Bundles And Price Creating PS3 Glut?

[Shawn Andrich]

According to NotifyWire, the high price of the PS3 and the cost of bundles is leading to a glut of online systems for sale.

"I think we're already at the point where people won't pay a premium for the console or be forced into buying bundles," said Ian Drake, president of NotifyWire [http://notifywire.com]. "Last year we tracked several one thousand dollar Xbox 360 bundles which would sell out in less than two minutes after becoming available."

With $1,000 bundles sitting online for up to 12 hours, Drake believes that consumers are tired of price gouging on eBay and forced bundles from big retailers. The NotifyWire website currently shows CompUSA PS3 bundles available for purchase - provided you buy a combination of 10 games and accessories.

A quick glance at eBay shows PS3 units selling at just above retail price; some are even going at a slight loss.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=21856]

Permalink

 

[uk_john]

Excuse me, but what you'd get for a $1,000 XBox 360 bundle would be a whole lot more than a PS3 bundle! The PS3 alone is twice the price! Why is nobody willing to say it might just be the price of the unit that is causing problems? Also, throughout the media there have been many experts in the DVD player arena telling Movie watching fans to hold off on the new DVD system until either blue-ray or HD DVD wins the battle, warning of the VHS/Betamax situation rising again. People have been hearing, watching and reading about this for all of 2006, alongside articles on HD televisions and the like. Are the Fathers who are the money holders for these purchases saying 'no' based on the blue ray disk and the thought their PS3 could be that $700 betamax?!

 

[heavyfeul]

Personally I think the PS3 in NOT overpriced. Getting a 360 with the HD-DVD add-on will cost you the same, and you will still only have a 20GB hard drive. Sony just did not communicate this well to the consumer. When they said it was cheap, they were right, it is. They just shouldn't have assumed that the average consumer would know what they meant by "cheap."

MS had the smarter strategy. Keep the sticker price down, by selling the HD-DVD unit separate and at a later date. This allowed them to offer their premium system a year earlier and for cheaper.

Sony products are always more expensive than the competition and they always force proprietary technologies down people's throats. They have been doing it for so long, they really do not know any other way to operate. It just surprises me that this has been a successful business model for so long. Betamax, ATRAC, Memory Stick, Bluray...they just keep doing it. I am baffled.

 

[uk_john]

Personally I think the PS3 in NOT overpriced. Getting a 360 with the HD-DVD add-on will cost you the same, and you will still only have a 20GB hard drive. Sony just did not communicate this well to the consumer. When they said it was cheap, they were right, it is. They just shouldn't have assumed that the average consumer would know what they meant by "cheap."

MS had the smarter strategy. Keep the sticker price down, by selling the HD-DVD unit separate and at a later date. This allowed them to offer their premium system a year earlier and for cheaper.

Sony products are always more expensive than the competition and they always force proprietary technologies down people's throats. They have been doing it for so long, they really do not know any other way to operate. It just surprises me that this has been a successful business model for so long. Betamax, ATRAC, Memory Stick, Bluray...they just keep doing it. I am baffled.

.
.
.
.
.
.

The whole point, yes. XBox sells the HD add-on separately! When you spend the money you do on the PS3 you are stuck with that blue-ray drive. When you buy an XBox, you're not! So what happens if HD DVD wins out over blue-ray? What happens to the cost of blue-ray disks that now have no mass market to produce for, just the PS3?! And what will that mean to the game cost? And with no mass production of blue ray drives for all those next gen DVD player/recorders if HD DVD wins, what will that do to the cost of the drive in the PS3 and by extension the price of the PS3? If blue ray loses to HD DVD, or if neither take off, given the public is seemingly happy with their recently bought regular DVD player/recorders, will that mean $1,000 PS3's and $120 games?

There are so many questions no wonder there is a glut!