Sony told the Associated Press on Sunday, and it was (possibly illegally) announced by Gamespot.com, that they will release a new PlayStation 3 model in August, one with an 80-gigabyte hard drive, and it will come with "Motorstorm."
They also said the current 60-gig model will drop down in price to $499, while the current model will retail for $599.
Is it just me, or does this move seem just about as desperate as desperate can be? I mean, First they put a console on sale for far too much, considering the fact that there were no games worth playing for nearly a YEAR, then, just as decent games are set to come out, they drop the price on the machine??? The damn thing is only just now worth buying! I mean, it's great for the consumers — hell, go out and buy one now if you were thinking about it — but they were already losing money on the console, now they are just going to be losing $100 more per.
Meanwhile — Who really needs 80 gigs of PS3 memory? Do they really think THAT MANY people will want to shell out an extra $100 for 20 extra gigs (when 60 is already a huge amount) and a game that's been out for a while? If you're going to package a game, package something slick, like "Lair!" Or package an extra controller, like the old Nintendo Entertainment System days.
This move just confuses the crap out of me. Who is making these decisions at Sony? In the short run, yes, this will take a small amount of the market share away from Microsoft's Xbox. I cannot deny that price came into play when I was making the decision of which to buy for my own amusement. But in terms of thinking as a company on the whole — this is only going to cause the company to lose money selling tons of a machine that costs them tons and selling few of a machine that costs them less.
The sad thing is, this strikes me as a last-ditch effort to save a once prominent video game franchise that is currently getting beaten in the hardcore gaming department by Microsoft and beaten in every other department by the Wii. And if this truly is the last effort before the third-party game makers pull out for good and Sony has to think twice about a video game department, then we might as well say goodbye to the PlayStation right now.
It's happened before, folks. Anyone remember the Atari Jaguar? The Neo-Geo? When a company made a couple of mistakes making people pay much too much for top of the line technology? It's just another case of history repeating itself.
If you really want a PS3, then by all means, jump on board right now. But you're sadly jumping on board a sinking ship. Say Hi to Leo DiCaprio for me.
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Desperate attempt? This isn't a game of cat and mouse between the 360 and the PS3, this is about making money, SONY is recognized as the undisputed industry leader in electronics, and has stated in press conferences that its not about cutting corners, gimmicks, or anything of that nature, it is purely about taking a product, and making it a better value.
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