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Moore calls for Sony to cut PS3 price

by on17 March 2009

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New voices, but the same old song and dance

More calls are being made for Sony to slash the price on the PlayStation 3 console. This time around Peter Moore from EA Sports and Alex Evans from Media Molecule are those going public with their feelings that the cut needs made in order to grow the platform.

Moore said in an interview with Bloomberg that “Sony obviously still has a ways to go with their pricing.” Moore also reinforced the fact that Electronic Arts was still committed to the platform, but even with Sony’s resistance to cut the price of the PlayStation 3, he did expect the price to be cut soon.

Alex Evans, on the other hand suggested that from the point of view of a developer that the price cut was necessary to grow the installed base of the PS3 among those casual gamers. Once the price is slashed the installed user base will grow as the console becomes more affordable.

Sony, on the other hand, continues to suggest publicly that they are satisfied with the sales of the PlayStation 3 and they don’t feel any pressure to cut the price of the console at this time. Sony claims that they want profitability on the PlayStation 3, not just expansion of the installed user base.

Currently, many analysts believe that if Sony does not move to drop the price on the PlayStation 3 console soon that many developers and publishers will be forced to reduce the amount of title support that it can give the PlayStation 3 due to the fact that the installed user base of the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 will be so much larger. Sony continues to trail Microsoft, which grew its installed user base lead over the PlayStation 3 this past holiday season.

The calls for Sony to cut the prices of the PlayStation 3 come at a difficult time for the electronics giant, as the company has been on a cost-cutting plan that included the closing of several manufacturing plants. The company has lost a lot of money on the PlayStation 3 already, and sources continue to suggest that despite reduction moves that Sony has made to lower the overall price of the console, the company still does not have as much room on the price as it would like. Sony also looks to recover from the massive losses that it took on the PlayStation 3 during the early days of release when each unit was sold at a massive loss.

Despite what Sony is saying publicly, our sources still tell us to expect a price cut from $50 to $100 before E3 and that Microsoft will follow Sony’s lead with another $50 price cut on the Xbox 360 just before E3.

Last modified on 17 March 2009
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