Sharples: PS3 still in red hot production

Last week, Lazard Capital Markets‘ Colin Sebastian claimed that the Wii’s production went up, while Sony‘s factories got a bit of dry spell – or at least was heading straight into one. Story goes that on some related note regarding price cuts (the lack thereof, to be exact) would find Sony slowing down their production line on PS3s. Well, considering that Sebastian’s claim was based on an analysis, there would be some room for error, right?

Over at MCV, Sony director of corporate communications Nick Sharples (he’s the same guy who addressed the infamous God of War II dead goat incident) gave a statement about Sebastian’s analysis, denying any cause for alarm that Sony was cutting down the production line.

I’m not aware of any cut in production. We have our forecast for the year for PS3 of ten million and that still stands. Of course, production is adjusted according to stock levels and requirements of different territories. The normal seasonal uplift towards the peak season will happen, but that’s completely normal.

There’s absolutely nothing that you can read from that. The idea of price certainly doesn’t follow on to any adjustment in production. Analysts may wish to think so, but there’s no basis of fact in any of it.

So there you have it. Good as that might sound – here’s something even better. Sharples, talking of PS3 price cuts, concludes with a curious statement: “We announce when changes in price will happen and we donÂ’t discuss them beforehand.”

Operative word is “when,” not “if.” Chances of a price cut happening would seem less if he used “if.” But see, he used “when.” Does that mean it’s only a matter of time now before they announce it? We might be wishful thinking, but hey!, everyone can use a little dosage of optimism every now and then.

Last week, Lazard Capital Markets‘ Colin Sebastian claimed that the Wii’s production went up, while Sony‘s factories got a bit of dry spell – or at least was heading straight into one. Story goes that on some related note regarding price cuts (the lack thereof, to be exact) would find Sony slowing down their production line on PS3s. Well, considering that Sebastian’s claim was based on an analysis, there would be some room for error, right?

Over at MCV, Sony director of corporate communications Nick Sharples (he’s the same guy who addressed the infamous God of War II dead goat incident) gave a statement about Sebastian’s analysis, denying any cause for alarm that Sony was cutting down the production line.

I’m not aware of any cut in production. We have our forecast for the year for PS3 of ten million and that still stands. Of course, production is adjusted according to stock levels and requirements of different territories. The normal seasonal uplift towards the peak season will happen, but that’s completely normal.

There’s absolutely nothing that you can read from that. The idea of price certainly doesn’t follow on to any adjustment in production. Analysts may wish to think so, but there’s no basis of fact in any of it.

So there you have it. Good as that might sound – here’s something even better. Sharples, talking of PS3 price cuts, concludes with a curious statement: “We announce when changes in price will happen and we donÂ’t discuss them beforehand.”

Operative word is “when,” not “if.” Chances of a price cut happening would seem less if he used “if.” But see, he used “when.” Does that mean it’s only a matter of time now before they announce it? We might be wishful thinking, but hey!, everyone can use a little dosage of optimism every now and then.