PS2 price dropped in Japan (1 Viewer)

[paul h]

Down to 29,800 yen or £169 or $250 ish!

Hmmmm...

 

[Joel Mack]

Speaking of which, Romier, do we call our wager a draw?

 

[Carlo_M]

Nice, very nice. A $50 price drop in the U.S. would make it a serious contender for my post-Christmas dollars, when I'll be springing for my next-gen console.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Carlo-

People are still buying PS2s at $300 in America, so Sony doesn't want to lower the price. If its still that profitable, then they have no reason to make it less profitable.

That price drop probably won't come until next spring or summer.

 

[Carlo_M]

I understand that, Morgan. But consistently (I live in Los Angeles) PS2s are the only consoles out there that I can readily find. Sure if I look hard enough I'll find an XBox or GCN - I'm not because I'm not going to buy until the new year. But after a half-dozen Best Buys and Targets, the only thing I see readily available is PS2s, they are in abundance here.

Maybe Sony won't drop the price, all that means is that the PS2 will fall further down my list. As I've said, all three have games I want to play. So it will come down to the little things, like price, quality of bundle packages (at Costco, mainly), accessories, that kind of thing. I would put my $300 on an XBox before a PS2, but I realize the PS2 "does more" than a GCN (DVD playback). So I think a fair price would be $249.

Just my $.02

 

[Romier S]

nah..not yet joel...well wait until January 1st my friend. If nothing pans out and the PS2 is till 300 in the US...you win. Its only fair. If you do win you get to choose a DVD (Go easy on me!)

 

[Ryan Peter]

The thing is, even if the PS2 goes to $250 here, it's still not as good a value as XBox for two very big reasons: hard drive and ethernet. Those are two future addons for the PS2, and buying the console with those addons will be well over $300.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Ryan-

Then again, what good is the ethernet? You can get a USB adapter for PS2 (that you might just so happen to use) and go online RIGHT NOW but the X-Box isn't online until next year.

The HDD is neat, but two PS2 memory cards will last you through the whole console's life span, plus you can use them to save PSX files (not save, more like store).

Plus, the PS2 plays PSX games. That is a MAJOR feature in the "good games" department.

I'm not saying the X-Box sucks or anything, just that the features for each is worth the price.

 

[ChrisV]

The HDD is neat, but two PS2 memory cards will last you through the whole console's life span

Are you sure? I'm already on my second one and it has only been just over a year. And there are plenty of games that I haven't played yet.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I barely even filled up half of a memory card. Sports games can take up space, and TimeSplitters maps take up a lot of room, but if you delete the right stuff and save the right stuff, you should be able to conserve more.

 

[Romier S]

The HDD is neat, but two PS2 memory cards will last you through the whole console's life span

I just want to clarify something. The X-box hard drive is a allot more than just a glorified memory card. The Hard Drive allow for developers to program their games so that information is cached on the hard drive which will allow for much faster load times and and more seamless gameplay.

You ever wanted to have your own music in a game? Well the HD gives you the ability to rip your own music tracks and use them as part of the game soundtrack (if the game supports it.)

The HD will also allow for even more expandibility when the broadband network goes live. There have been talks of the ability to download game demos, extra levels and characters for games and more.

Besides that someone who wants an X-box can spend 300 bucks on the system and does not need to worry about spending another 30 dollars on a memory card.

Just wanted to get that out there so as to give a better understanding of what the HD does.

On the other side of the coin the PS2 will have an HDD add on in the future which will allow for some of the things listed above. I do have to say that since the HD is built into the X-box it gives the system a substantial edge in this department. We all know where most add-ons end up...)although I'm hoping Sony comes though on this one)

Morgan is right about the ability to play PS1 games, its one of the best things Sony could have done (even better it enhances the graphics of the PS1 games). You not only get the entire PS2 library, the best of the three next gen systems IMHO, but also the PS1 library to boot. In the end though this is not a discussion about what features these system have or have not.

Now lets try to get this discussion back to its original topic...

I'm still hoping Sony does do a price cut in the US but I am allot more doubtful these days. I think cutting the PS2 to 249.99 here would further solidify there dominance. I also think that dropping the price to 199.99 would make the PS2 a very hard opponent to beat. It already has a stellar library of games and the Sony name behind it. (although the loss of money per unit may hurt them too much financially)

You do have to wonder if the remarkable sales of the X-box and GCN have Sony making some last minute changes here in the good old USA.

 

[pitchman]

Personally, I think Sony will market holiday PS2 sales at $299 for all they're worth, and then, quietly, sometime in early 2002, drop the price. My guess is they are/were banking on a lackluster Xbox launch and not overly concerned with Nintendo. If Sony wanted to drop the price, they certainly could have, just like they did in Europe and Japan (twice!). Sony's chairman, after all, completely wrote off the Xbox after Microsoft's weak showing at E3.

How all this will play out remains to be seen. All I know is that it's pretty much the same scene in every store I walk into. There are plenty of PS2s available and few or no GameCubes and Xboxes. If Microsoft and Nintendo can produce enough and keep enough product on store shelves, Sony's holiday sales may not be quite as rosy as they anticipated.

Don't get me wrong, Sony is selling TONS of software, but with their conservative approach to hardware sales (gross margin vs. sales volume), instead of slamming the door shut on its competitors, they have left it open a crack...

Gary

 

[Steve J]

You guys also have to keep in mind that it's not easy to ramp up production on a console.

Sony is now able to manufacture PS2 in huge quantities. Last year at this time, they were having a lot of trouble.

Similarly, both Microsoft and Nintendo can't manufacture enough consoles to satisfy US demand in the short term.

THAT's why you see lots of PS2s at stores and few or no X-Boxes and GameCubes.