Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/11/sony_confirm_no_ps3_price_cut/
Sony has set in stone its position on PlayStation 3 pricing - and it’s not good news for cash-strapped gamers.
Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony’s CFO, told investors in Singapore that “our plan is not to reduce the price” of the PS3. Instead, the firm’s long-term strategy is to concentrate on profitability, rather than selling more PS3s.
In short, it wants to work on making the console cheaper to produce and so more profitable.
Sony’s got good reason for keeping the PS3’s price up where it is - for the time being at least. Over the past two fiscal years Sony’s PS3 pricing strategy has caused it to lose around $3bn (£1.5bn/€1.9bn).
The firm’s 2008 annual report (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/24/sony_ps3_loss/) revealed that Sony lost $2.1bn in fiscal year (FY) 2007 - the 12 months to 31 March 2007 – and a further $1.1bn in FY2008, as a result of subsidising the console's retail price.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has been slashing the Xbox 360’s price all over the world. Register Hardware recently reported (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/02/xbox_360_australia_price_cuts/) that the cost of all Xbox 360 models is to be cut in Australia, following earlier cuts in the UK and US.
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