you're Kaz Hirai, head of SCEA what do you do?

[Tan]

There is also the fact that there IS such a thing as inflation. An Atari 2600 in 1979 probably cost roughly $1500 by now if you adjust for inflation. A $299 price point really doesn't mean crap after 25 years. Otherwise, my house would have only cost $50,000 instead of $185,000

inflation calculations say a 2600 would cost a little over $500, and an intellivision over $760 (without the keyboard) functionality plays a huge part in it, ps2 had a dvd in it so it cost more, same with xbox. your getting a blu-ray inside a game machine, even at $700 it's still a deal from a consumer electronics stand-point, considering the price of a stand-alone player.

[Anthony1]

Anthony, there is one thing you seem to be forgetting, all previously successful systems witha pricetag of $299, were just built for basically one thing, gaming.

The PS3 will not be solely a gaming machine, it's going to be a media hub. The thing will feature blu-ray, a HDD preinstalled with Linux, dual HDMI ports, DVI-I out, , 256MB RAM 256MB GDDR3 VRAM, a 3.2Ghz cell processor, SD/MMC, CF and memory stick slots, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11g, and bluetooth 2.0.

Plus I'm sure it will come packed with a controller and some hook-up cables. In short this system has not only more features, but more advanced features than any other console to date.

So what exactly is it again that makes you think Sony will sell all that for the "magic" $299 price?

The fact that it isn't just for "gaming", is actually kinda scary. Cause wasn't that the 3DO's big mantra. "Sure it's $700, but it does more than gaming." I thought trying to be anything other than a game machine was the kiss of death? Phillips CD-I and 3DO are too prime examples why you should try to be a game machine and nothing more. Now the DVD part of the equation is a little bit different, it's more of a side benefit than anything. It's very easy for Sony and Microsoft to allow the PS2 and Xbox play DVD movies, since those systems use a DVD drive any damn ways.


But going into all this multimedia bullshit, and this media hub bullshit, and this Tivo box that can do it all, I don't know, it's a little bit dangerous.



You said this... "So what exactly is it again that makes you think Sony will sell all that for the "magic" $299 price?



Well, if you read my original post, you would know that $299 is an absolute impossibility. You would also know that $399 is an absolute impossibility, and you would know that $499 is the BEST CASE SCENARIO.


That was the whole point of this thread. That Sony is inbetween a rock and a hardplace, cause even for them to price it at $499, it would cause them great suffering. So I never thought that Sony would price it at $299, I'm just saying that looking back at the History of Video Games, no console has won the dominant market share position in the USA and launched at a price above $299. The 360 could continue this trend on a technicality, because of the existence of the core system at launch. Technically, if you wanted to buy a core 360 at launch for $299, it was possible. (of course it was only possible after camping out in front of a Target for 3 days!)



But as far as Sony is concerned, $299 is going to be the tax for this thing, not the final price!!!!

[slip81]

Well I apologize then because the way I understood it, it sounded like your were vehemently defending the $299 price.

But now that I think about it, it could be possible for Sony to launch at that price an not loose a bunch of money.

One of the main things that drive up the cost for anything is quantity produced. If you're in the business of making say, blu-ray players and you're only making 50 of them, the cost per product will be higher than if you make say 150,000 (because obviously things like parts are cheaper when ordered in bulk).

One way Sony can keep from loosing a bunch of money is to keep up with demand. If everyone one who wants a PS3 can go out and get it with no hassle, that will equate to more sytems sold, and more games and accesories sold.

[Griking]

4. Helping the other guy - Another thing that has to be driving SCEA crazy is the fact that when they do launch with their paltry 800,000 units for November and December in the U.S., those units will sell out super fast, there won't be any available, but guess what's going to be sitting on store shelves, waiting for a potential PS3 owner to purchase it?

and out of that initial 800k probably only half of them will be available to the public because the other half will be immediately put up for sale on ebay for $999 each.

Oh and Sony can call the PS3 whatever they want, a home entertainment unit, a media hub, whatever... If I ever end up purchasing a PS3 it will be for one thing and one thing only, a game system, and I doubt that i'm in the minority who think that way. I'll never pay over $300 for a console because it does all kinds of special things that I don't give a rats ass about and will never use. So it'll play blu-ray DVD's? Big whoop de do. That's just means it'll cost twice as much to fix it when the DVd motor burns out in 13 months like the PS2. I'd rather hold off on purchasing it for a year or two until the price drops to a reasonable level or I'll buy one used somewheres.