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.

[MOONPHASE]

well the thing about that is when you are getting 40 more gbs of space and plus a game for just $100 more thats a heck of a deal much less if you just bought the 80gb by itself. even if you dont like the game you could get like $25 to $30 at gamestop or someplace like that depending on what the game is and then its like you got some of your money back. now the 40gb does not include the spider-man 3 blu-ray on the newer models for the 40gb but it did not go down in price

[dakota81]

The demand has nothing to do with price, and everything to do with PS2 compatibility.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by dakota81

The demand has nothing to do with price, and everything to do with PS2 compatibility.

I'm sure PS2 compatibility has a lot to do with it, but there's other factors at work here too. The 80GB is viewed as a more "complete" product, and it has some extras that the 40GB doesn't - extra USB slots, card readers, larger HDD. I'm not saying any of these non-PS2 things can't be addressed by spending just a little more, but the same thing happened with the PS3 20GB vs. 60GB sales; the higher price point sold better because it was viewed as a "better" product.

Of course, that also means that people still view the PS3 as an expensive proposition; it's obvious that buyers are looking at it as a high-end purchase (which, to be fair, it is), but if Sony wants to have any hope of catching Nintendo in this generation of the console wars, they're going to eventually have to do something about that enormous price disparity. Not today, not tomorrow - but at some point.

[Blinkman987]

It still stands that they discontinued the "most complete" version of their product- the 60g.

[DaleDark]

Here's what I don't get. The 80 gig PS3 uses emulaters to be backwards compatible, which is software, so why don't they offer a firmware upgrade for the 40s to play PS2 games. It would definitely fill the void in the market due to there being no 80s till June 12th, and if they didn't wanna give it away (being that it is a perk of the 80 gig model), they could sell it over the PSN for $20-30. Please correct me if I'm missing something.

[docjan_uk]

There is some hardware aspect, they removed the emotion engine but I believe they still have some version of the GPU which isn't present in the 40.

[Rabidhunter]

I bought the 80Gb because I felt it was more complete. The price wasn't the factor for me. I was luck when I bought mine because there wasn't an 80Gb model anywhere in my part of the Twin Cities for some time. I do think that Sony made a bad choice in thinking that the consumer would automatically go for the 40Gb model. People want the upgrade. Now if the price difference had been more than $100 I would not have bought the 80.

[Locklain]

Originally Posted by docjan_uk

There is some hardware aspect, they removed the emotion engine but I believe they still have some version of the GPU which isn't present in the 40.

I still believe that somewhere down the line Sony will release an all software emulator on the PSN for people to purchase.

[shelland]

Originally Posted by dakota81

The demand has nothing to do with price, and everything to do with PS2 compatibility.

That's exactly why I bought the 80gb. I don't download much, so think I could get by with the 40gb hard drive, but my son still likes to play some of his PS2 games and I didn't want to keep both systems hooked up.

[mightypen]

Who woulda thunk that announcing the elimination of a key feature would create a run on the discontinued units still available for purchase.

I think this pr piece highlights the issues that Sony has had in their struggles this generation. OTOH, I suppose they could have made these moves to push sales of the 80gb through the winter, only to release a new bc machine in the fall (beyond the mgs4 bundle). "we listened to your needs...", similar to the DS3 release.

[xtop]

why dont they just admit they wanna start sticking the dual shock 3 in the boxes and thats why there arent any 80gbs on shelves

[kingofgrills]

Dualshock 3 definitely has something to do with it the shortage too. That's the biggest change for the various SKUs, especially the upcoming MGS4 80 gig bundle. Sony came up short trying to estimate necessary stock of the current 80 gig bundle w/Sixaxix controller to make it to the MGS4 Dualshock 3 bundle.

Having a shortage, while definitely not planned, can send a positive message to game developers,retailers, and even Sony. When people caught word that the current 80 gig bundle had been discontinued, there was a run on remaining stock. That was largely due to the fact the 80 gig was the last remaining full featured model, with PS2 and SACD compatibility, bigger hard drive, memory card readers, and 4 USB ports. People want all the features, and I hope Sony realizes they need to continue offering those features for the foreseeable future. This should clearly show Sony that the 40 gig model, while being a good alternative for some people, is not the complete PS3 model for all people.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by Locklain

I still believe that somewhere down the line Sony will release an all software emulator on the PSN for people to purchase.

