14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo Wii is a record-breaking console. It has totally rewritten the belief that new consoles need to be as powerful as ever in order to attract people. Because the company didn't follow the strategy of Microsoft or Sony, that of releasing powerful, high-definition devices, and focused on new concepts like motion controls and fun games, many believed that it wouldn't succeed.
But, if you take a look at recent console sales charts, you can clearly see that the gamble has paid off, as the Wii is the most popular console of this generation. Sony, on the other hand, isn't going through the best of times with its PlayStation 3. However, because the PlayStation 2 is still going strong, it has decided to cut its price two days ago and has made it 99 dollars, in an effort to derive new profit from the 10-year-old device.
Through this decision, Sony's John Koller says, the company hopes to rival the Wii on its own ground, that of affordable casual platforms, which would appeal to gamers who don't necessarily spend a lot of time documenting on all of the latest titles that have appeared.
“We do look at those as similar consumers. So, yes, we do think the $99 price point could steal some share from the Wii. From a technological standpoint, the Wii is much closer to the PS2 than it is to the next-gen consoles. It's obviously not an HD box and the software development is on a par with where PS2 development is, so that's a much more realistic and similar demographic. Nintendo has done a fantastic job of capturing young and female, which are two areas the PS2 has started to really grab a lot of share recently as well. That's an interesting battle and we'll see how it shapes up, but we feel very confident that the $99 price level will allow us to grab our share.”
So, it seems that the Japanese company is still very confident in the PS2 and will be using it to fight the supremacy of the Wii. But a lot of gamers would've been more than happy to see if Sony had fought the Wii with the current generation PS3 and cut its price instead of that of the old console.