Well, we’re in the home stretch! A new format for E3 brought a new look and feel, a few challenges and most importantly a great opportunity to show off our wares for all PlayStation platforms. All the planning, preparations and hard work has paid off into what was a great E3 for SCEA. Congratulations to everyone involved in making that happen! And a thanks to all of you guys for your positive comments regarding the press conference and what we showed there. I know Jack was checking out all the comments on his post and really appreciated your feedback. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing our games via the trailers on PlayStation Network. I just wanted to also let you know that yes, we hear you, and we are working to make those great games you saw into more interactive content and demos.
One quick thing before I head to the show for the last day. I just wanted to clarify something. I’ve seen a lot of posts this morning related to the 60GB SKU and the comments by SCEE President David Reeves. As we announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future.
Talk to you again soon, once we get back from Santa Monica.
and as for Dave’s extra comment in the thread…. you just showed your self up as a liar dave.
this blog was meant to be about having an honest dialogue with the customer.
well done.
@Dave
Do you know what the problem is? I think your pricing strategy is not bad. Nothing you do right now is bad. And yes I am sure you’ll do something after all 60 GBs are out. BUT and that’s a big BUT…
we are not supposed to know this.
It was possible to get good press with this stunt, but now it is ruined, effectively reducing the the impact of the price cut and canceling some of the effects of this blog.
There are two possibilities here. Either there is a inside sony communication problem and Mr. Reeves had no idea about it all. Or Mr. Reeves has done something so stupid that he needs to be replaced. This is inexcusable.
Well, i think the strategy is to move to 80gb sku for a $499 retail price, after the 60gb sku has been sold off.
I was pretty pissed myself yesterday because:
1) Going from $499 temporarily, back to $599 standard is just suicide for sales.And aweful news to consumers overall.
2) Sony’s E3 performance was brilliant.There was a huge positive vibe/buzz over the whole gaming internet (gamesites/forums/blogs etc), that we havent had with ps3 for a long time.It really felt like the tipping point.MGS4 exclusive, Killzone absolutely blowing us away, Heavenly sword, uncharted, ratchet etc all looking absolutely great, stellar graphics.
And then came that report, and it just pissed all over the parade.An anti-climax in the truest sense of the word.
So it wasnt all that surprising that people got really mad/disappointed (myself included) because most of us here really want the playstation3 to be succesful and to succeed, but its hard to feel that way after news like that.
Okay again.
Dear sony
Just give me the demos.
Thank you.
Ahah I’m quite sure that Mr. Reeves right now is feeling the wrath of Kaz and all the american execs.
He’s the only responsable of this situation. He talked of SCEA as if they were a competitor and not a friend ruining their party….
Sony’s plan in my opinion is clear dudes so relax:
1)Get rid of the 60GB units, more expensive to manufacture because of the hardware based BC, through a price drop.
2)Introduce what is is going to be the PS3 model during the holyday season, this model costs less to manufacture than the 60GB version because it has software based BC and the 80GB hard drive has the same price of the 80GB drive.
3)When the 60GB units are no more on the market, which will be in time for the holyday season (late September/October) they announce their plans for the holyday season, with the 80GB priced at 499$ or even less becase in that time their costs will go down furtherly.
Of course now that the stupid Reeves has spoiled it they cannot admit that they’re just getting rid of the old expensive units right now and that much better offerings will be made in a few months time and they’re foced to leave the doubt the price will be back to 599$.
BTW the only thing that matters right now is that people interested in PS3 can buy it at 499$.
kenjisan
I have a feeling your right
Wow. You know, for a company who has dominated the last 12 years in the console world, you seem to making quite a few mistakes with the PS3.
Look, you have a *fantastic* lineup of games. I think they’re absolutely terrific. I can’t wait to get my hands on Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, MGSIV, FFXIII, GT5, Haze, and my most anticipated game, GTAIV.
But what the hell is with the price guys? Come on, you drop it, then raise it back up again?
We just need a price drop. We don’t need 20GB extra space. Nobody is going to pay $600 for a console. Please understand this.
