having very few games that are marketed to them. Sony and Microsoft have plenty of kid friendly games, and plenty of games with a universal appeal. And as for control? Sony's controller layout is ergonomicaly sound, and the button placement is intuitively simple. Microsoft did their best to copy Sony's design without getting sued. But the N64 and the Gamecube controllers are ridiculous! I haven't tried the Wiimote, (which is a Wiitarded name) but I'll admit it seems reasonably easy to use.

 

[MangleBoP]

Your font makes you look like a dumb ass but you're right. The fact is that Nintendo would rather cater to pre-teens than adults. Sure, there's plenty of adults that will play Nintendo games but Xbox and Sony care about their adult fanbase and that's what matters to me.

I like my font, dammit! But thank you, that's exactly what I'm talking about: No, games don't have to be about blood, gore, swearing, or partial nudity. But if you like those things in your games, (and many 18-34 year olds do) then it doesn't make sense to buy a system that is marketed almost exclusively to the 12-and-under crowd. Personaly, I enjoy games like Pokemon or Monster Rancher, but I also love games like Resident Evil and GTA. I'm also a fan of the Final Fantasy games, which Nintendo stopped having on their consoles a long time ago. Yes, I know they still have them on DS, but I said console, not portable.