Another possible PS3 price drop?

[Gus122000]

Apparently now the ps3 cost a hell of a lot cheaper to manufacture:
"PlayStation 3 production costs drop substantially"
"When the Sony PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006, many criticized its expensive price and its inclusion of an internal Blu-ray drive.

It was not only consumers that felt the squeeze however. The industry group iSuppli estimated last year that the initial cost to manufacture the 60GB unit was $840.35 USD, way higher than even Sony was charging for the console meaning the company was losing hundreds of dollars per console.

A year later however, Sony has managed to close the gap a substantial amount although they are still losing money. BusinessWeek reported this week that the PS3 now costs around $400 USD to manufacture and that Sony will only lose $1.4 billion USD in its gaming division for 2007 compared to $2.1 billion USD for 2006.

Production cost drops have been attributed to a few new advances in technology as well as higher supply. Firstly, the Cell Broadband Engine chip was shrunk to 65nm. The blue-violet laser diodes used for the Blu-ray drive have also seen a huge increase in yield and supply. Sony also removed the backwards compatibility engine for PS2 titles from its 40GB unit, dropping production costs even further.

Sony Entertainment boss Kazuo Hirai explained at CES that the gaming division hopes to be profitable by the next fiscal year."
Source:http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12567.cfm

 

[Mangofett]

I think they'd keep it at the same price so they can recover some of that billion of which they lost.

 

[GameDragon]

Yeah, it wouldn't make sense to drop the price again. At least not now.

 

[science]

Losing $1,400,000,000 is good news?

 

[Grimalkin]

Losing $1,400,000,000 is good news?

A lot better than 2,100,000,000.

 

[OSW]

but alot worse than nintendos $$$$$$$$$$$ profit

 

[TaMs]

Atleast they're not only thinking profit like nintendo. : D

 

[Hit]

Atleast they're not only thinking profit like nintendo. : D

Consoles always are made for profit, i don't care if Sony wants to waste money
But that procedure is not normal

 

[shinji257]

Actually that is quite opposite to what I was told. Consoles are usually made at a loss to the company but the idea is that they can make up those losses in game sales. This would explain why games are so dang expensive. $60 per game??? Ouch. Unfortunately I have no intention on buying a PS3 until FF13 comes out and there is no guarantee that I will buy the console even if the game does come out.

 

[Mangofett]

Actually that is quite opposite to what I was told. Consoles are usually made at a loss to the company but the idea is that they can make up those losses in game sales. This would explain why games are so dang expensive. $60 per game??? Ouch. Unfortunately I have no intention on buying a PS3 until FF13 comes out and there is no guarantee that I will buy the console even if the game does come out.

Games used to be even more expensive than 60$.

 

[shinji257]

When were they $60??? I remember when they were $40. Last gen games had started at $50 when they initially came out.

 

[beedog19]

I believe the occasional SNES game would retail for over $60 with some (Final Fantasy) reaching around $70. I'm sure there's someone here who knows better than I since I was still pretty young during the SNES days.

 

[Hadrian]

I believe the occasional SNES game would retail for over $60 with some (Final Fantasy) reaching around $70. I'm sure there's someone here who knows better than I since I was still pretty young during the SNES days.

Well I dunno about US gamers but us Brits were royally ripped off, I remember Street Fighter 2 being £70 when released here. I think in the late 90's Nintendo got fined for ripping us off.

 

[BoneMonkey]

now that blueray one there will be no price drops anytime soon

i say in 2 years the ps3 will be 199.99

 

[Grimalkin]

A lot of companies don't make money for developing systems. They make most of the money from the addons/peripherals. Same as when a company develops a game system, they make most of the money from marketing advertising and the games they develop.

 

[Deleted member 110780]

When were they $60??? I remember when they were $40. Last gen games had started at $50 when they initially came out.

Back in the N64 days, retailers charged $60-70 per game. Then people figured out they could buy games cheaper online, so it wasn't that much of a problem... Except for us kids XD

I also agree with some of the posts above. I forgot the source, but they took apart each console, priced each piece and found that each one costed $100 or more than the retail price to manufacture. Companies make money off of software, not consoles.

 

[JohnDrake]

Confirmed false.

On a side note, nothing says failure and desperation like a $300 price drop within the first year of a console's lifespan.

(^Translation: Sony isn't dumb.)

It's really too bad. I wish I was wrong about this as I have a mate who is looking to jump in. (whoops, wrong system)

 

[ZeWarrior]

Confirmed false.

On a side note, nothing says failure and desperation like a $300 price drop within the first year of a console's lifespan.Â

(^Translation:Â Sony isn't dumb.)

It's really too bad. I wish I was wrong about this as I have a mate who is looking to jump in. (whoops, wrong system)

It's not desperation. Sony's managed to get the PS3 down to only $400 to manufacturer, why the fuck would they keep it at $600? Besides Both the 360 and PS3 need to be at a $300 sku.

 

[JohnDrake]

Confirmed false.

On a side note, nothing says failure and desperation like a $300 price drop within the first year of a console's lifespan. 

(^Translation:  Sony isn't dumb.)

It's really too bad.  I wish I was wrong about this as I have a mate who is looking to jump in. (whoops, wrong system)



It's not desperation. Sony's managed to get the PS3 down to only $400 to manufacturer, why the fuck would they keep it at $600? Besides Both the 360 and PS3 need to be at a $300 sku.

Yeah, sure its not.

 

[amptor]

good thing we don't have floods of lamers these days boasting that "piracy would help Sony sell video games" because that is a flat out lie.

What would help is if the damn bluray wasn't so expensive, then they could lower production costs quite a bit. I think the drive alone cost $129, whereas a dual layer dvd reader costs maybe about $3-$5 to manufacture these days. See huge price difference?

Microsoft took the cheap way out, they knew you dind't need 50GB for games these days, it is too early for that. All you'd end up doing is filling that 50 gig with FMV for the most part. Sure some RPG need maybe 3 dual layer discs but that's still cheaper than one bluray.

I for one am waiting for the PS3 to be cheap because I have enough consoles to keep me more than busy. Will buy one when the time is right, but that time is not right now. Of course I could afford one, but I'm looking at a big black piece of plastic that I wouldn't even use.