I still think PS3 has the best upcoming games and to me the console with the best games should win, so you have to understand that a LOWER PRICE is what is needed. I put it in caps so you might understand better. The lagging sales of the PS3 haven’t gotten the message through to you for some reason.
And don’t forget about Australia! We rule.
I think it is important for Sony to get rid of the emotion engine PS3 though I don’t know why it cost so much to make. But, I do know that Sony, while trying to extend its consumer base, would never lower a price just to raise it again. I just don’t think that Sony is that stupid. When I seen the video Hiri said that “that would leave the 599 console only”, I can’t believe that means they are going to leave the the price at 599. That wouldn’t make sense, especially since it is the least expensive to make. Think about it.
I imagine the idea will be to get rid of the 60 GB units with the Emotion Engine, then switch to the 80 GB version without the Emotion Engine for $499. They probably don’t want to admit this because they hope to sell the 80 GB version for $599 for awhile so they lose less money. What Sony really needs to do is indicate whether there will be a $499 model available after the units with the Emotion Engine are gone. They should have cleared this up yesterday. I don’t think Sony would be stupid enough to only have a $599 SKU again, but they need to do a better job communicating what they are doing to the consumer. I am disappointed that they haven’t done a better job trying to cleaning up this mess. Tell the truth and sack Reeves, who should have a promising attitude at Microsoft given how he is so predisposed to publically criticizing Sony.
Oops, I meant Reeves would have a promising career at Microsoft given his attitude and predisposition to publically criticize Sony. Typo. :)
I know Kaz & Jack & Phil are freaking p!ssed at Reeves right now. He just took away all of SCEAs momentum with this announcement. No matter how you try to spin it, this is not something that SCEI wanted to announce at this point in time. I mean they just announced the price cut to a great reception and then in comes Reeves the ef it up.
@fireras
Why would Kaz be pissed if he was one of the ones who said it himself in a video interview. That leaves Jack and Phil. The ones who haven’t mentioned such news when asked about the PS3’s price cut plans.
@Blizzard182
I am aware of what was said and the problem that people are complaining about. But the fact remains that we know absolutely nothing in terms of what they’re going to do once the 60GB are completely gone. Sony has stated it will still be evaluating market conditions in the following months.
I will repeat what others have said in this thread:
-Removing the EE will reduce costs for Sony.
-Adding an 80GB hard drive will also reduce costs for Sony since 80GB hard drives are apparently easier to make and acquire.
Eventually there will probably be another price drop(probably not enough in the consumers eye, though) because of reduced production costs and (possibly?) greater demand for the system.
As I’ve stated above also, Sony will most likely give a more formal announcement or clarification on this issue by the end of next week after they have their corporate meetings.
I don’t expect solid pricing answers, but you’ll probably see that everyone at all the Sony divisions will be on the same page.
Just to let you guys know, I personally don’t really like this at the moment, but I can’t judge them with the limited knowledge known at this point.
Reeves WTF !!!!!!!!!! Is he jealous of the other big wigs ? Kaz,Jack and especialy Phil are great ! This guy is a stupid AHOLE ! Get rid of him he’s working for M$ !!!!!
@AKS1 — If they say that now then people will not buy the 60Gb version and will wait for the 80Gb version. They want to sell now.
I’m sure the general public is not avid forumers or video game news followers like we are. The 60gig is selling fine now, more of the general public will buy it, it will run out of stock and sony will drop the 80gig price to $499 so you folks can wait for that if you like. The big loser here is Sony looking bad with subordinates talking smack and revealing plans for ANOTHER region inappropriately and poor Mr. Reeves probably has to look for a new job after this. And most likely, he was just tired and cranky and not thinking clearly after his flight which led up to all of this. Either way, Sony will be just fine and everyone lamenting over the phasing out and $599 price point is not realizing Sony has a mult-step strategy and this is just the first.
PS. And there is no point in Sony announcing further cuts now or plans for cuts now, it makes them look desperate and is not necessary. The will track how many units sell through with the new price point over a few months and then decide if it needs a boost by a price cut near holiday season where it would make the most sense to ‘news’ a new cut. I wouldn’t expect announcements of any sort beyond what Kaz and Dave said until holiday season and the 60gigs are gone.
Seriously Sony, so many people are gonna be disappointed about the discontinuation of the 60gb, with the end of the 20gb, consumers only had the choice of the 60gb (which is good as is), why cause even more confusion and frustration?
Releasing the 80gb wont justify getting a ps3, the whole point from the beginning was for consumers just to get a hand on a least one of those pricey machines, it didn’t even matter how much it could store
long term strategy they feel 80gig is better for the consumer longrun because of increased capacity to buy the type of media they want to put more and more of on PSN ie. movies, music, community content. They have said from the beginning PS3 will continue to evolve in configuration over its ten year lifecycle, why is there surprise and dissapointment? Do you not think iPod does the same thing? I remember 32 meg was a regular size for a $200 mp3 player, would you not scoff at that now?
I just hope when the 60 gb get discontinued the 80 gb ps3 have a $499 price. With this I can be more sattisfied with this decision.
Obviously Sony will not tell us that the price remain the same otherwise nobody will buy the 60 gb knowing that there’s a better option for the future.
And for the Europeans please give em the drop price, they have been a loyal to the brand, they’re worth of it.
And for the people who have the money and wants a ps3 buy it now!
@Shane_O
I understand what you say. I honestly didn’t know that the 80gb drives were more easily to make. I just thought they added some HD to make the model more desirable.
I think we are missing some big point here.
I am not attacking marketing campaign from Sony. I know that probably the price will drop after the 60 is gone. BUT what really made me bad, it is that just after Sony said:
“We have a BIG gift for you fellow customers, we have a price drop!”
Then some guy (We all know who was) said that the Price drop is actually NOT a price drop, 60gb models are not in production and that after the model is gone they are back to the 599 SKU.
So where the hell is my price drop? I don’t care, i already own a PS3. I am quite happy. But this kicks the potential customers in the @ss. For me and others here who knows the business, the bundle is just an option we will NEVER buy. But for the regular gamer, is just another scam. Because they see the 599 SKU and they think, wait, is it at 499?
And if you also add that I have no friggin demo in my PSN and that I am sick and tired of hearing “we are working on it” I am starting to think that Sony spent more time in the hardware engineering and left the customer satisfaction for later. And MS did the opposite.
I am pissed till I hear some clarification on this and till I get some answer on what the hell is going on backstage.
Amen.
My two cents.
@blizzard182
I agree with you 100%
I really feel that they’ve done the potential customer wrong as well. Actually I agree with everything you just posted.
I don’t even care about this whole price deal going on or the new SKU or anything. I’ve owned my PS3 since January 1st and I’m always anxiously waiting for new worthwhile content on the Playstation Store… several demos such as Heavenly Sword and Lair were confirmed this month.. Heavenly Sword was said to be very soon.. so of course I was thinking after E3 which would make sense considering there was a PLAYABLE DEMO at the show.. that the people at E3 were able to play.. The Playstation Store needs content..
So a few friends of mine where at our cities fireworks yesterday and we had to get there really (5 hours) to get a good spot. So we figured we would grill etc..and during said grilling we had a conversation about the consoles that are out etc. Now out of my friends I’m the only one that owns a PS3 as the others own console X. So as we are talking I was pretty surprised that most want to buy into the PS3. Its just at once previous price point of 599 and not having that ONE game that makes them want to shell out the cash. Most agreed that if done right, sony has a machine that boasts enough power to have great games and longevity in the market.
However there where a couple of things of dislike which I have never noticed.
1.) One friend stated that he felt the controls for RFoM didn’t seem to come naturaly and other FPS on the guy seem to all have the same button assignments. Since I have only started playing FPS on consoles (PC guy here ) I just told him I didn’t notice much but I thought the for the most part controls seem to pretty “defacto” across FPS in the last year or two for the PS2/3
2.) If they can get the PSN up to snuff to that of live that it would make the current games more appealing and would help in the buying descision. They even advocate a bit of stealing cause anymore, they think things like gamer rating etc should just be standard.
