14 DAY TRIAL // 2008 was supposed to be the year of the PlayStation 3, yet the Sony console did not manage to perform particularly well. Now, Sony is again talking about how its flagship console will be revitalized this year, with new and exciting titles coming to it and with more features added to attract potential customers. Still, Peter Dille, who is an executive with Sony, is not willing to talk about the 399-dollar price of the console.
When asked about the much rumored price cut for the PlayStation 3, Dille stated, “I can tell you we just made a move on day one of our fiscal year on PlayStation 2. We're not making any announcements, but we've got what we believe is a great plan for the year. We've talked about this next year being the most aggressive marketing year in PlayStation's history. It clearly falls into the 'we can't comment on rumor and speculation' but we're confident in our plan, and we'll just leave it at that.”
The Sony official also insists that all the developers and retailers interested in the PlayStation 3 are really excited about the way the company plans to push the gaming console during 2009. Calls for price cuts are normal on the part of developers but Sony says that it has very clear and specific targets for its console and that it will not bow to pressure from outside sources.
Since Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 in last September, the Arcade version of its console being just 199 dollars, the sales numbers for the PlayStation 3 have reached their worst level, with the Sony console being outsold regularly by the Microsoft one. Even worse is that the PS3 is selling less this year than it did in the early months of 2008. Still, it thinks it could pick up towards the end of 2009 when some pretty big titles arrive for the gaming device, like Final Fantasy XIII, initially in Japan, and God of War 3.