Price cuts! Price cuts! Price cuts! It seems that for some reason price cuts have become the "thing" for this year in the gaming industry. This year we have seen the PSP price drop $30 down to $169.99. Not really a big deal, really it was something that was needed for the PSP. But, then we get to the mess that is the PS3 and the Xbox360. A few weeks ago Circuit City let it slip early that the PS3 was going to be dropping down in price by $100, sitting at $499.99. And really that wasn't much of a big deal until Sony announced that they would be releasing a new PS3 SKU with an 80 GB HD, Motorstorm and a price of $599.99. Then a few days later David Reeves lets it out that Sony will be discontinuing the 60 GB SKU once its current stock ran out, leaving only the 80 GB SKU at $599.99. That pretty much means that in the end there really wasn't a price drop. And now this week Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us ad leaks show that the Xbox360 will be getting a $50 price drop for all three of its SKUs.
What does all this mean? Microsoft is starting to get worried about the Wii and yes also the PS3. So they have decided that they will drop the price in hopes of capturing: A) Some of the potential Wii buyers attention and B) Create an even wider gap in price between the 360 and the PS3.
Now for Sony this means that they will HAVE TO drop the price of the PS3 sometime before the holidays. If they don't I believe that Sony will dig itself into a deeper hole and will almost lose all hope of catching up to the 360 in this generations "race". I personally believe that this year Sony will need to drop its price down to $459.99 at the least. And next year drop it down another $50 to $399.99. No matter what features the PS3 may have (80 GB HD, built in WiFi, ture 1080p support, Blue Ray drive built in, wireless motion sensing controller (lacking rumble of course), and free online play), most consumers are not going to be willing to pay more then $400 for a gaming console.
Only time will tell though what will happen. But, I still believe that it will be at least the end of 2008 before we know who will be the winner in the "race" this generation. Yes, Microsoft has a head start and yes they have a bunch of great games for the 360. But, they could just as easily lose steam as the number of AAA titles comes down a bit over the next year or so. We also can't forget how many problems the system itself has suffered. One only needs to mention the red ring of death as just the tip of this iceberg. I don't know how many people this has been true for, but for me all these problems has stopped me from buying a Xbox360. I like my products that I purchase to be of high quality. And both Sony and Nintendo has offered me that over the course of my gaming life. Microsoft has to convince me that the Xbox360 won't break down on me after less then year of ownership before I will fork over even $250 for the system.
Second, we all know that the PS3 will have more good/great games available through out the next year. Sure there a bunch of those that are also going to be on other consoles, but there will be games like MGS4, all those FF games, Little Big Planet, etc. that will make people want to purchase a PS3, no matter what the price. And who is not to say that something like Assassins Creed won't be a better game on the PS3. And with Blue Ray over taking HDDVD in the movie market the PS3 will be an even more attractive piece of machine for those who want the total HD package. Just like how many people not only bought the PS2 for the games but also for the fact that it was much cheaper then buying a gaming console and a DVD player.
Finally, we can't forget the Wii, its great start has surprised many people. But one thing that has been a problem has been the lack of good games available. Usually something like this wouldn't worry me too much considering what time of the year it is. But, with the history of the N64 and the GameCube behind the Wii one has to wonder if the Wii will suffer the same fate as some of its successors. But there is hope, the developers of our games have been some of the most surprised around of the success of the Wii. Now theses same developers are saying that they are now starting to make games for the Wii. Its seems that the Wii won't suffer the same fate as the GameCube and fall out of our thoughts and wallets because of the lack of third party support.
But, no matter how many great games come out for each system and no matter what features are added has time goes on, there is one thing that seems it will decide the winner of this generations "race", the price drops. And this videogame consumer has to ask...how low will they go to get into our wallets?
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