idea to help Sony sales - $200 PS3

If this has already been suggested, please disregard. I rarely visit the PS3 forums (I have an xbox 360, my brother has the PS3).

I can't help but see these messages all over gamespot and elsewhere saying how MS is doing so well in sales, and Sony is struggling (and the Wii is dominating everything, which just boggles the mind, because it's such a crappy system with such crappy games about dancing and cooking, etc.

A lot of it has to do with the PS3's price which is still way higher than the other consoles. And the main factor is the blueray. It has to be that. And of course Sony has to push the blueray because now that is their future-mainstream medium. And rightly so. But besides games, I can count on one hand how many blueray movies we (not I, we, meaning everyone in the place) have actually seen on my bro's ps3, and I'm gessing that it's the same with a lot of other people who just want the ps3 for gaming. A lot of you want it for movies also, which is great, but not everyone wants it for that, or even for both.

My suggestion is to disable the blueray. Cut the movie playback feature out (but not the games or dvd playback). Now, it will be slightly tricky, but not as hard as it sounds, I don't think. Blueray games and movies have very different formats and structures (and dvd's and bluerays also have very different formats and file structures), so it should be pretty simple to differentiate between the 2. Sony just has to make sure that no blueray movies can be played in the system. And I don't mean some little software patch that will disable it, I mean physical removal of certain hardware, or different hardware in newer systems (that will still allow the games of course). Otherwise some guys will just make a patch removal thing and still play BR movies.

What this means is that now Sony has an excuse/reason to lower the PS3 price to make it VERY competitive, and this would help a lot this holiday season. They could charge around $200 for it, because the other $200 is basically the cost of the BR inside it. Even if it still costs them the same to make it, they still might not be losing as much as you think. If the system can't play blueray movies, then that person who buys it will know that, and eventually down the line they will have to either buy a new PS3 system (not likely) or buy a standalone BR player eventually (more likely) to play those BR movies which will eventually become standard. That means the profit of the BR players is still potentially there for each BR-disabled PS3 and they can make a LOT of people happy by lowering the price. I think this would more than double their sales right away. They could still offer the one that is there for $400 and offer this for people who don't want to watch movies. Heck, they could even offer a $250 one that has PS2 compatibility which would make even more people happy. That would be the cheapest console around, for what it does.

Anyway, just an idea, anyone think it would work?

...you know nothing about how electronics work huh...(nice way of saying you are an idiot)CosmoKing7717

As much as I appreciate your "comment," care to expand on that? I realize that it would cost them the same to make it, but they have to take a hit if they want their console out there. They are taking a hit in sales right now, but not in the right way.

Hmm... Interseting. Im not sure if youre totally correct. I do think they should have a model with no Blu Ray drive and only 20 gb of space and no Wi-fi that would be like 150$ZacherWol19

[QUOTE="CosmoKing7717"]...you know nothing about how electronics work huh...(nice way of saying you are an idiot)tyrant2004

As much as I appreciate your "comment," care to expand on that? I realize that it would cost them the same to make it, but they have to take a hit if they want their console out there. They are taking a hit in sales right now, but not in the right way.

[QUOTE="CosmoKing7717"]

As much as I appreciate your "comment," care to expand on that? I realize that it would cost them the same to make it, but they have to take a hit if they want their console out there. They are taking a hit in sales right now, but not in the right way.

that is the worst idea ive ever heard. 200$ PS3= Sony gone from gaming industry. There already selling it at a discount because it cost more to make then what they sell it for.djsifer01

You fail when you think that games are not on Bluray, which they are. Games like MGS4 are 50GB and Resistance 2 is 44GB. Removing BR doesn't make sense. But if you knew that PS3 games are on BR, your claim to be able to reduce the price by 200 makes absolutely no sense, since removing video playback doesn't change the interior hardware, in other words it would just reduce a feature and keep the cost the same to sony.

Once again if sony could afford a price cut they would have done it by now. I'm all for more people buying the PS3, but I know some people just can't afford it. I expect sony to reduce the price within the next 6 months. If they can reduce it to 299. I think that would be a big step, that would only put the system at 30 dollars more expensive than a Wii and the same price as a respectable sku of the 360. The arcade is just pathetic but still 100 dollars cheaper.

Regardless this thread is fail.

