Sony's Chief Responds to Activision CEO's Threat

Yahoo! has a story from yesterday citing Sony CEO Howard Stringer in a response to Robert Kotick’s threat to pull Playstation 3 support:

“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer said “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”

…

“I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic, ” he said.

I’m going to take it for granted that this probably isn’t the entirety of Stringer’s comments on the subject.  And I haven’t seen anything on this elsewhere.  And, I’m also going to assume that the editorially inserted “(would)” in that last sentence is mispresenting Stringer’s statements a bit.  Sony’s argument all along about the PS3′s price point is that they are already losing money because of the Cell Processor and the Blu-Ray drive.

Nevertheless, Sony’s business model has been to make that money back through the game sales.  But, you can’t sell games to people who don’t have the system on which to play them!

Don’t get me wrong.  I love my PS3.  But I’m in that hardcore market that the gaming industry loves.  I would have found a way to justify a PS3 purely for Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ratchet and Clank.  But, the gaming market has shifted a bit under Sony since the last console cycle.  The “casual” gamer (a problematic and vague term to begin with) does indicate a new market just out to have a good time, not necessarily wade into the most high tech gaming experience on the market.

If Sony wants to sell systems, that price will have to come down.  Sony, at this point, does not have an option.  And their attitude about it has been one factor that’s put them in this place.  Everytime they speak, they sound as if they’re trying to milk consumers for money.

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