Slashing prices was an important strategy last generation, but the cost of manufacturing next-generation has placed that card on the back burner. Right now, Nintendo's the only company that continues to make a premium on each machine sold, and Sony has stated their price strategy will be nothing like it was on PlayStation 2. It's simply too expensive, they said. That doesn't mean they've brushed them off, however. Sony reduced the launch price of PS3 before its release in Japan last year, and that doesn't mean they won't utilize them in the next year. "We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right," said Sony senior VP Takao Yuhara to reporters in Japan (thanks to the Associated Press).
Yuhara also believes the current forecast of a $1.6 billion fiscal year 2006 operating loss for Sony's gaming division may be incorrect -- he speculates the number could be higher. That means Sony's probably fast tracking plans to get out of the red and breaking even as soon as possible, apparently the company's goal for the fiscal year ending in March 2008.
"Such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in" when determining how the company will break even a little over a year from now.
Yuhara also believes the current forecast of a $1.6 billion fiscal year 2006 operating loss for Sony's gaming division may be incorrect -- he speculates the number could be higher. That means Sony's probably fast tracking plans to get out of the red and breaking even as soon as possible, apparently the company's goal for the fiscal year ending in March 2008.
"Such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in" when determining how the company will break even a little over a year from now.