There’s a nifty little theory of economics called supply and demand, which basically states that only a limited amount of people are willing to purchase an item at a high price point. In order to spur further growth, the best option is to lower the price of an item. The laws of the universe will take care of the rest for you. Unfortunately, we still can’t explain how the laws failed the GameCube, but that’s a whole other story.
Up until this point, it was unclear if the masterminds at Sony were subscribers to such a radical theory. That is, until now. Speaking to the Financial Times, the CEO himself, Howard Stringer, made it known that he and Sony are well aware that the PlayStation 3 just might be priced out of the reach of the average person:
“Nintendo Wii has been a successful enterprise, and a very good business model, compared with ours . . . because it’s cheaper. That [price cuts] is what we are studying at the moment. That’s what we are trying to refine.”
With the cost of production going down over time (yet another neat-o law of economics), most analysts are fully expecting to see the cuts to appear by Christmas, the most competitive time of the year for hardware sales.
This is the news many have been waiting for, and certainly the news I’ve been looking forward to hearing. Sony has finally admitted that the “Blu-ray value” is all a matter of perception, and the average Joe on the street just wants an affordable console with a truckload of great games to play on it — like the PlayStation 2 had. Who knows, even I might be inclined to pick up a PS3 now. Stranger things have happened.
[Via Next Generation]
