The USA has been a difficult region for Sony over the past few years. The Wii has dominated sales charts consistently due to its ability to appeal to a market beyond core gamers, and the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 thanks to a number of factors, one of which is price.
Recently released NPD findings indicate a very strong consumer reaction to the recently released PS3 120GB Slim for $300. This model increases the already high value proposition of the outgoing 80GB PS3, by being smaller, lighter and cooler and featuring a larger hardrive. Furthermore, at $100 less than the previous model, the PS3 Slim was bound to do well at retail.
Between August and September, Sony increased its PS3 sales figures by 70%. Furthermore, the company managed to sell over double the amount of PS3s in September 09 as it did in September 08.
The sales boost is directly linked to the PS3 price cut, however, Microsoft reacted by cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $300, a move which analysts thought would contain the explosion of PS3 sales. However, the value proposition of a brand new PS3 model being made cheaper has obviously outweighed that of the $100 price cut on the Xbox 360 Elite.
Nintendo even jumped on the bandwagon and reduced the price of the Wii from $250 to $200 in late September. However, this reduction was made too late to really affect September sales figures, and Sony for the first time in history sold more PS3s in a month that Nintendo and Microsoft did Xbox 360s and Wiis.
US home console sales figures for September 09
1. PlayStation 3 – 491,800
2. Wii – 462,800
3. Xbox 360 – 352,600
It would seem that at its new price point, the PS3 Slim may offer more value than the Xbox 360. When we consider that Sony’s console features additional functionality such as a Blu-ray player, built in Wifi, and remotes with built in rechargeable batteries, the Slim measures up well against the Xbox 360.
Furthermore, the recent release of the PS3 exclusive Uncharted 2, which currently holds a Metacritic rating of 96 percent , does a lot for the perception of the quality of games available exclusively on PS3.
The Xbox 360 Elite is now typically priced at R3399 in SA, while the PS3 Slim carries a recommended retail price of R3799 and the Wii is R2499.
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