On Monday, many sites were reporting a "price cut" on the PlayStation 3 and I commented (below): "We'll need to see the final packages to know if it's just clearing shelves of slow-selling stock or is serious about establishing a new price point."
As I suspected, it turns out to be no price cut at all. In the American market, Sony knocked $100 off the 60GB model and cleared a bunch of stock that had been gathering dust. That model has now been discontinued.
The new American 80GB model comes in at the old high price, but US users are not getting something for nothing. What they get is 20GB of drive space that costs very little. (The "difference in cost between a 60 and 80 is just Euro cents; it's nothing, because the cost of memory is so small," says Sony.) What they lose is 100% compatibility.
UK users already have 88% compatibility machines so Sony doesn't feel the need to offer anything in compensation, even if it doesn't cost much. So for us, the old 60GB model continues at the old (£425) price, with a few extras.
SCEE president David Reeves says:
Probably we could have gone for 80GB, but does it really make any difference? We just know that we get a better supply on the 60GB than we will on the 80GB. So we chose to continue with the 60GB until we find that we can get something better, maybe lower cost. It just didn't seem necessary to us.
Basically, it looks as though Sony is holding station until there are a few more decent games and the PS3's production cost comes down. But there could be a push around some of its "timed exclusives" (where it's paying to get games on PS3 before Xbox 360). Is that wise or not?
The quotes are from an interview in Eurogamer with David Reeves. GamesIndustry.biz has the same interview: E3: David Reeves Talks PS3.
