SCEE: PS Home open beta still on track, talks on recession, price cuts

So we didn’t see any PlayStation 3 price cuts this year. Will we at least see any next year? The answer is a definite maybe. Sony‘s Jim Ryan says “it’s too early to tell.” On the other hand, he does say that Sony’s gaming division doesn’t seem to be affected by the economic recession, so that’s promising.

So we didn’t see any PlayStation 3 price cuts this year. Will we at least see any next year?

The answer is a definite maybe. SCEE‘s executive VP Jim Ryan says “We’ll look at pricing decisions for 2009 sometime in 2009. It’s too early to tell.”

On the other hand, he does say that Sony‘s gaming division doesn’t seem to be affected by the economic recession, so that’s promising:

The received wisdom on this is that when there’s a recession, people stay at home and watch movies and play games. Everything that we’ve seen so far on sell-through for both hardware and software is that that’s the case.

Our numbers don’t seem to be affected so far, and we’re tracking very nicely against our plans. This is a different economic climate to certainly anything I’ve experienced, so who can tell where it ends up? But as of now, we’re happy the way sales are going.

[…] I think we will be less affected than most business categories.

Also, last we heard, the 45nm Cell Chip starts mass production next year, so that’s more reason to hope for a price drop.

Lastly, for die-hards of PlayStation Home who haven’t been totally jaded yet, Ryan also confirmed that the Open Beta is still on track to launch before Christmas.

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Related Articles:

• Sony: no price cuts for Christmas, we’re still a business ya know
• Analyst: Xbox 360 price cut didn’t affect PlayStation 3 sales
• SCEE UK boss: PS3 will be leading console for multiplatform development

Via GameSpot