14 DAY TRIAL // The console war is a succession of very tough battles, with the three major manufacturers, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, fighting over each and every customer, trying to make their own products the most attractive, through new features and bundles, and, at the same time, trying to disprove of their rivals.
We've recently seen a statement battle between Sony head Kaz Hirai and Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg about their own two consoles, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. While Sony believes that its console is the best on the market, despite coming in on the last place in sales, Microsoft wouldn't want to change places with it, as its Xbox 360 is now one of the cheapest consoles out there, making a lot of cost-conscious customers buy it.
This prompted the everlasting rumors about a price cut for the Japanese big black box. But the PS3 will remain the most expensive console out there, at least according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, who talked about this very sensitive matter with EuroGamer. He says that the console needs to prove its qualities in these difficult financial times for Sony, but we might see a price reduction when the time calls for one.
“I think it will [remain the most expensive], yes. I'm not saying there are going to be any price cuts at all in the short term or the medium term. I'm not saying we don't need to do it - we are expensive. It is possible that as the cost of manufacturing comes down, we will be able to do it. But we're protecting ourselves with a very hard shell to get through the next one or two years of an economic situation. You have to be hard, and then you will come out when the sun comes out. If, as an industry, we can get through the next six to seven months, we're going to find a massive uplift in September and October. I'm very optimistic about it.”
So it seems that although a price cut will appear at some point in the future, the PS3 will still be higher than Nintendo and Microsoft's products in terms of price. Hopefully things will look up for the company and we'll see a price cut as soon as possible.