A $200 PS3??? FFS alot of people reckon the PS3 is a crappy machine.....it never freezes lasts probably 10 times longer than 360, has bluray, never heats up bad, and its always quick......Honestly...$200? That is pretty much suicide for Sony(even though PS3's would probably sell like 4:1 to Xbox 360) But a $300 Ps3 isnt too bad even though its still cheap...Sony need to make sacrifices if they want the PS3 to succeed. Lets not forget that Sony's revenue is around 90Billion so it wouldn't hurt ALOT if they lose a few billion from the PS3G-T-A---M-A-D

i think they should make a stripped down console justt like the arcade version of the 360, no built in wifi, wired controller, no hdd ( maybe some kind of small memory card through the usb like a flash drive sort of thing) and price it for about $200 the reason for this is to advertise the system at it's new low price to everyone, mainly in magezines, end of commercials,polishkid99

I'm really getting tired of posting this AGAIN, but here it goes. All those things you mention, wifi, wired controller, hdd are all cheap to Sony. The BD drive, Cell processor and RSX graphics synthesizer makes up about 80-90% of the cost of the console for sony.

Wifi adapters probably cost less than 5 bucks, bluetooth is cheap (probably the same cost to put wires), and hdd's are not all that expensive to Sony, since they buy millions, but removing it wouldn't make sense since some games need to be installed, no HDD means no installs means no playing games, which is what the ps3 was made for, you wouldn't be able to install games on a USB stick, because of formatting and other issues. Plus removing the HDD is a step backwards. Removing all those things you mentioned is a step backwards. The point being even if Sony removed those items, it wouldn't make a big difference in the cost, not nearly enough to pass it along to consumers.

At the end of the day, its the price of BD drives, the cell and the RSX which will determine when there's a price cut.

You fail when you think that games are not on Bluray, which they are. Games like MGS4 are 50GB and Resistance 2 is 44GB. Removing BR doesn't make sense. But if you knew that PS3 games are on BR, your claim to be able to reduce the price by 200 makes absolutely no sense, since removing video playback doesn't change the interior hardware, in other words it would just reduce a feature and keep the cost the same to sony.

Once again if sony could afford a price cut they would have done it by now. I'm all for more people buying the PS3, but I know some people just can't afford it. I expect sony to reduce the price within the next 6 months. If they can reduce it to 299. I think that would be a big step, that would only put the system at 30 dollars more expensive than a Wii and the same price as a respectable sku of the 360. The arcade is just pathetic but still 100 dollars cheaper.

Regardless this thread is fail.

navstar29

Everyone knows the games are on blueray. If you'd reread the first post, I mentioned everything you're talking about. I know that removing the video play doesn't save them ANYTHING (but who really knows, maybe the blueray system is split in 2, and not developing the movie portion is cheaper?, who can say), it's only saving them potential future money (i.e. future purchases of BR standalone players). They will still be losing how many hundreds of dollars on each system, or whatever it is now, but they would have lost that anyway. The point is, if you remove a person ability to watch BR movies on this machine, you are guaranteeing that if that person ever in the future wants to buy or watch BR movies, then they will either have to get a PS3 with that capability ($400 or maybe cheaper by then) or buy a standalone (which in turn will bring some profit back to Sony). And that might be enough of an incentive for Sony to be able to lower it considerably. Fine, maybe $200 is too low, but even a $250 - 300 price tag is a big drop, and they are not just lowering it without reason, or just to fight with MS and Nintendo, which they are doing right now. Lowering it with that feature removed will increase potential BR player sales in the future (I know they're not all made by sony, but they still get some profit off of those, and the more players out there, the more people will buy movies for it, also giving them profit). And the more consoles out there, the more games will be bought, the more development for the system, etc. etc.

This is just an opinion, and I just want to see what people think. I'm just brainstorming here on how they can have it all, and still increase their sales, without crippling the game aspect.

[QUOTE="G-T-A---M-A-D"]A $200 PS3??? FFS alot of people reckon the PS3 is a crappy machine.....it never freezes lasts probably 10 times longer than 360, has bluray, never heats up bad, and its always quick......Honestly...$200? That is pretty much suicide for Sony(even though PS3's would probably sell like 4:1 to Xbox 360) But a $300 Ps3 isnt too bad even though its still cheap...Sony need to make sacrifices if they want the PS3 to succeed. Lets not forget that Sony's revenue is around 90Billion so it wouldn't hurt ALOT if they lose a few billion from the PS3polishkid99

[QUOTE="polishkid99"][QUOTE="G-T-A---M-A-D"]A $200 PS3??? FFS alot of people reckon the PS3 is a crappy machine.....it never freezes lasts probably 10 times longer than 360, has bluray, never heats up bad, and its always quick......Honestly...$200? That is pretty much suicide for Sony(even though PS3's would probably sell like 4:1 to Xbox 360) But a $300 Ps3 isnt too bad even though its still cheap...Sony need to make sacrifices if they want the PS3 to succeed. Lets not forget that Sony's revenue is around 90Billion so it wouldn't hurt ALOT if they lose a few billion from the PS3blazndragon0

Great offer!

