(Inspiration – Sean Hackbarth’s TAM Money and Finance)
It’s no secret that Playstation 3 has bombed for Sony since its Christmas 2006 launch as the most-expensive gaming system ever. So, what does Sony do?
– First, it keeps on producing and supporting the Playstation 2. It may have worked once when the PS2 was a “mere” $300 and the PS1 was knocked down to $100, but do note that neither Microsoft nor Nintendo went that route when they brought out the Xbox 360 and Wii.
– Drop the “cheaper” $500 version, with a 20 GB hard drive, no card reader and no wireless networking back in April in favor of the then-$600 version with a 60 GB hard drive, a built-in card reader, and built-in wireless networking.
– Make a higher-capaicity version (80 GB hard drive vs. a 60 GB hard drive) with an included game, and dropped the price of the “base” 60 GB version at $500, still $20 higher than the highest-cost Xbox 360 Elite (which has a larger hard drive than either PS3, but does not include a high-definition DVD player, which is a $200 add-on or wireless networking, a $100 add-on).
Smooth, Sony. REAL smooth.
As I noted on Sean’s Financial site, knocking the price down $100 will NOT help the PS3 one bit. Consumers will continue to flock to the Wii in droves (if they can find one), and Microsoft will continue to experience growing pains and bad feelings over the Red Circle of Death issues it had to deal with at the outset…