Sony says it Underestimated the Demand for the 80GB PS3

[saprano]

http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=6551

April 03, 2008 | 3:59 PM PST


Speaking to GameDaily in a recent interview, Sony vice president of marketing Scott Steinberg said that the company underestimated the demand for the 80GB PlayStation 3. Asked about the number of PlayStation 3 SKUs on the market and whether or not the abundance of PS3 packages causes confusion for consumers, Steinberg had this to say:


"It hasn't hurt Apple. Our strategy at the end of the year was to offer up a $399 40 GB, which we thought was the magic price for a Blu-ray machine and then a $499 80 GB. What we were surprised to see is that $100 really didn't matter to a certain customer. Our sales were fairly equitable according to TRST and our internal numbers through the holidays and even into January; we're pretty dry on the 80 GB as a result of us underestimating the demand for the 80 GB and thinking that most folks, because the price message was such a big part of the pundits and the analysts decrying the differences between the 360 and the PS3, [would prefer the 40 GB]. Reality is the price wasn't that big of a deal and $499 sold a lot more than we thought, so the 80 GB got dry at retail not due to us artificially compressing it but the demand became greater than we thought. So you'll see us replenish these in the marketplace. We're still committed to our current strategy and there is much to do about nothing, I think is the way to think about it."


Sony has slowly been phasing out the current 80GB PS3, but it will replace it with a Metal Gear Solid 4/PS3 80GB bundle this June.

I think they should make the 80 gig as a standerd system, the only people that was really complaining about the price was the media.but the demand for the $500 console proved that people will pay a lot for a premium product,especially cause you can play ps2 games on it. and thats what sony didnt reliez, they kept( and everybody else) focusing on the media people with no name posting blogs and saying ps3 is to much money.its to this, its to that, they need to drop the price down to this much ect. like square enix president said http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/01/16/...ore-expensive/ sony needs to stop worrying about the price and focus on other things. cause obviously people are buying it regardless, just look the sales over seas. microsoft droped the price of the 360 and now its the chapest console out there, and the ps3 is still outselling over there.