As expected, Sony are launching the lower spec, lower priced PS3 in America for the holiday season, following the (assumed) success of the move in Europe. The new 40gb PS3 will go on sale on November 2nd and cost $399. The 80gb model meanwhile sees it’s price slashed from $599 to $499, the same price as the remaining 60gb stock.

There is a hardware price to pay for all this though, with the 40gb model losing its PS2 backwards compatibility and 2 USB ports. It comes down to a straight choice for consumers now between whether backwards compatibility is a major concern for them or not. There’s no doubt that the continuing high sales rate of the PS2 console has helped this move. Sony are now offering gamers a choice between staying in the last generation, or moving on purely to this one.

Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America explained to Reuters:

“We’re choosing to focus on the PlayStation 2 consumer with the PlayStation 2, which remains incredibly relevant, and focus on the PlayStation 3 consumer with the new 40-gigabyte model and the great software coming out,”

“Backward compatibility is a nice secondary consideration, but it’s far from the number-one priority.”

I can actually see where Sony are coming from now, but it’s still disappointing that to reduce the high price of the PS3 hardware, they’ve had to cut a feature which many people enjoyed. It also seems strange that while you will not be able to play PS2 games on your new cut down PS3, you will be able to go even more retro and play PS1 games.

The 80gb option meanwhile looks pretty tasty, with a bigger hard drive and a lower price point. The problem is that still places it at a much higher cost than the Xbox 360, which for $449 comes with a 120gb hard drive and two free games. I’m leaving the Wii out of this equation as it isn’t competing on the same playing field, with a much lower price and a different set of target consumers.

As it stands at the moment, the Xbox 360 has sold 6.3 million units since its North American release in November 2005. The Nintendo Wii has sold 4.6 million units since becoming available in November 2006, a whole year later. The PS3 really is propping up the table having sold a measly 1.75 in the same time frame as the Wii. Sony clearly needed a new strategy but is this the one which could help them overcome poor sales?

Sony released the 40gb model in Europe a few weeks ago, and sales did go up as a result, but it seems that rather than opting for the new lower priced model, consumers were just rushing to snap up the 60gb backwards compatible model instead.

Lowering the price of any new technology never harms sales, and I fully expect Sony to have a better holiday season in the run up to Christmas than they have so far, but something in the back of my head still can’t understand the logic of cutting features to secure that price cut. Maybe it’s just me, but I always thought Sony were innovators rather than followers of fashion.

Related:

PS3 sales on the up thanks to price cuts and new SKUs

Nintendo boss claims Wii superior as PS3 and Xbox face dead end

Sony pleads with developers not to abandon PS3 for Wii and Xbox

Xbox 360 Arcade confirmed - $279 package to battle Wii and PS3

PS3 sales soar 178% in the UK - Beats Xbox 360 but not Wii

Entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 8:06 am under Opinion, PS3, PlayStation 3, Sales Figures, Wii, Xbox 360.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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