Sony says No Plans to Cut PS3 Price
By Shawn on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 8:03 AM PST In Sony, Sony
Bloomberg has bad news for all those people hoping that a
“We have no immediate plans as of now” for price cuts, President Ryoji Chubachi said today in an interview in
Tokyo . Any change in the console’s price “is a matter” for Sony’s game unit, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., he said.
A lower price would boost sales on Sony’s next gen console, which has suffered record losses. Nintendo’s market value outstripped Sony’s for the first time last month. However any price cut will be universal affecting all retail chains.
“It is hard to imagine that
Circuit City alone would cut the price on a game consoles,” said David Abrams, chief executive officer at CAGCAST, an online game retailer inTokyo . “This must be a retail-wide move.”
Bill Cimino, spokesman for Circuit City, declined to comment on the report. Representatives of Best Buy and Walmart have not been reached at this time.
Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. claimed Sony’s competition may be announcing price cuts on their consoles at E3 in a report yesterday and he speculates that Sony could drop the retail price of the PS3 up to $150. However based on this morning’s statement, it looks like those gamers dreaming of an affordable PS3 are destined to be disappointed.
I’d actually agree with Mr. Fujimori. I expect that Sony will be announcing a PS3 price cut at E3, or shortly thereafter. It may not be as substantial as $150, but a $75-$100 price cut wouldn’t shock me at all.
Regardless of what their corporate president might say, Sony’s game divisions know that the price cut is needed, and that sales are suffering because of the current price point, and also from the lack of games for the high-end console.
Don’t get your hopes too high, but don’t be surprised when it happens in the next 4-6 weeks.
Maybe they’ll drop the price around the fall… say maybe end of September?