[QUOTE="blazndragon0"][QUOTE="polishkid99"] That's what I'm saying. Throw a 20gb SKU in the market and sell it for $250 and they're in business. Alot of hardcore gamers know how to install bigger hard drives themselves so if they really want, they could do it.taplok

Great offer!

Wow, I'm gonna quote myself, instead of typing it out again, but someone else had the idea of a 20GB sku sold for cheap, and here's the truth as to why its not feasible:

Why do people not realize that its not the harddrive space which is so expensive ... the hdd's are not very costly to sony, especially cuz they buy in bulk. Also 20Gb laptop hard drives aren't made anymore, and neither are the 40 and 60 gb hard drives, the smallest sized widely manufactured laptop hard drive is the 80gb, thats the reason sony uses it. To get a company to manufacture a 20Gb hard drive just for the ps3 would cost sony probably just as much money as buying the 80gb, while its widely produced. That's why the 20/40/60 gb models aren't made any more. This is just the nature of technology.

The price in general needs to be reduced, I agree, but I assume if Sony could have afforded it, they would have done it by now. I'm sure there will eventually be one, when the time is right for sony. In the meantime people need to stop posting these countless 'sony needs to make a ps3 with only 20gb and sell it for less' thread, sure people can complain about the price, but its not the HDD which is so expensive, and nor is it cheaper to make a HDD smaller than 80GB right now.

Eventually the 80GB is gonna go too, probably not for a while but eventually when manufacturers stop mass producing it and move to a higher one, the ps3 will too.

navstar29

OK

1. Bluray cannot be taken out, it is a nessity to ps3 gaming and ps3 exclusives, and is a really fast loading and reliable BR live 2 player. BR is what makes the ps3.

If so you can forget about games like uncharted, R+C, MGS4 or R2 or even R1 (which could prob fit onto a dvd-9 if they reeeaaaallly compressed it in there) and KILLZONE 2 and anything else. plus, you get to play uncompressed versions of multiplatform games.

2. The internal wifi module is ONLY around $10 ($15.50 2 years ago) now matey, compared to the $60+ MS propetary External wifi module you have to buy seperate. Its just a complementary addition for a great console as it is. The wifi is just one of those 'o..we mite as well chuck in wi-fi, its doesnt change the price much'peices of hardware. How stupid would that be if you bough a wifiless ps3 for $389, that would be so annoying..such a pain in the arse.

3. Sony cant make a diffrent 'cheaper' SKU along side with the ordinary $399 80GBps3 + one game bundle cos every single peice of hardware in the machine is needed cept for the wifi which i would gladly rather pay the extra $10 to have it nicely inbuilt and have a complete system.

You see there is NO diffrence between the internal hardware of the Xbox 360 SKU's. Except for the storage. The diffrences in the SKU's are what extra STUFF comes in the box. The arcade comes with nothing cept a inbuilt 256MB internal flash storage(which is absolute crap) and a couple of pre loaded 2d arcade games, the pro comes with more stuff, and finally the elite comes with these extra cables, 120GB HDD a headset and a black finish including the controler and a xbox live gold 1 month membership. For $200 more than the arcade. Yet no one complains about the price of the 360 elite which is the same price as the ps3 even tho the ps3's internal hardware has more stuff in it and is superior to the 360's.

But the ps3 has no extra things in the box, cept for a manual, controller, usb cable and a game of your own pick...also some regions, a PSN download voucher etc. Unless its a game bundle. And thats $399, so there can never really be another ps3 SKU cos the least u can get in a box (other than the ps3) IS $399.

Dont ever bother mention things to do with software such as disabling Movie playback/music playback etc cos the price of a peice of electronics is in the hardware. Sony continously adds to the OS by firmware update, that doesnt change the price of the ps3, they can cut all of its features out cept for game playability and the ps3 will still be $399 cept alot less ppl would buy it.

The only real way to get $200 is by waiting maybe 2 more yrs. realisticly sony could go away from thier current break even point and lose $100 and console to make the price $299 (to equal the price of the 360 Pro)..that would make the ps3 sales skyrocket and the 360 elite ($399 die). Altho i dont think they ll do that. The only other way to get to $299 is cheaper manufacturing.

