Last year, before the Xbox 360 was released, a good number of gamers indicated that they would wait for the PS3,s arrival before they would make a decision on purchasing a next-gen machine. Those sitting on the proverbial fence have literally been pushed off to the Wii and Xbox 360,s side with Sony,s announcement of the $499 and $599 price points of its PS3 packages.
The “cheaper, model will be a bare-bones system with a 20GB hard drive, while the premium package will offer wi-fi, memory stick compatibility, a 60GB hard drive and other features not included in the less expensive model.
DFC Intelligence, a firm which provides statistics and market research on the game industry, predicts that the high price of the PS3 will not only doom the next-gen game console, but will have a ripple effect upon the entire game industry.
According to the report, DFC stated:"The higher priced the hardware, the lower overall industry growth will be. The video game business model has been to build an installed base of tens of millions of users in a very short time frame. A key factor in this model is relatively low cost hardware… unfortunately, there is a sinking feeling that things may have spun out of control for Sony and thus price cuts will be slow in coming. With a $200 price difference now announced, consumers that were sitting on the fence can feel free to go buy an Xbox 360."
While many may jump over to the 360, as the DFC report has surmised, they are amiss in not mentioning that Nintendo,s Wii will also siphon off a good amount of market share as well. Most feel that the Wii will come in at a MSRP of around $250, making it the least expensive of all the next-gen game consoles.
The initial purchases of the PS3 will be from die-hard Sony supporters and hi-tech fans that will see the price tag as a bargain price for a Blu-ray player. The going price for stand-alone Blu-ray machines will be about $1200 and more.
DFC also said, "Hardcore video junkies may go for the PS3’s Blu-ray capabilities, as $600 is cheap for a new high-end technology like Blu-ray, but if those guys are not buying game software, that does not do game publishers any good."
