14 DAY TRIAL // Not often do we encounter light-shedding interviews such as the one from GameIndustry.biz with SCEUK's managing director Ray Maguire, who talked about Sony's decision to introduce a new PS3 SKU (the 40GB model) and how the launch of such a system could have a negative impact on early PS3 adopters. A few excerpts can be found below. If you're one of those who bought the PS3 at launch, you might want to read on.
For everyone's information, those who purchased a PlayStation 3 console at launch, had to pay $599 for it (the 60GB model that is), which is $200 more than what Sony is currently offering for the winter holiday season. Of course, the reason why the 40GB SKU goes for $399, is because it lacks two USB ports, features no backwards compatibility and no multi memory card port, which isn't very bad actually, since the Blu-ray drive is still there along with the HDMI interface.
Here are Ray Maguire impressions on the issue, when GI asked whether early PS3 adopters should feel "cheated" by the changes occurring lately:
"I think it's natural to feel that way, of course it is. The difference between our industry and many other industries is that if you're selling cars or houses the price goes up steadily. Consumer electronics only goes one way and that's downwards. If you're a company that has to invest billions into development then you know that costs are going to be high at launch. The reason they are high is because we're taking such a bold step of going so far forward into the future that we have to create our own fabrication plants to make chips, no one can create these things because they're not investing either the time or the money or the vision into making products that are this far reaching."
He makes a good point really. Why would they even have to excuse themselves? After all, an electronics giant such as Sony tries fitting its actions between consumer demand and their profit, so there's really no other way things could have evolved.
Maguire went on explaining how their decision of launching the cheaper PS3 model was because of the simple fact that "products evolve" and along with that "the offerings change because they have to adapt to the needs of the consumers," reckoning that it hasn't been so confusing for buyers to "go from stand alone, to a bundled proposition into a low price entry level model," all in just six months.
So, are you a loyal PlayStation fan and an early PS3 adopter? If so, how do you feel about the introduction of a much cheaper model this time around?