3.) They are geeked to see home and what it has to offer as far as an intergrated experiance.
4.) Currently the 499 price point is making them think hard about getting one , so sony please keep a 499 sku through the holidays.
5.) Being able to play your own music i games matters.
Oddly enough though one guy thought that BD was good but HDDVD was going to win the format war, which made me laugh like a school girl. All in all we all agreed that sony has the machine, it just needs to fill in the gaps an that no matter what this holiday and the future looks to be intense.
So good game sony but in the end, please keep that 499 SKU on at least ONE system. Its working!
I have a ps3 and I love, also I listen to alot of a different gaming podcast, based on what i hear, you guys should think twice about the 599 price. You have a strong lineup coming but 599 is crazy. I want to see sony succeed cause i think you product are great because they never let me down.
Did you see that guys?? Dave Karraker said that they will “MONITOR THE MARKET AND MAKE ADJUSTMENTS WHEN THE 60GB RUNS OUT”….what does that mean?? Here is my prediction….
“80GB PS3’s TO BE $499 STAND ALONE AFTER 60GB ARE GONE”
OMG…enough about the price drop or lack there of….if your upset go out and get a job and stop asking mom to spend the $500-$600.
@ E_x_i_l_e
im with you…i bought my PS3 months ago and ALL I WANT IS CONTENT!!!
dont care about trailers that i can see on gametrailers.com….with all the content Sony owns with Sony pictures you’d think EVERY SONY PICTURES movie would be on the PSN not the gay Bruce Springsteen video from wherever
DEMOS
DEMOS
DEMOS
DEMOS
THATS WHAT I WANT…IF EVERY GAME IS GOING TO BE DELAYED THEN THE LEAST WE CAN HAVE IS A DEMO OF A GAME THAT OBVIOUSLY WONT BE OUT UNTIL 2008
just my opinion :)
@Loucifer
I guess you don’t know how industry works do you? The price is so important.
I work. I bought my own PS3 a couple of months ago. I don’t care about the price drop.
I care about the customer and what it looks like hidden info. One thing is marketing, another thing is treat the customer like this.
I think what hit them this weekend is the lack of communication to have a unique speech over the whole price drop thing.
The guys who don’t give a damn about the price drop are just easy customers that don’t know how to make worth it your investment.
I paid 1000 for this? I want a good machine damn it.
DEMOS DEMOS DEMOS!! WEEEE NEEEEEED DEEEEEEMOOOOOS AND NO MORE PROMISE….
loucifer,
I agree, it is old, move on already. NO ONE knows exactly whats going to happen accept Sony. Anything else is just theory.
Yeah, you are right. Let’s move on and forget every bad move Sony does till this implodes itself.
*ends sarcasm*
It is not OLD. This is a big and dangerous market. You can not make a mistake.
Sony has this Blog. Use ussssssss. Start polls, ask questions to us, tell us what is going on before some cheap news site starts the rumor.
U get the point.
I don’t always need to hear comments from the big bosses (which I think are by far way busy to post sometimes) but from every guy who can tells us something.
Besides the devs, I’ve seen posts for like 6 people.
I’m still waiting for a response to some of this.
Wow, good old Sony is back at it again, they must really think we are stupid. I just love how they are spinning this. The 60gb is gone, looks like you can buy an 80gb for $120 more than the 360 elite. Oh yeah that Elite has HDMI, 1080p, oh and that 120gb hard drive. Way to go Sony, you are as clueless as ever.
Shipwreck95 The elite doesn’t have built in Wi-Fi, card readers, High Def movies. When you add all that Stuff in your $479 Xbox elite just became $779. You still haven’t added Live in. You could add 160gb drive and have a games and still save $70.
Correct me if i’m wrong but.. try to follow this..
