With the world’s biggest video game expo wrapping up, many onlookers are expressing their disappointment that Sony did not announce a price drop for the PS3.
It has been one of the most hotly debated re-occurring rumors over the past year, and many thought that Sony would eventually make the announcement at E3. With no real motivation behind the rumors, other than the fact that the console is perceived as being too expensive, it comes as no real surprise to us that Sony did not make the announcement.
Sony is sticking to the same argument it always has when asked about a price cut, stating that the quality of its console and the lineup of games more than justifies its comparatively high price.
A price cut on the console before the end of the year is still on the table but E3 is perhaps not the right time for a company to be devaluing its product. E3 is a platform designed to promote new and exciting games and ideas, big announcements and to showoff flashy first-looks and hands on previews.
Announcing a price cut would have sent out the wrong message. Instead of focusing on the strengths of the console, cutting the price would essentially be reinforcing the negative perception that the PS3 was previously overpriced.
Sony is instead maintaining that the price is justified by the product value. In terms of a marketing strategy, Sony did the right thing here. Reinforcing the perceived high value proposition of its product in the short term will only lead to even greater sales when the price cut is eventually announced.
Speculation suggests that there will be an announcement of the PS3 Slim at the Tokyo Game show in September. Inside sources at Sony apparently revealed to Fudzilla that this announcement was held back from E3 so that Sony could clear existing PS3 stock before announcing the new console.
Many analysts are predicting a price cut on the regular PS3 following the announcement of the PS3 Slim, even if it is a temporary measure designed to promote sales on the older model.
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