PS3 Prices Slashed In Japan

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Those of you holding out for lower prices on the PS3 might be in luck, prices are being slashed 20%. The catch? It is only on the 20GB model and only in Japan. Knocking $82 bucks of the price is nothing to sneeze at, it’d be nice to see a retailer in the U.S. drop the price 20% too.

PS3 sales in Japan haven't cooled off, they've frozen. Consoles sit on shelves as gamers wait it out: Waiting for actual games to appear or prices to drop. Retailers, on the other hand, are an impatient lot. Retailers are also buying "used" PS3s at much lower prices than previously, paying well under the original sticker price.
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I was at my local Walmart Friday (picking up Lost Planet for the 360) and they were awash in Playstation 3s.....either model.
It looks like this platform so far is a dud.
Not a Wii in sight, by the way.
 
Isn't this a sign of the appocolypse? Not even the Japanese want that piece of shit...
 
Dasgooch said:
Isn't this a sign of the appocolypse? Not even the Japanese want that piece of shit...
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It's funny and kinda sad at the same time. I was so sure that the PS3 launch in Japan would be meet with a fervor that would eclipse the NA launch. Meh, give me a few hardware revisions and a steep price drop and maybe I'll buy a PS3 in 2-3 years... maybe.
 
GJSNeptune said:
:p :p

They had pretty cool commercials though :D
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You're kidding right? I'm sure that you were looking for the sarcasm smilie when you posted. The only commercial that I halfway understood was the Rubik's cube spot (it had pretty colors).
 
I'm sure it's been said before, but a lot more people would have been buying it if it were cheaper.

Sony needs to realize this and set their price point accordingly.
I wonder if anyone has actually relayed that to the people in charge at Sony...
 
KaosDG said:
I'm sure it's been said before, but a lot more people would have been buying it if it were cheaper.

Sony needs to realize this and set their price point accordingly.
I wonder if anyone has actually relayed that to the people in charge at Sony...
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:D

20051104.jpg
 
Dasgooch said:
Isn't this a sign of the appocolypse? Not even the Japanese want that piece of shit...
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That is the same thing I thought. The Japanese buy up high priced electronics more than anyone; at least that is the impression I have always gotten. If they aren't buying PS3s it is a very bad sign.

I also wonder how many people who where on the fence about buying a PS3 are going to wait now because they think this means there is going to be a price drop here too.
 
brom42 said:
That is the same thing I thought. The Japanese buy up high priced electronics more than anyone; at least that is the impression I have always gotten. If they aren't buying PS3s it is a very bad sign.

I also wonder how many people who where on the fence about buying a PS3 are going to wait now because they think this means there is going to be a price drop here too.
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This will be the 2nd price drop in Japan in comparison to US pricing. Arrogance and bluster is costing Sony ALOT.
 
how about taking out the bluray player, and dropping the $400.

I don't have an MBA, and even I know that would be the smartest move.
 
I remember reading an article where Sony was claiming part of the reason it was easy to get one was because they were bringing systems in via air freight every week. Still though when i talk to people working at stores they say no one is buying them. I'll stick with my Wii. Drop the 60 gig PS3 to $400 and I might consider it.
 
grimbeaver said:
I remember reading an article where Sony was claiming part of the reason it was easy to get one was because they were bringing systems in via air freight every week. Still though when i talk to people working at stores they say no one is buying them. I'll stick with my Wii. Drop the 60 gig PS3 to $400 and I might consider it.
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The problem with that is that the Wii are also arriving every week, but they are selling out as soon as they arrive..

20% price drop, in the month after launch? That surprises me actually.
 
You know, if Sony would've come out the gate at $299 - $399 like MS there would've been a VERY strong demand and a hell of a fight going on right now.

Sony matching MS prices would've forced MS's hand to drop the price on the Xbox 360 / offer better bundles / buying incentives.

In turn, if MS dropped its price to $249 - $349, that would force the Wii to come down in price.


INSTEAD. Sony launched at $3 billion dollars, MS has no incentive to drop anything and the Wii is reaping the benefits of being the low price leader...but they can't be found anywhere.

Nice to see everyone (consumers) hosed by that $600 pricepoint.
 
Oh my. This does not look good. To say the sales are not bad but frozen is a bad sign. According to this...

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22243

It seems Sony indeed did ship 1,000,000 units to Japan. The big problem is 1/3rd are still sitting on store shelves. I had forgotten that Sony dropped the $499 price on the 20GB version just before launch in Japan to $412 and just a few months later it is at $329.. Considering they are loosing $300 a unit as it is, to take $170 off the price in under about 3 months time is pretty bad. They also say people are selling used units well below retail, so it seems people are not too happy with them.

MS is doing pretty good really. They have sold over 10.5M units, Gears or War sold over 3 million already and they still have Halo3 coming out later this year. Add HD movie downloads and IPTV and things are looking really good. It looks like Nintendo will likely pull ahead of both though, but the XBOX360 is a good solid machine with a ton of games out already. With sony trimming about 30% of their sales estimates for this year and next year now I do not think they will ever catch the XBOX360... or the Wii.
 
Steve said:
You know, if Sony would've come out the gate at $299 - $399 like MS there would've been a VERY strong demand and a hell of a fight going on right now.

Sony matching MS prices would've forced MS's hand to drop the price on the Xbox 360 / offer better bundles / buying incentives.

In turn, if MS dropped its price to $249 - $349, that would force the Wii to come down in price.


INSTEAD. Sony launched at $3 billion dollars, MS has no incentive to drop anything and the Wii is reaping the benefits of being the low price leader...but they can't be found anywhere.