Hmm... Interseting. Im not sure if youre totally correct. I do think they should have a model with no Blu Ray drive and only 20 gb of space and no Wi-fi that would be like 150$ZacherWol19

I don't see your logic at all. You seem to acknowledge that the production cost would stay the same (it might even be higher because you have to alter the manifacturing process), so if Sony was willing to take the hit from offering it much below the break-even point anyway, why would they remove the ability to watch movies??? They get money from people buying BD movies and customers would obviously be very hesitant on buying it, not to forget there are arguebly already too many SKUs available that confuse the average buyer.BenderUnit22

Tyrant, making a Blu Ray player unable to play Blu Ray movies wouldn't make the system any cheaper. If you disable an option on your computer, do you suddenly have 10GB more on your hard drive? No. It's the same laser that reads game discs AND movies. You keep repeating that somehow doing that would make the system cheaper, but the simple fact is that a blu ray player that can't play blu rays is pointless...and the same price as one that can play anything.ItsEvolution

the TC just has no idea what so ever of how hardwear ect works.Cutting out the movie play back from the blue ray drive would not save sony any mony what so ever as the actual hardwear "the blue ray drive" would still be the same physicly. adding a smaller HDD would also not save them mony. as some one else said thay buy in bulk and the smallest HDD made now is 80 Gigs. thus getting a HDD maker to make a smaller HDD would cost more per unit than just getting the 80 gigs. the wifi,blue tooth and usb ports ect are not that pricey for them. and would not cut the costby more than maby 20 bucks all togather. so the loss to the customer would be greater than the mony saved. and not haveing a HDD would not work as many games requir the HDD for installs. the fact is that the guts of the ps3 is still costly to make, im pretty sure we are going to see a price drop soon. maby next 6 months. but even still the ps3 is a good buy at 400. its a next gen gameing system that is packed with features and has a frickn blueray player. the blueray player alon is worth 250 bucks just by itself as thats what it would cost just for a GOOD entry level standalone player. but people dont relize that there just to focused on the sticker shock. Wild_Card

I believe I mentioned this like 3 times. I, along with everyone else, KNOW that by removing the video playback of BR movies, they would not save any money. C'mon guys, read the thread. That's not the point. Here's an example of how this works for other companies:

EVGA had a 7800 video card, which is he high end of the time (whenever that was). They made many of the 7800's and half of them had a few pipelines disabled, and lowered the clock speed and called it a 7600. Now, it still costed them the same to make it, I believe (those are just the high end model cut back) so why would they bother doing this? They know that some people can't afford to buy the high end, so they will buy this new low end 7600 or whatever it would be. The sales for the high end were there, BUT now all of a sudden people who didn't buy the high end cause they didn't have the money will buy the budget model. They still take a hit when the sell the low end, but it brings in customers who weren't there in the first place.

Now, yes, they are losing money. But this will eventually ease up, just like it always would. In the mean time, they can get ps3's in people's homes where they would not have otherwise, at the same time inreasing BR standalone player sales. For those reasons, I don't believe a $200 - 250 (heck, even a $300) PS3 is out of the question. You can't really lower the hd, because they're cheap anyway, and they wouldn't save money, same for the wifi, usb, etc. like other people have said. The BR is the only place you can cut back.

And no, this is not because the price is high and I'm cheap, we already have a ps3 and payed $600 (less, it was on sale I think) for the best model, in my opinion. I'm just thinking of things sony could try so this "console war" could be more interesting and they don't have to be on the losing end.

I've figured it out!!! How to help Sony??!!!

COME OUT WITH MORE COOL GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean LOTS of games. Like the amount the PS2 era got.

End of discussion....

that is the worst idea ive ever heard. 200$ PS3= Sony gone from gaming industry. There already selling it at a discount because it cost more to make then what they sell it for.djsifer01

Actually, that uncharted bundle? Sonys making money on it. The 80gig bundle breaks about even too. Sonys not really been loosing money recently. Just look at blu-ray players. If you look, you can easily find one for 150$, and almost always at least 200$. Some black friday 100$ deals as well.

Its not the cost of the blu-ray, if all these players can sell for cheap. Where do people get that sonys loosing money still? I'd like to read it. Anywhere I've went and looked at, the ps3 has been breaking even since the 40gig days.

OMG !!! If You Sell Ps3's Without Cases It'll Be Even Cheaper Aswell, I like Yours Ideas !!!!!!!!!!!!!

No serriously post when you've got something half decent to say, not something that is so retarded that i'll fall asleep.

OMG !!! If You Sell Ps3's Without Cases It'll Be Even Cheaper Aswell, I like Yours Ideas !!!!!!!!!!!!!

No serriously post when you've got something half decent to say, not something that is so retarded that i'll fall asleep.

mep69

...you know nothing about how electronics work huh...(nice way of saying you are an idiot)CosmoKing7717