So, everyone now knows about the PS3s supposed price setting, $500 for the economy model and $600 for the premium. Now, I also know that everyone was pretty saddened by the price despite it being a good deal. They say that because of the current market price for blu-ray drives and Sonys lack of blue laser diodes. And ever since Sony dropped the price-bomb on me it was pretty much forgettaboutit in my mind, because seriously, I have better things to spend $600 or $500 on instead of a console.
This, plus the many other odd antics which Sony has been doing over the past few months have made a lot of people lose respect for the mega-company. Its almost unreal at some of the things theyre doing, because no company in their right mind would sell the PS3 for that price.
And here I come to the jist of the article, why would a huge company like this do such a stupid thing like making people pay $500 or $600 for a gaming console, ESPECIALLY since theyre months behind the x360. Its a financial disaster waiting to happen, despite the hype.
So, my theory here, so far no US store has official said the price theyre selling the PS3 for. But Sony for months has been saying out loud the price for the system. But, what if this is a monstrous marketing scheme? The whole idea makes perfect sense once you think about it. Take the blu-ray market at the moment, its quite expensive and rare, so rare in fact that it makes it expensive. These players dont cost so much money because of difficulty in manufacturing; they just arent main-stream. In reality if they were in every gamers house hold then youd have quite the market for it, its basic knowledge that if you have a lot of traffic for something, the better the market, the better the prices (depends on supply, but they will be prepared).
The main basis on this article is an idea, nothing concrete about it. But today on the Wal-Mart website for the first time they listed the PS3s supposed price. They said it was $300 for the system (most likely the 20 gig, not sure at the moment). But some proof of the moment can be found here: http://ps3.qj.net/This-can-t-be-real-Wal-Mart-PS3-from-299-82-/pg/49/aid/70542. But quickly removed it and didnt replace the price (which is odd, since if they made a typo wouldnt they just replace the price with the correct one, hmmmm?). So, ONTO the main theory (finally), Sony has placed an artificial MSRP price on the system then will sell the system at near half price in stores. This is basic marketing 101, you supply peoples minds for a few months the fake price, then drastically drop the price before the release date. It will not only gain attention from every type of media known to man, but attention from gamers, investors, companies and all.
If the idea succeeds then Sony and Blu-ray won the market attention wise. Blu-ray will gain the most attention and thus become more mainstream, the PS3 and Blu-ray will do what Sony has been always saying. They will be helping each other.