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Sony: “Hopefully Last Year Is As Bad As It Gets”
Sony Computer Entertainment president Jack Tretton has spoken of fiscal 2008 as “a very challenging period of trying to sell future technology.”
Tretton told Fast Company that Sony had successfully met its PlayStation 3 sales target during the last financial year, but he also noted the difficulty of pushing a high-end device at a time when consumers were being particularly cost-conscious.
“Hopefully last year is as bad as it gets. I think all indicators are that 2009 is going better than 2008. In 2008, we had a 38 per cent increase in sales and we hit our ten million units worldwide goal for PS3 sales… At the worst possible time, if you're hitting numbers and delivering success... my hope is that as our production efficiencies improve and more great games come to market, the horizon has got to be better for 2009 and 2010.
“It's like being out there in a storm - it does cause you to question your conviction, and tie yourself to the mast and weather the storm," he added. "We have hit a very challenging period of trying to sell future technology, a high-end device, but is on the high-end retail pricing spectrum, at a time when people's disposable income is limited. But I think the fact we were successful in that says people are getting the message, that you get tremendous value when you buy a PlayStation product. Yes there are cheaper machines out there, but not ones that deliver the degree of value for the money that ours does.”
Having sold ten million PS3 units last business year, Sony is targeting 13 million system sales during the current one. The predicted 30 per cent sales increase has led analysts to forecast a PS3 price cut this summer, but earlier this week Sony CEO Howard Stringer dismissed rumours of an impending price drop as illogical.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
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The PS3 is the better IMO (i better put this in just before someone has a fit). I prefer the PS3's exclusives.
No one should ever have a fit over a preference. I prefer my 360 (well most of the time),but I wouldn't ever give up my PS3. I too like the exclusives and I like the Blu-Ray capability.. All the consoles have their strengths and weaknesses.
Totally agree with the voice of reason. However, if you rule out people having fits over preference you've probably killed off most of what passes for debate online. Which would not be an entirely bad thing...
hehehe.........you do have a point there. I just like to try and keep the debate civil and positive. Seems to me too much time is wasted on accusations, implications, direct insults, etc etc.
The bottom line is that most people buy a console for the games, no matter how much added value you get with the PS3s Blu-Ray and Wi-Fi if the games still look the same on the 360 then people will continue to buy the cheaper console. A price cut is the only way Sony can remain competitive, and they'd better sort it out before Natal launches or they'll be dead in the water.
If the PS3 Slim is still £300 when it's released (let's face it, it's going to happen at some point), then it'll get even worse for Sony. I washed my hands with them last year. They've woken up to the fact that the PS3 is a rip-off, the price needs to be dropped but they're too hard faced to admit it.
the Wii and XBOX360 is more of a rip off than PS3, because PS3 is actually worth about $40 MORE than it costs. Sony is not making money on the system, they just want to expand the install base so they can make money on the games. also to maintain console sales until the cost to make PS3 comes below what it cost at retails.
anyone asking for a PS3 price cut is not thinking straight.
I don't think the PS3 is a rip off. I think Sony just stumbled a bit with this generation. It is getting better as far as games and quality goes. Maybe they will stay 3rd or maybe they wont. It is still better with them in the market than not. Without the strong competition from Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft wouldn't be doing near as many creative things. The slug match between Microsoft and Sony is good for us all.
I wish the "Orbs" would've been ready in time for the launch of the Slim-PS3. Then they would at least hold the title of coolest game system ever, certainly a true update to the PS2.
As it stands, it looks like they'll be about six months apart....sigh.
PS3 is not good value. £120 Blu ray players are not helping it as they took away the one feature that could be used to justify the price. For all the rubbish Sony talks about how advanced the ps3 is, the truth is that it is no more powerful than the 360 yet costs way more.
Yes, the Xbox is a cheaper console but what about the add ons? You may not want to pay for things like wireless, and so you can count the money you save. But do you want to be able to recharge your controllers? 15 quid, please. Want to play your friends online? That's an additional subscription, thank you very much. The console, a recharge pack and live over two years pretty much equals the price of a PS3, though. I'm willing to bet a number of Xbox owners who moan about the PS3's price willl probably have paid more than the price of a PS3 over time because the Xbox necessitates extra payments...
So the Xbox is cheap only before add ons which actually make me feel they're cheating on the headline price. That's also for a console that rattled and whirred worse than a dying pc (prior to the update) and didn't do everything that I want as standard out of the box. not even mentioning hardware issues. Which all feels like an image of a good price underwritten by poor value.
I own all three for the games not for love of the corporations. But enough articles way back when pointed out that the Xbox headline price wasn't a fair reflection on what you'd actually pay, so I'm not sure where the perceived 'better' Xbox value (as well as price) comes from
A picture is worth a thousand words!
I've been very lucky to have never seen that. Knock on black plastic! ;-)
I have to sympathise with him a little. He knows how important it is to shift more units now as the momentum will start to fall off soon if they can’t. He has everyone continually telling him to reduce the price, which Sony obviously don’t think they can afford to do otherwise they would have done it months ago. He also knows that Natal has given Microsoft a huge lift in terms of keeping the 360 fresh. All he can really do right now is smile and say everything’s going to be fine.
I agree that pushing the value aspect of the Playstation 3 is a good move for Sony. Unfortunately, the PS3 is NOT good value for money and is often perceived that way by potential buyers. Hence the never ending hoo-hah about price cuts.
For a large chunk of the population PS3 is not delivering anything that the 360 isn't.
*Value* means little if the *price* is too high. A five thousand dollar Bentley would be a great *value*- but a lot of people still couldn't afford the price.
And I'm not saying a $400 PS3 is too much- I paid that for my 360. But I had the cash to do so then. I don't have $400 to spend on a console now, regardless of how good the bang for the buck is.
But I am saving up for one.
A PS3 goes for something like £180 in Japan, I'll buy one at that price. I'm more hard faced than Sony so I'm holding out but only if it sells for under £200.
This guy says it right. Value when discussing the Playstation 3.
Although he needs to start getting the word out about the value-propositions; as a lot of people don't know what they are - and it's not like developers are helping.
On the negative side, I don't think the worst is over, but I guess he has to be optimistic.
Being cynical, he's paid to seem optimistic whether or not he is...
But I agree that value is what they should emphasise. Hard to do when people confuse price and value, but necessary all the same. Sad that they're still, to some degree, pushing the high-end angle when it really can't help. But the real shame is that they've taken so long to get round to a number of approaches they should've taken from the off.