Will there be a PS3 price cut soon?

Let’s face the facts, the PlayStation 3 isn’t selling as well as gamers and Sony themselves thought it would. Nintendo is just printing money with the Wii and its huge sales in the US and Europe. The Xbox 360 has delivered on nearly everything it promised with great games, great online service and a relatively low price point that is tempting consumers into buying it. Both consoles have managed to outsell the PS3 month after month in Europe and America. And once in a blue moon, the 360 even managed a lead over the PS3 in Japan.

So where is Sony’s problem? Well it definitely isn’t the quality of the product. I mean the PS3 is an impressive piece and with built in Blu-ray it has the technology to last for a very long time. So is it the games? Hell no, the PS3 has some of the best games around with Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted and Killzone 2 just to name a few. So what is it? Well obviously, it’s the price.

Price is the major factor here in stopping the PlayStation 3 from selling anywhere near what we all would expect. As the highest priced console out of the three, it was always going to be challenge for it to keep pace with the other two, and over the last year or so, it has drifted even further behind in the console race. Which leads to the question, should we would expect price cut soon? Well enough back story, let us get to actual merit of this rumor that this special edition of RK is based on.

Gameindustry.biz published a rumor a few days back regarding the PS3 and a price cut. Janco Partners Mike Hickey said in his latest note to investors that recent channel checks indicate a price cut for a PS3 with an announcement imminent. He also said the following if there weren’t to be a price cut.

“If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console.”
Harsh but also possibly true. So with this in mind, we thought we would get in contact with Sony themselves regarding this rumor to see if a price cut is actually on the way. The response is not what potential buyers wanted to hear. A Sony spokesperson had this to say to us, “There are no plans for a price reduction on PS3, and anything reported on or discussed otherwise is purely rumor or speculation.” Well there we have it, straight from the horses’ mouth.

Question is do we believe them? They have the technology, they have the games but they just don’t have that sweet spot of a price that the other two platforms have. Could Sony afford a price drop is a different question altogether, but for them to keep themselves in this console race, they are going to need drop the price and drop it ASAP. For the time being we have to go on Sony’s word and that word is no. There is no other rating that we can give this (although we don’t really believe them) and that rating is…

TGR Rating: Rumor Killed