Microsoft is a massive company and one would assume that when they make a new product they would put it through a certain amount of testing before releasing it to the public. They don’t just manufacture them and assume that the product works flawlesslly because the prototype did. That would lead to all sorts of problems…
so.. somehow in developing their product they managed to miss the simple fact that 1 in 3 units coming off the line are dying.
Extremely unlikely but even if this was the case then once the product hit the market the problem would quickly become evident… except Microsoft steadfastly maintained that their crash rate was roughly about 3% until recently.
So we have a company that knowingly releases a flawed product simply to get it to market first. Tries to ignore the problem in the hopes that the public will grin and bear it and when it finally becomes apparent that the problem isn’t going away… they extend the warranty. After the product has already been in the marketplace for roughly a year and a half to two years. The sad thing is that it seems to have worked. The 360 has managed to become established in the marketplace simply by being the only option and all they had to sacrifice was their reputation. After all… sales matter, not customer satisfaction. I don’t know what to do with my 360.. I can’t imagine what kind of a price i’d get trying to sell it.
Think about this when you want to complain about aspects of the Ps3.
Will Home Be limited to Sony Ericsson phones? Will it be able to interact with any phone… i.e. the iPhone… would be great for this.
Well put roadclimber. Puts it in perspective. When you shell out the extra cash for the PS3, you get a more powerful console thats WAAAAY more reliable than the 360. You get a built in blueray player that uses disks that store more information on it which translates into bigger, better, more graphically intense games. Better ai, more physics, the whole shibang. You get a ps, ps2, ps3, mp3 player, cd, dvd, and blueray movie player. Web browser as well. All for a good price. I call it good because I have a system that though it costs more, I get ps3 reliability I won’t get with a 360. Sure I could save money getting a 360. But it would kinda bite real bad having to send it back every 3 months or so and have to wait how long? 1, 2, even 3 months to get it back? No thank you. I would rather have a more reliable system that even though more expensive, its more powerful, has better games, and I don’t have to send it off every 3 months to get it fixed.
Still not exactly happy with the response, but at least you guys are saying something about it.
Now please just consider unbundling Motorstorm and dropping it back down to $499 for the 80GB when the 60GB SKU becomes scarce, because I really want to buy it but can’t do so for another few months and I’m NOT paying a newly hiked price.
I mean really, everytime a company raises the price on a product after dropping it you get an unholy ****storm of bad PR.
why is sony being so shady? I’m starting to dislike the ps3.
Okay Sony.. On the Ninja Theory forums one of the devs posted that the demo IS done and now we’re waiting on YOU GUYS! Now why can’t that be on the Playstation Store? hmm? Where’s the Lair demo, that game comes out next month.. there should easily be a demo already.. what about Uncharted? There have been multiple playable demos at Gamer’s Day and E3 now.. where are these demos for the people who actually bought a console? People that might not even own a PS3 at E3 got to play these games ..
The demo for Lair is the dev’s responsibility and Factor 5 said they’re going to finish the game before they think about the demo. If there ever is a demo for Lair, it likely won’t be until some time after the game is already available at retail unfortunately.
The Heavenly Sword demo on the other hand… hand it over, Sony!
Where did you hear that? I’ve heard that we were supposed to get the demo last month till the game was pushed to August.. so we should be getting that demo soon ..
God damn it Sony stop messing with our heads!! Come on Phil stand up straight; a man always looks more confident when he’s erect! And Jack stop trying to take out the $500 60gig PS3 units. If anything you should bring back the 20gig PS3 unit, sell it for $400; so you can keep up with Microsoft; continue to make the $500 60gig PS3 and continue to sell the 80gig PS3!
Come on Sony i might only know the basics of good business practice but at least i know that what I’ve stated above benefits all. The price of the hardware will continue to steadily drop and if you give consumers something cheaper while continuing to offer them higher end products at the same time what will happen is that the people who can afford to buy the higher end version of the product they want (in this case the PS3) will more than likely buy it because they can afford it while the people who can’t afford the high end version can get a lower version model that will do the exact same thing they just won’t get the wi-fi, media card readers and any other little things that don’t really hurt the overall gaming experience.