Nice to see everyone (consumers) hosed by that $600 pricepoint.
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My friend, the only people that got hosed were the people who paid $600 (or more on EBAY) for a PS3 that has no games and nothing close to XBL! I love the 360 more everyday.:D
 
Honestly, I dont think Sony has lost this round of the console wars because of anythign MS did or even Nintendo with its innovative design did, I think they lost because Sony's worst enemy is Sony. Judging by the press releases and quotes from Sony execs, they ahve their heads shoved up their a** pretty deep in.

What Sony desperately needs right now is a killer app/game for PS3; and as usual it will likely be in the FF series. I know alot of friends who drooled over the PS2 so they could play the latest and greatest in the FF series. Still, I do not think Square can save Sony this time around unless Sony bites the bullet and puts their console at $400.

They were simply too far ahead of the market at $600 imo, and I hope they get stung as a result, their hubris, as displayed in their remarks, was ridiculous.
 
Japan was suppose to be the market that they would just kill everyone in with Nintendo having a nice second place.

With sony dropping the price of the 20 gig right before launch and then dropping it 3 months in it doesn't look good. Has any good console ever had a price drop so fast? With the various reports showing 300 or so thousand sitting in the us on the shelf and japan being a dead market it seems like sony is in a very bad place. Personaly I wonder if it would be the time for ms to drop the price of the 360 to try to really just seal the fate of the ps3? I'm not saying sony can't pull it around. I'm just saying it is looking like it is going to be one long uphill battle. If only ms would do away with the core and drop the 400 dollar setup down a hundred bucks. Would make things real interesting.
 
No surprise. When I was in Japan over winter break most stores had tons of PSP in stock, no DS in stock, no Wiis in stock and little if not none PS3 in stocks. There were a few XBOX360s in stock for really cheap (~$200US for the upgraded edition), but thats to be expected in Japan. PS3 was already going cheap relative to US pricing, by ~$50 dollars before the 20% price drop.
 
As consumers, we're sheep. Face it, we'll shell out the bucks for "shiny graphics."

But of course Sony went a little too far this time. There biggest mistake was trying to shove Blu-Ray down our throats. BR/HD just aren't the animals that the DVD was, but then again Sony never learns anything about format wars.

Clearly from the so-so sales of the 360 HDDVD drive its clear that HD/BR just aren't in huge demand right now, be it low HDTV adoption, fear of obsolesence (formats), or the general public become more aware of the pitfals of DRM every day.

Sony could have priced the PS3 at the same price as the 360, with or without Blu-Ray, and it would have sold much better.
 
Nintendo owns both MS and Sony...

Time to learn from the company who started it all...
 
All of this talk of old is making me nostalgic, and all of this nostalgia just made me yearn for a Super Super Nintendo.

How many millions of people would bumrush stores for a remastered SNES and SNES games? :p

This is from the standpoint of a gamer, not a game designer. Spare the lecture of impracticality, impossibility, and/or uselessness :D
 
Everybody wants a Nintendo Wii right now. I just sold one on eBay for $365 and I'm selling another that I bought about a week ago. The new "innovative technology" of the Wii really does get boring after a while. It only took me about 4 days.
 
finally someone that sees things my way

i mean ill admit the wii can be fun. but you burn out from how fun it is FAST.

man sometimes i just wanna kick it and play a game, i dont wanna be waving my arms around and shit. lean back not forward when playing a game at times.
 
emailthatguy said:
finally someone that sees things my way

i mean ill admit the wii can be fun. but you burn out from how fun it is FAST.

man sometimes i just wanna kick it and play a game, i dont wanna be waving my arms around and shit. lean back not forward when playing a game at times.
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Yep, I agree.

Nothing like busting out a nice FPS that you can chill back on the couch on.
 
Everyone has times when they will just want to chill on the couch and not do any work, and then there are other times when swinging your arms all over the place and just have a good time. This is what the Wii60 experience is for. I can go from jumping around looking like an idiot playing Smooth moves to sitting back on the couch playing GoW by simply changing controllers. All for the same price as just a 60gb PS3.

I don't see how Sony couldn't have realized they were in trouble when sites like www.wii60.com starting showing up.

By the way there is a www.pswii.com site, but the site is completely pathetic compared to Wii60.
 
I'm actually surprised Sony managed to sell as many as they did.. pieces of junk they are!
 
Writer of story appears to be misinformed.

The official story: After conferring with their Japanese counterparts, US Sony reps dismissed the PS3 sale as a single chain trying to promote itself. "It looks like it is only one retailer, Don Quijote, and they are running a special for a limited time on a limited number," said the rep.
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source

Not much different than Microcenter giving $100 rebates to sell 360's.

in some instances they're willing to pay ridiculous prices to buy one on eBay.
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That should be were willing to pay ridiculous prices. You've met demand, that is no longer the case.
 
I'd rather have some good exclusive games for my PS3 to make it actually worthwhile.

Right now it collects dust as my 360 and Wii get all the playtime.


Any game that is on multiple consoles I'm buying them in this order.

1. 360 - HD, best online play for any multiplayer title
2. Wii - Only on the games that the controls make it more important than online or HD, party games etc.
3. PS3 - Only games I can't get on the 360 or Wii. And I'm going to bitch about sucky online and no rumble and worthless sixaxis the whole time I'm playing. :eek:
 
Marv, you must be fairly young if you don't remember Atari when it was great. The 2600 really started the home computer gaming industry. I enjoyed my Colecovision more, but that was many years later.
 
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