PS2 price cut (1 Viewer)

[Romier S]

Im sticking to my guns on this. Like I said in my previous post if I'm wrong I'll be the first to admit it and pay up but I honestly think that Sony is going down to that 199.99.
I was having some conversations with a couple friends of mine who work at EB and thier manager and they all are pretty sure the PS2 will come down in price. Most seem to agree that 199.99 is very attractive and would furthere establish the PS2 as the console to beat. Again we will have to wait and see.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I know the price will come down, but its not going to be too drastic and its not going to happen until at least mid to late october. The PS2 is still selling fine at $300, so they don't need to chop the price down, especially with their established user base. To turn a profit, they would want to sell more software than hardware. If they lower the price on the PS2, they lose even more money that they need to make up in software sales. It would not be beneficial for Sony to lower the price until the games start flying off the shelves.
Even if they do lower the price (which they will) $199.99 is way too low. Making it $250 would be competitive, making it $200 would be insane.
And no offense, but the guys at EB are just speculating. Everyone knows the price will come down, its not like they told you anything new. Also, I wouldn't trust everything that retailers say, since their websites are rarely 100% (hey, 90%) accurate and they aren't always the first ones to know everything.
[Edited last by Morgan Jolley on September 23, 2001 at 06:37 PM]

 

[BrianB]

Keeping the PS2 at the same price, but including the hard drive would even be a nice option.

The rumours I've been hearing, and I'll stress here - they're *rumours* - are of a $199 base PS2, with a 'all inclusive' bundle of PS2+HD+Network unit for $299 to compete head-on with the XBox.
I have no idea if they're true, that's just the rumblings I've heard.
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Joel Mack]

I know the price will come down, but its not going to be too drastic and its not going to happen until at least mid to late october.

I don't have anything to add, except ---->

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"The internet is a place where people from all over come together to
bitch about movies and share pornography."

 

[Romier S]

Morgan, I never said I took anything anyone at EB said at truth. If you reread my post it says that I was just having some conversation...meaning just everyday talk. It was just some info I thought I'd throw out.
I know retailers do not know everything and I sure as hell know that they dont know everything first.....of course niether do you (although I think sometimes you think you do )
Sony in the long run needs to look at those perspective buyers that are on the shelf. Those who are still trying to decide what system to get this holiday season. Believe it or not most of the people out there aren't consumate gamer like we are. Most dont care about sales figures or what is good for the industry. They care about what system has the best games at the cheapest price. Especially parents buying these systems for their kids. Sony at this time does have the best library of the three. Really big advantage but you cant honestly sit there and say that Sony doesn't consider the Gamecube a major threat to their market dominance. You can't say that Sony isnt a bit worried. I wouldn't even be having this convertsation if the Gamecube weren't so cheap. At 199.99 though the Gamecube is extremely attractive to even us hardcore gamers and Sony knows this.
The market has never been like this. We're talking about 3 big name consoles fighting it out for dominance and I'm sorry I just dont think the market place has room for three. Sony sure as hell aint gonna settle for #2 either. I'm not even figureing the X-box into this cause I just dont think it stands a chance against Sony's must have titles and Nintendo's price point (IMHO). As I said drastic times call for drastic measures. You can believe its crazy all you want. You may be right and I may be wrong but I just have this feeling that Sony is gonna go all out this holiday season. They know that this christmas is the deciding factor on who lives and goes the way of the Dreamcast.....(I'm still crying over that!)
**********************UPDATE********************** ********
I was reading this on the IGN boards recently. Of course this board can be full of lames and rude idiots but bear with it . I dont know the validity of it or if its been confirmed so of course dont take it as truth but it makes for some interesting reading. The links they provide are in german but they do translate some for you.......
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[Edited last by Romier S on September 24, 2001 at 12:43 AM]
[Edited last by Romier S on September 24, 2001 at 12:45 AM]

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I statrted to write a lengthy response, but got kicked off of my connection and my computer went screwy, so I am not going to respond. Instead, just imagine what you think I would say, make it a little more intelligent, a little less legible, and there you go.

 

[David_LM]

I don't have anything to add, except [smiley]

Thanks for the laugh Joel. Nothing else can be added. HeHe.

 

[paul h]

Been confirmed today...PS2 will be available for £199 across Europe from Friday.
SCEE president Chris Deering issued the following statement to third parties this morning just after 11.00am BST this morning, confirming the move and other marketing details for the end of 2001:
"I am very pleased to inform you that in less than one hour a press release will go out, country by country across SCEE, ( a few hours later in New Zealand and Australia) announcing the beginning of our 4th quarter 2001 marketing activities on PlayStation. The highlight of this announcement is a new price of £199 in the UK, 1,999 French francs in France, 599,000 lira in Italy, 49,900 pesetas in Spain, 599 Deutschmarks in Germany, A$499 in Australia, and the equivalent in all SCEE territories, effective Friday 28 September…
"SCEE is now in a position to reach a much broader audience with a mass market price point, just in time for the gift season, and to welcome the release of our truly great line-up of new PlayStation2 games, starting with This is Football 2002, which launches in most countries today.
"Over the past three months, PlayStation 2 sales have enjoyed fantastic momentum, driven by F1 2001, Crazy Taxi, Red Faction, Onimusha, and especially GT3. In each of the months of July and August, we shipped more PS2's than in all of April, May, and June combined! Cumulatively, we have passed the 2.5 million unit mark, of which half have been sold since April 1. PSone has sold equally well this fiscal year with over 1.3 million sold since April, and 33 million lifetime.
The months leading up to December will be extremely important for PlayStation, and we have a lot of work to do. It should be fun... We have terrific product with our Atlantis and Harry Potter PSone console packs, the new DVD remote controller for PlayStation 2 and 'new concept' PS2 games from SCEE studios. Airblade, WRC, WipeOut Fusion, and DropShip – United Peace Force. The line up gets even hotter with Time Crisis 2, Klonoa 2, and Moto GP2 from Namco, Jak and Daxter from Naughty Dog and independent publisher greats, such as James Bond, SSX Tricky, WWF, GTA3, Silent Hill 2, Devil May Cry, Spy Hunter, Herdy Gerdy, Burnout, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Soul Reaver 2, Atari Splashdown, Simpson's Road Rage, etc, etc, etc. Also in early 2002, Ace Combat 4 and Vampire Night from Namco, Virtua Fighter 4, Rez, Headhunter, and some other great games from Sega, Monsters Inc from Disney, The Getaway and Primal from SCEE, and of course, FFX from Squaresoft.

 

[Graeme Clark]

And since the Harddrive isn't being released until next year, some of these bundling propositions are now thrown out the window.
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[Morgan Jolley]

Even though the price has dropped in Europe, it still hasn't dropped in America.
Guess we're up next.

 

[Dean Cooper]

You guys better check this out. make sure your sitting though
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd
Dean

 

[Graeme Clark]

"We've never been a company that makes decisions based on the competitive landscape," Smith added. "And we are not going to be competing this year, or even necessarily next year, for the same kind of customer as Nintendo and Microsoft."

That's interesting. I seem to recall Sony dropping the price of PS1 to $199 one day before Sega was to announce the same price cut on the Saturn (and with the well priced N64 looming that September).
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[paul h]

Sony have said they're not gonna drop the PS2 price in the US this year, for once tho us europeans now pay the same price as you guys!!!
Price now looks like this: (in UK currency)
Japan £190
Europe £199
America £203.

 

[Graeme Clark]

While us Canadians are left to suffer at a $449 price point. Damn you dirty apes!
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[John Kilroy]

A drop in the PlayStation2's price would probably be a disadvantage to Sony.
Sony has a lot of PS2s on the shelves and in the pipeline; MS will have between 300 and 600K units, depending on what estimate you listen to. MS has probably based their Xbox price on the PS2 price, and could simply match a Sony price cut. It would potentially cost Sony a lot more, since they have more units available to lose an additional $100 dollars on. Meanwhile, they are still competing head to head price-wise at $199, and Sony has done nothing except create further losses for themselves.
Sony knows all this, and their decision to leave PS2 at $299 makes all the sense in the world to me.
John Kilroy
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[Morgan Jolley]

Double post. See below.
[Edited last by Morgan Jolley on September 27, 2001 at 04:11 PM]

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Sony doesn't want to push consoles but rather software. They lose money with hardware and gain it with software. If they get every PS2 owner to buy 5 PS2 games this season, they will get a lot more money than if people bought PS2s and only a game or two.
Actually, I read at GameSpot that someone wrote in an e-mail saying that the Guadalajara plant (for MS) only made 10 X-Boxes the first day of production and there were no quality assurance or managers there that day. They might have just been doing a dry run, but if they don't start making consoles soon, the US launch will suffer.
The GCN, on the other hand, will have over a million consoles ready for its launch.

 

[Joel Mack]

Sony gave all of 5 days notice on the European price drop.
I guarantee they're not going to give 6 weeks notice on a US one...
I'll believe it when it doesn't happen...

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"The internet is a place where people from all over come together to
bitch about movies and share pornography."

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I know the PS2 will get a price drop, I just don't think Sony needs one. It would be more of a bad decision than a smart one (depending on how much software they have sold).
When people talk about consoles, they usually say "oh, but (insert popular series) is on (insert console)" and not "oh, but (insert console) is cheaper." ICO and Silent Hill 2 are just the first two of the big fall titles, which continues with Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Tony Hawk 3, not to mention some other small titles and even more titles coming out in the winter and January. There are more reasons to purchase a full price PS2 than to purchase a GameCube or X-Box. Sony knows this, and so do a lot of consumers, and so does Nintendo and Microsoft. The PS2 doesn't need a price drop.

 

[Matty Bradshaw]

The PS2 dropped $200 in Australia today to $499, the stupid thing is by dropping the price, the company I work for is losing about $10 a unit which forced us to cancel all our orders for them.