Sony Focused on Short-term PlayStation Profitability; Microsoft Expects PS3 Price Cut Soon

I don't own a console, but even with all the flak Sony gets, I still don't see why anyone would buy an Xbox over a PS3 unless they're strapped for cash.

Heck, even if you are penniless, I wouldn't want a 360 because I'd still likely want to buy a wireless ethernet adapter and subscribe to xbox live - both the wireless adapter and online play come free with the PS3.

Even the games aren't a big sway toward the 360. If you're like me and don't care about the Gears of War series or Halo 3, the 360 doesn't have that many desirable exclusive titles. Not as many as the PS3. And for all the cross-platform titles, I'd still rather play them on a PS3 because it offers the free online play component.

Plus you get the Blu-Ray player.

A price drop for the PS3 would definately make me consider getting one.

I am mainly a pc gamer - not only for it's performance superiority, but also devs seem to make more of my kinds of titles for pc. That being said, I do usually keep a console, just for the whackoff type gaming - pick up n play - which sometimes is what you want. In the past, I'd sometimes regret my choice of console when a killer title would come out exclusively for a different unit - Res Evil 4 was the worst, almost bought a nintendo for it - But, so far, the PS3 has done arright. There's not a single title that has me regretting my call, and I'd be bummed hard if I couldn't run VC or LBP, and I'm a nerd for Ratchet. Still, Sony's inability to sell units will be a problem as devs will be forced to jump ship. Won't matter after Empire comes out anyway....

Even if it dropped to $300 I still wouldn't buy one, but I already have a 360.

How many decent exclusives are there to get people who already have a 360 to buy one? MGS4, LBP and maybe Resistance 2? Ever since they lost the "Cheapest Blu-ray player" title I haven't seen much of a reason to pick one up.

"The most important thing for us as a company in the very short term is for us to start making money,"
lol i love that line. I think i'll quote it at our next staff meeting.

If Sony had made the PS3 a game counsole, they'd have sold a lot more units. Instead they made a weapon against Toshiba in the BD/HD-DVD format war and plotted to control the living room with their new "computer". The thing costs way too much to produce, and took way too long to get to market.

Well, Sony won the war. Congratu-fricking-lations. The PS3 is getting its ass kicked and BluRay still has its own problems despite the death of HD-DVD. Sony's business plan is "Hey, see that new stuff people want? Let's keep them from buying it!" Thing is, once you're done trying to beat your competitors and screw the consumers, you still have to find a way to make money.

What really sucks about all this is Microsoft is getting away with shitty hardware that breaks on just about everyone. Sony is make a quality product that hardly breaks to my knowledge and they are getting the shaft because programmers don't want to take the time to learn the coding for the cell processor.

Does Sony expect a Xbox price cut though?

The thing is, the PS3 doesn't really have a problem with its install base at all, they have problems with people buying games.

Sony loses money on each PS3 sold (Although I think it's down to $50 or something now), so a price cut would do nothing more than mean they're losing MORE money, and then add more people buying PS3s on top of that and you're not looking at a bright picture. The only way this could possibly be turned around is by releasing an idiot-kit version of the PS3 (Analogous to the 360 arcade) that's cheaper for Sony to build by a fair margin, but that's probably not going to happen.

The thing is, Sony make their money through the games, and the games that aren't selling anywhere near as well as the 360. Especially if those Nielson ratings are to be believed, they just have a really big problem with people not playing games on their console at all.

Rather than a price cut that could actually end up being pretty disastrous financially, they'd do much better to work out how to get more people playing games on their system. Improving PSN, getting some worthy DLC, and maybe even trying to do something useful that the Xbox doesn't have would probably be the best way for Sony to boost their player base, and therefore their profits, in the short term.

Give us a reason to buy something on the PS3 rather than the 360, because currently there's next to no reason at all (And when it comes to online, it's actually considerably worse on the PS3 in my experience).

Seems a little boneheaded to me to pull a price cut right after the holiday rush instead of before it, but hey wtf do I know ?

"The most important thing for us as a company in the very short term is for us to start making money," said SCE Europe president David Reeves in a statement on the official PlayStation website. "Once we have alleviated that specific pressure, we can move forward at a rate of knots."

Wow, that's genius right there. Before he made this statement what was the most important goal?

Sony was hoping for better holiday sales numbers but since PS3 sales actually declined (compared to 2007 holiday season) it is a foregone conclusion that they will be cutting the price ASAP. My guess is it will be a $100 price cut.

Still, you are right. Sony missed out on an opportunity to get more PS3 into the hands of consumers, even if each PS3 had been sold at a staggering loss. Now we are over the fall/winter holiday buying season and into the Spring/Summer drought when people don't spend much on video gaming.