In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe head David Reeves dropped something of a bombshell regarding the widely celebrated PS3 price drop of last week. When asked why European consumers weren’t reaping the same benefits, Reeves had the following to say:
How concerned are you about possible criticisms that you should have given European consumers what SCEA has given US consumers, i.e. the option to pay a lower price?
Well, they’re not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game. All they’re doing is taking their stock in trade that they’ve got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July.
Could you be a little clearer Dave?
So once the 60GB is gone, that will be the end of the 60GB then?
In America, yes.
Sony just had a fantastic press conference at E3, and there’s an enormous amount of positive sentiment around the console for perhaps the first time since it released last November. This would be seriously detrimental to that, to be kind. Let’s hope Sony changes their mind. The reason the PS3 wasn’t selling wasn’t due to the perceived value of the console; it wasn’t selling because no matter how much Sony packs in, it was still basically asking 600 dollars to play video games. That amount is virtually unconscionable. Charging that much again, even for a bigger hard drive, possibly with Motorstorm, is returning to outrageous territory. These consoles aren’t iPods, and I can only wonder how long it takes for Microsoft and Sony to realize that the iterative model isn’t going to work for them.
-Aegies
P.S. Our friends at A Link to the Future called this when the price drop was originally announced.