Very true. What I would say though is that I was in Japan in June and bought a ps3 for the equivalent of €350. Convert that to Dollars now and you get ~$250. (Although it was the 20GB model) If they have brought down the price of production in the mean time then they could probably sell the 80GB version for the same without counting the cost of importing to US.
Unless their method of importing is gettin individual people to bring it over in their luggage one by one then theoretically they should be able to sell the console for no more than $300-$350 to be generous. But, with a lack of content there is still no motivation to buy for the content. When they get more games, a price drop is a lot more effective. What happens if the price is as low as it can go and they find themselves in trouble? They have nowhere to go.
So at the moment price isn't really a problem, it's just all of the game delays we keep hearing about. They knew how important this christmas was going to be as they had planned GTA4 and MGS4 coming soon enough but now they have no major console shifting titles coming out while 360 has Halo 3 and Wii has Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. So this isn't quite as quick a fix as dropping price, they need more big games which will take time.
The one thing I will say is expect sony to catch up next year with the 2 games mentioned above and GT5. To follow up on Just_Ben's economic insight, as long as their isn't a recession and the everyday person still has money in their pocket, we could see the dawning of a multi-console-home age over time.
Oh and also, this is likely a good time to buy dollars. As far as it effects me here in Europe, if over time (and possibly with the help of a democratic government) the dollar reaches close to parity with the Euro (currently at €1 = $1.40), there is a ~40% gain there to be had.
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Very true. What I would say though is that I was in Japan in June and bought a ps3 for the equivalent of €350. Convert that to Dollars now and you get ~$250. (Although it was the 20GB model) If they have brought down the price of production in the mean time then they could probably sell the 80GB version for the same without counting the cost of importing to US.
Unless their method of importing is gettin individual people to bring it over in their luggage one by one then theoretically they should be able to sell the console for no more than $300-$350 to be generous. But, with a lack of content there is still no motivation to buy for the content. When they get more games, a price drop is a lot more effective. What happens if the price is as low as it can go and they find themselves in trouble? They have nowhere to go.
So at the moment price isn't really a problem, it's just all of the game delays we keep hearing about. They knew how important this christmas was going to be as they had planned GTA4 and MGS4 coming soon enough but now they have no major console shifting titles coming out while 360 has Halo 3 and Wii has Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. So this isn't quite as quick a fix as dropping price, they need more big games which will take time.
The one thing I will say is expect sony to catch up next year with the 2 games mentioned above and GT5. To follow up on Just_Ben's economic insight, as long as their isn't a recession and the everyday person still has money in their pocket, we could see the dawning of a multi-console-home age over time.
Oh and also, this is likely a good time to buy dollars. As far as it effects me here in Europe, if over time (and possibly with the help of a democratic government) the dollar reaches close to parity with the Euro (currently at €1 = $1.40), there is a ~40% gain there to be had.