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NPD Expects PS3 Sales To Increase By 40-60 Per Cent
NPD analyst Anita Frazier has forecast a significant rise in US PS3 sales following the introduction of the PS3 Slim and the console’s new $299 price point.
"The $299 price point is important to getting to a point where the next segment of price-conscious consumers can jump into the market and it most certainly will re-energise sales of the platform," she told Information Week. "We would expect to see in the range of a 40 to 60 per cent unit sales increase when September sales are reported."
The price cut is expected to make the PS3 more competitive with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which has comfortably outsold Sony’s console in the US marketplace in recent months.
The console already appears to be in strong demand, with online retailer Amazon recently warning of potential shortages as the system topped its videogame sales chart based on pre-orders. However, Frazier said that software remains “the key motivator of a hardware purchase decision,” noting that “other systems might too take a price cut, so there's a lot playing into which system tops sales any particular month."
While Sony has an impressive line-up of PS3 exclusive software due for release before the end of the current fiscal year in March 2010, including Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, God Of War III and Heavy Rain, Microsoft is expected to follow its rival’s lead and cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299 before the end of the month.
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Elex I would say 2 years left, before being superceded by your next console would equate to the "arse end" of a systems cycle. Or do you live by dog years? mmmm
Having just watched the video i thought the ps3 slim would be alot smaller ,not that im saying it looks bad but i certainly wouldn't be in any rush to replace my existing ps3 with one..
Sony will probably release a mini PS3 another 3-4 years from now, they waited until they got PS3 hardware costs under control first before doing this price cut, Sony's just following their own timetable
now a reaction from MS to this price cut would be desperate, especially since they've went back to losing money following the 360 price cuts last winter
It makes me chuckle that some people think Sony decided to do this three months ago or something. Seeing as the PS2 Slim was released four years into that system's lifespan, it's not unreasonable to think that Sony had this roadmapped right from the start. It's not like you can just wave a magic wand and redesign a console; it takes R&D - probably years of it - to do so, and you need to predict when components will come down in price as well. Sony may have pushed up the timetable for this redesign based on their poor market performance, but I'm sure it was in the cards from day one.
I agree, this must have been in the cards since day one but I think Sony never anticipated having to release it this earlier, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they probably thought of releasing it a year latter than they did with the PS2 so it would have been around 5 years after the launch. It not hard to imagine seeing as how cocky they were right upon launch and around the whole first year saying that the Wii was just a fad and that consumers will soon jump back to the PS3, remember that we were supposed to get extra jobs to be able to buy it.
Its a really remarkable story and one that seems to repeat again and again, first Sega, then Nintendo and now Sony, seems that next in like for a major screw up is Microsoft.
That thing is utterly hideous. I can't see any reason whatsoever to buy one over the 'phat' version. It's not as if it's any cheaper but it looks significantly tackier and, given that its existence is merely a cost-cutting measure, I'm convinced that the build quality and reliability will be inferior as well.
The 360 isn't exactly pretty either. Not that it matters. You should be looking at the TV screen, not the console, when using it.
True, but when you're not using it you have to look at it. What makes the PS3 Slim even worse is the fact it is deeper than the 'fat' model giving it a real Atari 5200 vibe which is certainly not a good thing.
I'm not getting why people say it's a desperate move from Sony. It's just a move (and a good one), not a desperate one. It's as desperate as the MS price cut late last year. It's a good move from Sony not only because of the Slim, but because they added a price cut to it.
Let's just let Sony and MS fight each other. This is good for the market.
But is a $299 Elite a match for a $299 Slim PS3?
Why oh why didn't they make the thing much slimer by having an external power unit? I mean who really looks at the cable on the floor? And why didn't they make it glossy and shiny like the the outside of the original PS3 model?
who really looks at the cable on the floor?
Pretty much everybody. That's the first question I get when people come into my house for the first time and see the back of my TV. "Are you going to hide those cables?" The thing is if I could then I would but I'm not sure of a clean way to do it.
I hate power bricks. It's one of my complaints about the xblox.
Is this realy a PS3 Slim? Considering the size differance between the PS1/PS2 Slim, this one is supersized. To me most of the saved space seems to come from the fact that to power "brick" is external (also smaller fans). Anyway Slim PS consoles tend to be launched at the arse end of the consoles life (new console announcement on the cards). This smacks me as desperation the size is not MUCH smaller (not the depth) and the "10 years" is not even halfway through
well, with the exception of the Wii, every console in history has come down in price after a few years on the market. PSOne was indeed launched at the end of the original PS' life cycle, but the slim PS2 was released in 2004, which was hardly the "arse end" of PS2's era since games like FFXII, God of War, GT4 and Dragon Quest VIII had yet to be released. i guess a case can be argued that the Slim seems like a desperate move, considering PS3's US sales of late. however, nothing about the Slim PS3 is outside of the norm for how Sony has done things before.
Of course it's a desperation move. The PS3's momentum kept falling while Xbox and Wii did well. If anything, rushing out a redesigned system with a price drop was a great business move. My only criticism is that they should have done it sooner.
This will give the PS3 new-system-like momentum and media coverage. It will give a much needed boost to Blu-Ray stats, and if all goes well, maybe even give Sony a glimmer of hope that the PS3 will break even.
I would imagine that Sony will wait and see how this does to decide whether they will rush to be the first company out of the gate with a new system for the next generation.
good luck sony