Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer has dismissed Activision’s subtle threat to drop support for the PlayStation 3 if a price cut doesn’t come soon, saying CEO Bobby Kotick “likes to make a lot of noise.”
Sony has steadfastly refused to reduce the price of the PlayStation 3 despite continuing calls to do so from industry analysts and executives who feel that the high cost is stunting the growth of the market and, as a result, of the money they could make on PS3 versions of their games. Kotick, head of the biggest publishing company in the world, took the rhetoric to a whole new level in June when he said that if the price isn’t dropped, “[Activision] might have to stop supporting Sony.”
That threat doesn’t seem to bother Stringer, however, who brushed off both Kotick’s remarks and the suggestion that a PlayStation 3 price reduction would happen anytime soon. “He likes to make a lot of noise,” he told Reuters. “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”
When asked about the logic of holding the price point on the console, Stringer added, “I [would] lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic?”
Despite his comments, GamesIndustry says rumors of a price cut announcement at either Gamescom or the Tokyo Game Show are “rife,” noting that some analysts believe the company’s guidance for its current fiscal year suggest a reduction planned for sometime in the latter half of 2009.
