Sega's Masanao Maeda: Sony Has to Drop the PS3's Price

In a recent interview with Reuters, Sega's corporate director, Masanao Maeda, claims that Sony is compelled to substantially cut the PS3's price by the end of the year to stimulate low demand, as I found via CVG. Earlier talk was about Sony cutting the console's price by Christmas, but it's practically the same thing.

Since Sony has had the roughest start with its Cell-Processor-enabled PS3, their only hope for better days is cutting the price to stimulate people that are already disappointed. It's true that the press has given the company sort of a bad rep regarding the PS3, but the reality is that Nintendo's Wii has outsold the PS3 by a staggering 6 to 1 in Japan, and a 7 to 1 throughout the world. Who can argue with the figures?

"Name brand, price and software are what count," says Maeda. "Since it's getting difficult to make software availability a differentiating factor, superior marketing and pricing strategy will be the key for Sony." And, as the reporting site posts Maeda also stated that he expects Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to rival hot-shot titles such as Halo 3: "This will be the first time ever that we see Sonic and Mario appear together in a game. It surely has potential to be the No.1 title," he said.

Everyone can agree that Sony needs this kind of attention, so again, I'd say these predictions are accurate. A good couple of fun titles proving that Sony too can bring what Nintendo brings (and even better) is the key to getting the PS3 back on its feet. But for Sony and Microsoft to throw themselves head first in the casual games market - as I've heard they intend to do - it could only mean the end of video games as we know them. Let's just keep our fingers crossed for "fun" titles for now, and less peripheral-based ones, what do you say?