Two days ago, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey proved that he knows very little about the gaming industry, when he predicted that Sony would release a PS3 without Blu-Ray functionality in order to cut costs.
His prediction is routed in another of his predictions, this one not so idiotic, that Sony will look to reduce the PS3’s retail price by $100 in 2009. Obviously if Sony were to replace the Blu-Ray drive with a conventional DVD drive, it would be fairly easy for the manufacturer to drop its price.
However, if Sony were to release a PS3 without a Blu-Ray drive, the console in question would not be able to play a single currently available PS3 game.
In order for the strategy to be viable, developers would have to re-release at least a significant proportion, if not all currently available PS3 titles on DVD format. This would mean that titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 which make use of Blu-Ray’s extra storage space, would have to be released using multiple DVDs.
Furthermore, Hickey obviously does not pay much attention to the media, or he would know that Blu-Ray won the High-Definition war, and for Sony to remove one of its key value propositions over the Xbox 360 would most definitely be a step backwards.
Finally, the PS3 really is not selling as badly as many would have us believe. In 2008, Sony shipped 10.77 million PS3s. The cheaper Xbox 360 managed a sales figure of 10.8 million. In fact, the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 in 2008 right up until October, when Microsoft started seeing massive holiday sales, eventually selling 6 million consoles in the forth quarter alone to snatch the top sales crown for 2008.
Sony was quick to respond, telling Gamedaily that there is definitely not going to be a price drop on the PS3 anytime soon. According to a Sony representative, the company is on track to meet its goal of 10 million PS3s sold in the current fiscal year.
While we don’t necessarily buy that Sony will not drop the PS3’s price, we can understand why they don’t want people waiting around for a price cut, especially with Killzone 2 about to hit shelves.
Our money is on Sony cutting the PS3’s price later this year, in time for the holiday season. After all, they have managed to get their production costs down, and are now only losing $50 on each console sold, as opposed to the previous figure of $290.
However, Sony’s current official stance is that they are focusing on providing great games and excellent service delivery (PSN) that justifies the relatively higher cost of its console.
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