WiiNintendo

There’s never been a company that has dominated the video game business for three straight console generations. Can Sony pull it off? It’s not looking good as the high price seems to be putting off not only prospective consumers but also developers, and that could be a vicious circle.

Is Sony’s PlayStation 3 in trouble before it even launches? Sony has been the undisputed champion of the last two console generations, towering over the competition, but now it seems like every analyst, developer and industry pundit is placing a laser sight directly on Sony’s forehead.

The biggest problem would appear to be the pricing for the system. Even the lower priced $500 SKU is expensive, and $600 seems ridiculous to most. Ever since Sony revealed this pricing strategy at this year’s E3, the company has been put on the defensive, arguing that it’s a “computer” and that with the inclusion of a high-def Blu-ray player it’s really a “bargain.”

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer himself has admitted that the console is expensive and that consumers are paying for its “potential.” In the PS3’s native Japan, the reaction has been less than pleasant, with more than 90 percent of developers in a recent survey stating that the price of the console is just too high. And indeed it seems that this high price is affecting whether or not certain developers decide to develop for the PS3. Sony’s PlayStation business has always been backed by incredibly strong third-party support, but now for the first time that could be in jeopardy.

According to a BusinessWeek Online report, some developers are actually steering resources away from the PS3 in favor of the more affordable Wii from Nintendo and even the Xbox 360. Hirokazu Hamamura, president of publisher and game industry researcher Enterbrain, believes that Sony’s next-gen console might not be a smash hit the way previous PlayStation systems have been. “Many developers think the console’s initial high price will lead to slow sales and are holding off on creating games for Sony,” Hamamura explained.

“At its autumn games preview on July 13, for instance, traditional Sony ally Electronic Arts spent far more time showing off innovative Nintendo games than it did titles for the PS3,” emphasized BusinessWeek. “EA announced six Nintendo Wii launch titles and showed long working demos for two of those. But it offered only a short clip of a car-racing game for PS3. EA says it’s still testing the potential of the PS3.”

Ultimately, developers and analysts agree that in order for the PS3 to be a success in the long run, Sony will have no choice but to bring the cost of the system down as fast as possible. “It’s likely Sony will have to discount more…and faster” than planned, commented JP Morgan analyst Hiroshi Takada.

Source

Discuss this and more in our forums.
Follow WiiNintendo on Twitter.
Subscribe to our RSS Feed.