Sony: Steadfast In Hard Times

Sony’s pricing on their gaming products is very controversial in todays economic climate. Despite news of job loss everywhere, and consumers cutting back on wasteful spending, Sony stays strong and defends its high price of the PS3 as well as its newly introduced PSP.

The new PSP is actually $80 more expensive than its previous version. Priced at $250 a pop, Sony hopes consumers are willing to pay more for its smaller, lighter design with bluetooth capabilities and 16GB of storage space. Critics argue that this price is much too high considering people’s tight budgets these days.

However, Sony is content with its pricing. To them, high pricing and playing the waiting game for sales to kick in to meet production costs is nothing new. Their PS3 system is still being produced at a loss but they are still holding prices steady and just waiting until sales pick up to match costs. The funny thing is, since its sales started so low compared to Microsofts Xbox 360 or Nintendo’s Wii, the PS3 is actually gaining in sales compared to the other two.

So far this slow, stubborn waiting approach is not working, but if things keep up the way they are, Sony will have even more reason to keep its prices high, leaving us gamers to stick with our cheap Wii’s and little Wii Play Tank games for now. In all seriousness though, I love that game.