SCEE: Europe not likely to see a PS3 price cut soon

PS3 News | "If we reduced the price, we'd annoy a lot of people."

In a recent interview with Three Speech, the self-named "semi-official" PlayStation blog, David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s President, has shared some insight into why Europe didn't get a PlayStation 3 price cut. Apparently, people would get annoyed.

When asked why the UK didn't get a price cut, Reeves' response was, "If you’re a consumer — and we introduced the PS3 in March for £425 or 599 Euros – let’s say you bought one at the end of April and have been using it, playing Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm."

He continued, "We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months. Our thought process was: 'Wait a minute – we’re actually not doing too badly – we’re not selling as well as Wii or DS – but seasonality-wise, compared to, say, PS2 at the same time we launched it in 2001, we’re actually doing quite well on a regional level'. So we thought if we reduced the price, we’d annoy a lot of people. We did think about it, but we also felt that it wasn’t doing that badly."

After estimating a standard consumer's price walk based on typical purchases, adding up the underlying components, and taking into account GST / VAT, Reeves also came to the conclusion that there is no price difference between the UK / Australia and the US, despite the US drop in price. Additionally, he stated that Sony's experience is that price drops in the UK summer do little to increase sales.

When prompted for whether or not consumers can expect a price cut before Christmas, Reeves stuck to the typical budgeting and planning response, saying, "We don’t plan these things just from one week to the next –we look at these things in the context of an overall plan and overall budget. Our plans are in place – we know exactly what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do. I’m not going to answer your question, because that would get me into tremendous hot water. But we have a plan and we’re going to stick to it."

Finishing off the interview, Reeves stated that he believes this Christmas is relatively unimportant and that Christmas 08 will be the critical one. In practical terms, don't expect a lot of major first-party titles in the UK or Australia before Christmas.

Talking of a likely release schedule, Reeves stated, "So what you’re going to see is that we might put some of our jewels out in February, March, May and right through the year. We call them pillar titles. I think, probably, that third parties will try to put their pillar titles out before Christmas, because that’s where they get the best sales. But we have a slightly different approach."

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12 Comments

ittekimasu

4 years ago

what a lame excuse to give to the public. As usual we get the **** end of the stick when it comes to receiving good things from sony.

john_solids

4 years ago

whats lame about that excuse? u dont drop the price of something in the first few months thats just stupid, u get the sales at the higher price, then after atleast 6-8 months u start thinking of a price drop.

Marka

4 years ago

Excuses excuses.

admeister

4 years ago

john_solids wrote

Agreed, it's a perfectly logical course of action, and Sony are certainly not the only ones taking it. I don't see Nintendo announcing any price cuts. I like the response given in this article, they're making themselves quite clear about their stance, and I certainly can't blame them. After all, the U.S didn't really get a "price cut", and it's been released there for a lot longer.

Passa

4 years ago

I lol'ed quite a lot while reading this. I can come to the conclusion, at least, that Reeves is a tool.

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We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months.

Blah blah, then you should have released it at the same time as the USA and Japan then. Its the same product, regardless if it was released at a different time. Uhh, sorry, I meant a slightly stripped down product.

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we’re actually doing quite well on a regional level

This kind of attitude stinks.. regardless of its obvious logic and limited repercussions (a bit of bad press on game related sites, water off a duck's back for Sony I suppose).

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Reeves also came to the conclusion that there is no price difference between the UK / Australia and the US, despite the US drop in price

I'm really confused on this point. $600 USD for the previous model equates to $683 AUD. Looking at it more rashly, $500 USD lower price for the 60GB version, and we should be paying $569 AUD. Even after you add in tax, GST, buttsex or whatever else you can think of, its still completely and utterly overpriced (compared to the USA anyway).

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But we have a plan and we’re going to stick to it.

Thats an interesting thing to say, all their previous plans haven't really turned out all that well. Like really, especially after just bitching about the delayed launch in PAL regions..

