At Sony’s GamesCon 2009 press conference, CEO Kaz Hirai unveiled their not-so-well-kept secret PS3 Slim, set to hit the consumer market here in September. The console is roughly 2/3 the size and weight of the current PS3, and features 1/3 less power consumption. The slim will hit the market in two models, an 80GB HD and a 120GB HD.

Defiantly the best new of all though is that it will be featured as the cheapest PS3 to date, at a measly $299 USD (both the 80GB and the 120GB). Of course I’m at a lose as to who this surprises. Of course Sony needed to have a comeback to Microsoft’s 360 price drop. (Actually i believe retailers made the drop in price already once this news hit the insiders)

I for one think that it is about time. We have been WAY over due for some significant console price drops for a long time now. If I may be so bold as to stand up on my soapbox for a few words here, the source of profit in the game industry is simple: Video game titles are your profit! It’s that simple. Stop trying to profit on console sales! If John Doe can’t afford your console, how many games do you think he is going to buy? And it’s rough enough out there with big hit titles being released at $60 a pop. Think about it, anyone who is willing and able to spend $300-$400 on a console would have done so by now. Drop the price of the hardware so that lower income gamers can afford it, and BAM! You just hit a whole other economic demographic of gamers to sell software titles to. You take a small hit on console revenue, but the increase in sales should make up for that, plus you are now selling more games. Win-Win for everyone.

Tags: 360, console, consoles, game, Microsoft, Nintendo, playstation, price drop, ps3, slim, video, Wii, xbox

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 6:51 PM and is filed under Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.