Were you hoping for a PS3 price drop? You might be out of luck.
Sony’s financials are out, and while other divisions – notably cameras, televisions and especially the movie unit – aren’t doing so well, its Games division is expected to hold the line. Sony describes demand for the PS4 as “quite strong” and expects the PS4 to start showing a profit very early on, thanks to lower hardware costs and network services revenue. The Games division is one of Sony’s core business areas, its growth driver, and Sony has every reason to think that the PS4’s strong sales performance will carry the company forward.
“Compared to past platforms,” says CFO Masaru Kato, “the [PS4] pre-orders that we have received for this new platform is much, much, much higher.” Sony expects to sell-in 5 million units to retailers and distributors, and third party support is very high, it says. Sony knows that its console will live or die on its software catalogue, but this time, “on a comparative basis,” says Kato, “I think we have a much more stronger lineup of software coming.”
It wants a wide install base for its new console; from that foundation, it can build its business model, supplying non-game as well as game content to customers.”We can do all sorts of things on this platform,” says Kato. An interesting statement, particularly given that Microsoft’s keen to get original content for its Xbox One; perhaps the PS4 will follow suit, but clearly Sony isn’t about to go into detail yet, not without a confirmed install base to work with.
If you were hoping for a PS3 price drop now the next generation’s here, you may be out of luck. When questioned as to whether a price drop would be necessary to achieve current PS3 sales predictions in light of the new console launch, Kato played it safe. He didn’t go into any detail on pricing “because it has a lot of big impact on competitive moves and et cetera.” In other words, Big Microsoft is listening, so let’s not discuss pricing in an open forum. But Kato’s confident that the PS3 still has good sales potential, particularly in “the emerging countries.” That doesn’t mean there will never be a PS3 price drop; it just means Sony isn’t prepared to publicly discuss it.
Source: Sony via Seeking Alpha