Also another thing i thing i don’t think you realize is that we, as gamers, have moved on from the idea of “look what my TV can do.” Now most gamers want only a few things. We want a good console for a decent price that has alot of software titles, a stable system and a good networking feature. We really don’t care if its high end or not anymore we just want something that will play our games for a decent price that isn’t $600.
Also one last thing i want to bring up before i call it a night. If you guys don’t change your strategy now your going to see alot of us faithful Sony gamers start going over to Microsoft’s XBOX360 or the Nintendo Wii. Its a sad truth but both are doing much better then you are right now and both are promising alot. I’m not saying that you aren’t promising alot as well but Nintendo and Microsoft just seem to be doing alot more to push there consoles out there while you guys are actually taking away another unit and keeping another over the top system. You need to do something now before you potentially loose it all.
Also on a different subject I would actually like to talk to Jack and Phil about an idea for a game that i think you guys might enjoy making. Its an interesting premise designed around the current day world and shows what happens when you try to play God when God is playing as well. I know the chances of you two actually reading this aren’t and taking interest in my idea is very slim to none but even so if you do happen to be interested in it then please send me an e-mail at acebossrhino@yahoo.com.
I have both consoles and I am dying to finally have a reason to play my PS3. I wish they would hurry up and get some decent games out there. Warhawk is going to be great the sooner they get that out the better. I will admit to get the full 360 experience you need to spend more. But when it comes to acual gaming, xbox has more titles and better stuff coming this year. I think Sony has some GREAT titles coming, but I have been saying that for so damn long I am getting annoyed. I bought my PS3 to play next gen SOCOM, and all I get is a nickel and dimed online version that looks way too much like GRAW and nothing like SOCOM. Where is the third person we all love?
Kristen Reilly at Playstation.com is a super cutie. She can sell me a PS3 anytime. :-)
First off, SCEA’s E3 conference was insightful and encouraging (enough to encourage many consumers to buy PS3s).
I , myself, am a Sony-loyal customer, and have owned a PS3 since December. Despite all the electronics/computing knowledge that I’ve acquired from 31 years of life, school, and anything else, I am not a marketing/corporate communications consultant, but I am a consumer who’s purchased over 20 Sony products (DVD players, headphones…) since 1993. I don’t intend to tell you guys how to do your job but, I think that the 80GB PS3 bundle w/Motorstorm should be $549.99 instead of $599.99. With the 599, it’s $40 for the 20GB extra HDD and $60 for Motorstorm. With the 549, its just $50 for 20GB difference + the game. A much more attractive offer than the 60GB sku for $499. The average Playstation loyalist not owning a PS3 would jump at the $549 offer rather than the $599 offer since the average gamer can upgrade their internal 60GB HDD to more than 80GB for less than $40. Furthermore, with the $549 offer your promoting a your 1st party exclusive… right? Maybe I’m missing something, but that’s what I think. Some late-night-talk-show TV commercials wouldn’t hurt either. Thanks for reading my boring rant, and I appreciate what you guys have done so far with the firmware updates. Bye
I don’t think they want the 80gb model to sell at the expense of the $499 60gb model. It’s only for people who really want both motorstorm and the hard-drive.
I’d say the main reason for introducing it now is to start up manufacturing of the 80gb model without the Emotion Engine, so that when the 60gb sells out, it can easily take its place with no supply issues. Hopefully at the reduced priced, and unbundled.
500!! Demos demos demos!
The sale is a blowout sale. You can read about it here:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/199251
The thing is that they think they have enough stock to have sales for some time… of course, when your system is selling so poorly, I suppose this is no real surprise.
Why is everyone so upset over this? Nothing has changed. Your PS3 will still be compatible with everything coming out in the future. All the 80GB model has is a larger hard drive and no Emotion Engine. If it’s that important to you, go out and get a bigger hard drive. End of story. If you’re too blinded by your own ignorance to take advantage of this great limited time offer, than I feel sorry for you because you’ll be missing out on a great system.