Sony's Battle to Lower PS3 Price

PlayStation 3 seems like it's going to be expensive, but Sony is at least trying to keep the price down.

Despite confident presentations from Microsoft and Sony at E3, there's still an element of flux to both companies' upcoming next-generation hardware.

The most recent example of this is the revelation out of Japan, via IGN, that Sony dropped some of its more ambitious features for PlayStation 3. To help the console become the centre of the digital living room, Sony had considered including a router, but this was left out because of concerns about how it would affect the retail price.

The problem with all new hardware is that certain price points have become established in customers' minds, and straying too far from those prices can make a console seem overly expensive.

The latest estimates put PlayStation 3 as one of the most expensive consoles yet, and it's expected that it will hit the street at a higher price than both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 did at their respective launches.

Leaving out the router functionality of PlayStation 3 was done to help bring down the price. To further lower what Sony pays to make each console, the company also recently revealed that PlayStation 3 would likely ship without a hard drive.

Sony's decision to leave out the router functionality was prompted by the belief that PlayStation 3 owners would already have a router in their homes. And while the console will not ship with a hard drive, there are unconfirmed reports that PlayStation 3 will support any 2.5-inch hard drive and not only those sold by Sony itself.

The principle money sinks in Sony next-generation console are the custom Nvidia RSX graphics chip and the vaunted Cell processor, which Sony developed in conjunction with IBM and Toshiba.

With these essential components bringing the bulk of the burden, it appears that Sony is keen to see where it can cut back to avoid the situation Microsoft has faced with Xbox, which loses the company money to this day.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games