With the phenomenal sales of the original PS1 and PS2, Sony was once way ahead of the curve. So it’s come to be quite a disappointment to see the PS3 limping along this generation. When Ken Kuturagi unveiled the PS3 back in 2005, it was touted as the most powerful and revolutionary gaming system ever made. Apparently, all that power and revolution didn’t mean squat. Looking at the December 2008 sales figures, we can see that the Wii completely outsold the PS3 almost 3:1, with the Xbox 360 outselling almost 2:1.
* Wii — 2,150,000
* Xbox 360 — 1,440,000
* PlayStation 3 — 726,000
Sony needs to do some damage control, and they need to do it fast. Here are some suggestions to make 2009, the year of the Playstation.
PS3 Price Drop
Since there’s no way for the PS3 to compete with the Wii, the best that they can do right now is fight for 2nd place. With the current recession, it’s obviously not a good idea to be the most expensive system on the market. With the PS3 models retailing at $399 and $499, it’s much more expensive than the Xbox 360 at $199, $299, and $399. Sony justifies this price difference due to the built-in blu-ray player capabilities, but it appears the general public is still quite happy with their DVDs and can’t justify paying the extra premium for this feature. To top it off, most PS3 versions of a game often look worse than its Xbox counterpart. So why pay more when its competitor is providing a better gaming experience at a lower price? Sony needs to drop the price to $299 to simply compete with the Xbox 360.
Read more »