The Sony PS3 could be about to pull off one of the biggest turn-arounds the games market has ever seen. After a slow start, where Sony's console was hampered by its high pricing and lack of quality games, since the price drop the PlayStation 3 and one of the biggest PlayStation advertising campaigns, last week for the first time, the ps3 has managed to sell more than what used to be the big N's playground, namely Japan.
In the week ending October 29, sales rose to 75,000. Sony also said that it has sold more than 100,000 PS3(&PS2) consoles in the week ending November 11, an increase of 250 to 300per cent from the average weekly sales before the price drop.
I'm starting to think that Sony is doing all of this on purpose (Yes, I actually thought that every step they took since it's launch was plainly wrong): They knew that Microsoft had a whole year head start. They knew the different (and successful) path that Nintendo took. They knew what they would get into when they announced that $599 price tag at the E3 2006 convention. Anyone with some basic marketing experience must be familiar with price skimming.
Truth is, that consumers are waiting for quality games to get released so by the time they released some of their highest anticipated games next year (MGS 4, GT5, KZ2, Littlebigplanet, God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII), the price would have already been reduced by enough amount that anyone who wanted to buy one, can actually afford one.
On top of that, Sony just halved the price of their development kits , promising to further reduce costs as more studios adopt the console technology and hoping that this could significantly increase the amount of developers to make more games for the machine.
In the end, I'm thinking that these dudes are preparing to put all their money on 2008. The only stumbling block for Sony now looks like being North America. The Wii and the Xbox 360 are still thumping the PS3 in the USA, and Sony is going to have to do something about it. Maybe those quality game launches are exactly what the doctor ordered?
How do you see these results? Do you think it was just an *R & C effect*? Or is Sony finally getting their act together? With a strong marketing campaign, a recent price drop on their console and their development kits, in my eyes, there's nothing that get's in their way to make at least a comeback. This will be a very interesting Christmas:).
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