I'm not sure if that's possible or not. The PS2 used a small piece of embedded VRAM on it's GPU. Embedded VRAM is extremely fast, though far more susceptible to overheating than other types of memory. The thing is, the total memory bandwidth in the PS3 should be high enough, but I have yet to find if any one pipeline can move 48GB/s. This means the emulator would have to synch 2 pipelines together for it to work; I have to figure that would be quite difficult.

That being said, I've advocated that the next model have a compacted PS2/PS1 inside. Considering how cheap and small the PS2 is compared to the PS3, in a couple years, I see no reason they couldn't put it all in.

[quitemouse]

Originally Posted by saprano

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,

I agree...

On the other hand, there are still people who will try to save a buck or two...
My brother-in-law bought a spanking new Mercedes. The thing was over
$60,000 after taxes and other stuff... The car didn't even come with
navigation system or xenon headlights. He bought a $200 Garmin portable
GPS that is held in place by a suction cup on the windshield. For headlights,
he went to Autozone and got those fake xenon bulbs...(just blue-color
halogen bulbs) and swapped them out... I didn't have the heart to tell him
what a fool he was for thinking that they were not real xenon headlights!

[Brian Cash]

I just bought the 40gb and upgraded my hdd really had no need for ps2 capable

[saprano]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

Dualshock 3 definitely has something to do with it the shortage too. That's the biggest change for the various SKUs, especially the upcoming MGS4 80 gig bundle. Sony came up short trying to estimate necessary stock of the current 80 gig bundle w/Sixaxix controller to make it to the MGS4 Dualshock 3 bundle.

Having a shortage, while definitely not planned, can send a positive message to game developers,retailers, and even Sony. When people caught word that the current 80 gig bundle had been discontinued, there was a run on remaining stock. That was largely due to the fact the 80 gig was the last remaining full featured model, with PS2 and SACD compatibility, bigger hard drive, memory card readers, and 4 USB ports. People want all the features, and I hope Sony realizes they need to continue offering those features for the foreseeable future. This should clearly show Sony that the 40 gig model, while being a good alternative for some people, is not the complete PS3 model for all people.

I agree with 100%, it makes me wonder why sony is still not offering the 80gig in the U.K knowing thats the model everyone wants sony needs to show an equal amount of attention overseas, especially sinse thats were most of there sales come from. they sell more overseas a week than in america, and the 40gig sells alot even tho people want the 80 gig. is the u.k and other's even getting the 80 gig mgs4 bundle pack like we are?

[quest88]

Originally Posted by saprano

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.

Price does have some factor in it. I still think the 40 gig model is to pricey especially now that you do not get a movie with it. Sony needs to knock 50 bucks off the price and produce another 80 gig without a package for 449. I would love to get another PS3 but the 40 gig lacks alot of features that my 60 has and like I said before even though when released I paid full MSRP I would not today want to pay more than 449 for another model that had similar features.

[Brandon B]

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.

I didn't get that bit. Apple is known for having fewer SKUs than most computer competitors. In fact, it's one of the things a lot of people complain about since they can't get the exact feature set they want at the price they want, and they have to succumb to the upsell.

I think it's pretty plain the multiple SKUs do cause some level of confusion for the PS3, as is evidenced by the not infrequent threads here and other boards with titles like "which PS3 model do I want . . ."

Maybe they should call the BC model the PS3+2?

BB

[vladittude0583]

I personally believe that the 80GB PS3 for $499 was a heck cheaper than the 40GB PS3 for $399 when it came to the standard features each box came with.

Here are my reasons:
Motorstorm game $59.99
4 USB Ports $19.99 - $29.99
Media Card Slots $24.99 - $39.99

Don't forget the PS2 playback (somewhat limited on the 80GB, but still has PS2 playback). Therefore, you might still need a PS2 for this.