Malik  (4/28/04)

PS2 Price Drop Issues

Well, it seems that market analysts are saying that the PS2 needs a price drop to compete with the recent drop in XBox prices. It's being figured that XBox outsold the PS2 in the month following the XBox drop to $149. It's common sense to say that if Sony wants to keep in strong competition with Microsoft in console sales Sony will need to have a competitive price for the PS2. 

However, it should also be noted that supposedly analysts are thinking that this will affect software manufacturers in their considerations of what systems to develop their titles for. I mean, obviously, who'd want to sell a title for a console that is not selling well in the market? 

Now for my thoughts on this; What should be considered is that the PS2 should have a lower price than it currently does when compared to XBox and GCN prices. It is a far older system that has a lower cost to manufacture than an XBox and has a far less stable shelf life (PS2s break a lot quicker than an XBox...case in point; DREs). It goes without saying that Sony should look into a price drop to remain competitive and to justify the purchase of an older and more incompetently manufactured system. 

Additionally (still my opinion), I think that only an idiotic software maker would just consider XBox selling a little stronger than PS2 in the last month as the sole justification for not making a title on the PS2. While PS2 is selling slower, it also has already captured a far larger number of people than the XBox. In fact, it will take a good long time, at this rate, for XBox total sales to equal the sales of PS2s...in fact, so long that the next generation consoles would have already hit shelves. The smart money, for software developers, if they are just looking at the total market size, and not the technical abilities of each system, to go with PS2 as it is still far ahead of the competition in sales and thus a game released on only one system will find a bigger audience with the PS2. 

Last of all; for those of you who don't have a PS2 (what the hell is wrong with you?) and are wanting one, it is being anticipated that a price drop could surface sometime right around E3 (or at least an announcement of one).

Malik