Sony: we’re leading in Europe, no price cuts next Spring

He said, she said. Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 is outselling the PlayStation 3 in Europe, but now Sony‘s calling their bluff and saying they’re leading, by at least 300,000 units no less. Whatever the case though, Sony will “absolutely not” cut the price of the PlayStation 3 next Spring, despite rumors.

Details after the link.

He said, she said. Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 is outselling the PlayStation 3 in major countries in Europe, but now Sony‘s calling their bluff and saying the PS3 is the one actually leading.

This is according to SCEE‘s president, David Reeves, who says, point blank, “I am confident that in PAL territories our installed base is 300,000 units ahead of Xbox 360.”

Whatever the case though, Sony will “absolutely not” cut the price of the PlayStation 3 once Spring hits, despite the leaked info that supposedly came out of Sony’s Staff Annual Briefing late last month.

Reeves explains that the earlier business models of the PlayStation was based around price elasticity. When manufacturing costs went down, so did the price of the console. The exception, as it turns out, is the PlayStation 3. Well, dammit.

No we are not going to go down in price; neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary.

[…] When we came into the industry we started at zero. And we had to have a model that offered price elasticity. As soon as we got the manufacturing price down on PSOne we lowered the price. Same with PS2. But weÂ’re not doing that on PS3 – thatÂ’s not the model, even if people are expecting it.

WeÂ’re relying on the fact that the industry will keep growing and while we might have a comparatively smaller share of the market we will have higher sales. PS3 is tracking where PS2 was at the same point in its life. The value added strategy will continue for some years to come.

This pretty much destroys theories that Sony will lower the price of the PlayStation 3 once they start manufacturing the 45nm Cell chips. Let’s hope they change their minds.

• Sony will not raise PlayStation 3 prices in UK
• Toshiba to manufacture PS3’s 45nm RSX chips by 2009, 65nm chips by next month

Via MCV UK