Sony planning a re-run of the Playstation Slim Domination – Part 4
There seemed to be no end to Sony’s problems as the console sales were the lowest with the Wii leading the pack and the Xbox 360 sitting comfortable in the middle. Sony was losing all of its third party exclusive titles fast thus losing the edge that the
previous Playstation consoles had over the competition.
Games like Devil May Cry, Smackdown vs. Raw, Final Fantasy XIII, Grand Theft Auto, Virtua Fighter 5 and Assassin’s Creed are just few of the many titles which were either planned at PS3 only exclusives or the series were exclusive to the Playstation brand
but ended up jumping ship and going multiplatform because the Xbox 360 had a larger install base and PS3 sales were not picking up.
The fact that multiplatform games looked and performed worse on Sony’s system also didn’t help to persuade gamers to shell out $600 for the console. Sony however did not give up and continued to build up their first party library with worthwhile games.
There came a point that the Playstation 3 had finally amassed a decent games library but sales were still low because of the high entry price. The game changed for Sony when the long awaited price drop for the console was finally announced at the Tokyo Game
Show in 2006. The PS3 would retail for $400 which was the same as the high end version of the Xbox 360. Sony placed second in the 2006 holiday sales, after Wii which was the top selling console, beating Microsoft for the first time in overall sales.
Sony got another boost in sales when it announced a ‘slim’ version of the PS3 in 2009 which would cost $300 - $250 depending on the hard disc of the model. The re-launch of the console was what gamers were waiting for and they flocked over back to Sony’s
side since the console now boasted an impressive games library and also featured free online play compared to Xbox Live which cost $50 a year.
The PS3 picked up momentum after the price drop and the release of the PS3 Slim and ended up almost catching up with the Xbox 360 with the current install base only differing by around 3 million units in favour of the Xbox 360.
It seems that now Sony is about to use the same hand again as rumours have leaked that an even cheaper model of the PS3 is being developed and gamers are analysts are speculating that the new PS3 slim is likely to retail for $150. Since Sony currently has
no plans to release its next generation console and having weak exclusive line up for holiday 2012, the company will probably try to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo with the cheapest console in the market.
There has been no official announcement so far but pictures of the new PS3 slim have already leaked on the internet and it’s just a matter of time before Sony makes it official. This announcement is likely to steal Nintendo’s thunder as they get ready to
release their next generation console, the Wii-U, this fall.
Gamers will have to wait until fall to see the impact the new PS3 model will have on the market when Sony finally brings it out probably this holiday.
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com.
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