Rumor has it Sony is working on a new PS3 Slim, possibly to be priced in the $300 range. But will it be enough to contend with the XBox 360 and Wii, which have been handily outselling PS3 for quite sometime.
Both Sony and Microsoft have stated that this console generation will have a ten year cycle, meaning we won’t see much in the way of progress until 2014. The only thing that can really change until then are prices and presentation. No word on what Nintendo’s console plans are, but really – who cares? Back to the big boys.
Last month Robert Kotick, Activision’s CEO, offered up the possibility that his company might stop developing games for the PS3 if Sony doesn’t drop the console’s price. A fantastic claim really, and it’s got sound financial reasoning to boot. Why make games for a console that few are buying due to it’s higher price. Development and production of games is costly, if sales figures of the console are low – chances are the game you developed for said console will suffer low sales as well.
Sony CEO Howard Stringer retorted shortly thereafter in Reuters that there are no plans for a price drop regarding the PS3. He went on to say that if there were a price drop that Sony would “lose money on every PlayStation (it) makes. How’s that for logic?” Put plainly, you’d have to be an idiot to drop the price, especially in today’s market. Sony continues to be out sold by both the 360 and Wii, and there’s no signs of future improvement.
Initially, it’s estimated that Sony’s 60GB system cost $840.35 to manufacture, and sold in retail stores for $599 – leading to a loss of $1.97 billion in March of 2007. Today, each system built is in the neighborhood of $400, and the retail price isn’t much higher. My guess is, Sony see $20-$35 in profits from each system sold, of course that can be supplemented with accessories and in-house game revenues, but it still hardly compensates for the hit they took at launch. The hardware not only is expensive, it’s also difficult to develop for, meaning developers need to spend more time and resources to put out a game on PS3 than they would for 360… and well, just about anyone can make a game for Wii. Geez, I am really down on Wii. Could it really be the lack of developers, that are willing to build on the PlayStation 3, that leads to a drastic change in Sony’s strategy? Quite plausible.
Got that, Slim?
So what about this PS3 Slim? Sure, it’s just a rumor at this point, even though there are hundreds of folks proclaiming to have a release date or video of the new device, clearly hoaxes. It’s a marketing scheme dating back to caveman days.
“Flerr hear Grog make new wheel?”
“Grog no make new wheel, go use triangle.”
“Flerr no want triangle, Flerr want wheel!” Flerr goes off and uses triangle, dreams of wheel.
Months later: “Flerr give Grog two woman, Flerr get new wheel!”
“Flerr pay two woman for triangle, want pay one for wheel!”
“Grog take one woman, one chickensaurus…”
“Ugh.Ugh.Deal.”
Hope you used the proper voices for that… moving on. Sony already saw success with the PS2 Slim(line) in November of 2004, hell, they are still making PS2 games – should tell you right there how popular the PS2 in general was/is. The PS3 Slim could follow suit, making the overall console smaller, more affordable, and maybe easier to develop for.
It seems unlikely that the PS3 Slim would have to suffer many changes from it’s larger counterpart, technology has a keen way of becoming smaller and more powerful as time progresses – so one could presume that the hardware in current PS3 should have a more compact version readily available. Something that has always bothered me with consoles is the size of there hard drives, a Seagate TeraByte external drive sells for around $250, and is only marginally bigger than the Xbox 360’s 120GB hard drive that are priced around $150. Cost concerns are the most likely culprit for that observation though ($600 360, anyone?). Still, lessening the size and price of the PS3 seems feasible, given the availability of the proper technologies.
Look at my package!
Selling things in packages, or bundles, has been popular since… well, whenever people started trading goods and services. “Buy two fish, and I’ll throw in a clay jar with one broken handle!” proclaimed many a Greek. Sony knows this (the bundle part, not the fish bit), currently you can buy a PS3 with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 for $399, not too shabby considering the 80GB PS3 sells for the same price and comes with only a single controller. Strangely, Microsoft chose to go with the family friendly titles Kung-Fu Panda and Lego: Indiana Jones for their bundle, not bad games by any means, just not show-stoppers.
The motto “Slim to Win” could easily be applied to our current situation, Sony has tasted victory in the past due to the PS2 Slim, and if they stop sitting on their hands, could enjoy the sweet juices once again. Future sales figures may be all it takes to see a slimmer tomorrow.
That was a horrible ending… how about:
With current sales leaving them in last, slimming up may be Sony’s best bet. Nah, that’s bad too.
Without the Slim, this generation of PlayStation has a slim change of — damn, that’s the worst yet…
The PS3 Slim would be the smartest damn thing Sony could do, in-regards to their shitty sales figures. (WINNER!)
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