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Christmas is relatively unimportant and that Christmas 08 will be the critical one

Yeah, consumers have decided that 2007 is the 'don't-get-video-games-as-presents-during-Christmas' year. No really, just because Sony doesn't have many big name titles coming during the holiday season, does not mean Microsoft and Nintendo don't.

Now I might be wrong on half of these points, please point me out if I am. Because really, I'm getting the impression that all Sony executives are a bunch of pretentious tightasses who are out of touch with reality.

admeister

4 years ago

Passa wrote

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We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months.

Not possible, I'm sure Sony would have liked to have released the PS3 here at the same time, but we would have gotten about 10 consoles. The reason they delayed the launch was because of a shortage of units/production problems. As for getting a stripped down product, they weren't doing it to be mean, they were already planning to phase out the EE consoles (as is now happening), so they thought they'd save themselves some time.

Chris

4 years ago

Most places in the UK are doing £399 bundles with 2 games, 1 blu ray movie and an extra pad so it has essentially seen a price drop already whether Sony want to admit it or not.

Flypaper

4 years ago

Quote

After estimating a standard consumer's price walk based on typical purchases, adding up the underlying components, and taking into account GST / VAT, Reeves also came to the conclusion that there is no price difference between the UK / Australia and the US, despite the US drop in price.

Is he cynical beyond belief...?

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Finishing off the interview, Reeves stated that he believes this Christmas is relatively unimportant and that Christmas 08 will be the critical one.

...Or genuinely, pathologically deluded? The jury's still out, gentlemen!

Edit: The jury says "cynical". They point out that the second statement is intended to give him an out if/when PS3 sales over Christmas are poor - he can point back and say "see, we always said it wasn't important".

Eyce

4 years ago

Passa wrote

Quote

We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months.

Let's be honest, if they did a Worldwide launch, every country would have had about 6 Consoles shipped to each other.

As for the "We'd annoy a lot of people" comment, well, they're already annoying more people by keeping the price up.

Passa

4 years ago

admeister wrote

Passa wrote

Quote

We’ve only been on the market for three and a bit months.

Where did I deny there was a logical reason behind the delay? That is beyond the point. It arrived several months later than the NTSC version without the Emotion Engine and at a much steeper price, not to mention the silly nature of the excuse in the first place - its the same product! Just because it was released later in the PAL regions, does that mean we should get everything later? Why not start delaying first party games in PAL regions, we've only had the PS3 for three and a bit months after all?

admeister

4 years ago

Passa wrote

its the same product! Just because it was released later in the PAL regions, does that mean we should get everything later? Why not start delaying first party games in PAL regions, we've only had the PS3 for three and a bit months after all?

No. It doesn't mean we should get everything later (and since when are we?), but try to see this from Sony's point of view. They're already losing money on every console, why the heck would they want to drop the price, especially in a region where they've only been selling it for a few months! They'd have to be mad, it's just not economically viable. The U.S is a slightly different story, they're still losing money there as well, but it's not as bad since a decent amount of time has passed, and they've sold a pretty respectable number of consoles there. But, you note, even the U.S isn't getting a price cut! It's merely a clearance sale, a part of Sony's grand plan to phase out the EE consoles (as I mentioned), which is something that will reduce production costs there, and surely already has here.

As Sony have stated, they simply can't afford to go cutting the price of the PS3 at this point in time in any region, the only thing we're missing out on is the extra 20GB of storage space (big deal imo), and we're even getting a pretty sweet bundle (for the same price as the original console) as a form of compensation. Technically we're actually getting a better deal than them, looking at that bundle we are getting a significant price cut on the PS3.

Crestfallen

4 years ago

Reeves is actually a straight shooter. He's the guy who told the press that the US price cut is only temporary, when politely asked.

And what he says sounds about right. The price isn't going to be dropped because its selling, comparatively, well in Europe.

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