Harrison Downplays PS3 Price Drop

Sony will be hanging on to any savings for itself.

Many Britons will have winced this week as they signed up at any of the pre-order campaigns that opened up for the PlayStation 3. The usual joy of new hardware is being tempered by a high price for a lot of people, and comments by Sony executive Phil Harrison point to the slim hope of respite soon.

Speaking to 1UP this week, Harrison, who was in Las Vegas for the D.I.C.E. Summit, said that Sony is looking to make the PS3 cheaper to build first before giving would-be buyers a break.

"When we can, when there are savings to pass along to the consumer, we would obviously choose to do that," Harrison told 1UP. "That's the business model."

Harrison was following up on comments made by Sony's Takao Yuhara, who told the Associated Press earlier this month that the company, "may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right".

Harrison said that Yuhara was actually talking about Sony cutting manufacturing costs rather than dropping the retail price. "Obviously, we are investing our money in making PlayStation 3s cheaper to manufacture," he told 1UP.

Pricing has been a sensitive issue for Sony. The PlayStation 3 will cost £425 when it launches in the UK on 23 March - £145 more than the Xbox 360 cost at its debut in December 2005.

Among the early adopter crowd, that may not make much of a difference. Polled retailers have reported strong demand for the PlayStation 3, some even more than for the Wii, according to a GamesIndustry.biz report.

And what of Microsoft? Do the 10.5 million consoles the Xbox 360 has shipped have any effect on Sony's approach? Not at all. Despite what Microsoft (and Nintendo) may be up to, Harrison and Sony are ignoring what their rivals are doing.

"We'll continue to plow our own furrow," he said.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo