14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry is definitely a tough one, and the worldwide recession is taking a pretty big toll on it as well, even though it isn't as tough as on other branches of the industry. That is why a lot of companies are trying to squeeze out the maximum amount of profit with the least amount of risk involved.
One such company is Sony, which, despite being assaulted with demands for a price cut on its flagship PlayStation 3 console that, at $400, is still the most expensive one on the market, is maintaining that price tag.
One of the most recent statements about this subject came from the CEO and Chairman of Activision, Bobby Kotick, who threatened the Japanese company that it would stop supporting its platforms in 2010 or 2011, if its user base didn't grow and a price cut wasn't made.
The CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer, has now responded to these statements and has revealed that he has grown quite tired of such threats and that, if he followed them, the company would end up losing a lot of money. “He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer says about Kotick. “He's putting pressure on me and I'm putting pressure on him. That's the nature of business. I would lose money on every PlayStation I make – how's that for logic.”
The CEO of Sony has also talked about the consolidation of the entertainment industry, about the fact that his company doesn't plan to eliminate any assets and that the fusing of hardware and other projects is essential to survival during the recession. “We're learning to fuse content and hardware. This wouldn't be a time to get rid of either,” he adds.
So, this just seems like yet another statement made to shut up the many journalists and developers that want a PS3 price cut. But, sadly, it doesn't do anything to change the current situation: the PS3 is way behind the Wii and the Xbox 360, and, unless it does do something big, things will stay that way.