Sony has opted to keep its PlayStation 3 price steady as it continues to pitch the console as a complete home entertainment solution that could soon function as a personal video recorder.
Around March next year, Sony expects to introduce a digital TV tuner add-on, which would turn the console into a programmable TV recorder, Warwick Light, head of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand, told New Zealand’s The Press this week.
He said PS3 was not just a games machine, but a “future-proof super computer”.
Michael Ephraim, Sony’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, told smh.com.au that, as part of its strategy to position the PS3 as a digital media hub, Sony was selling the console in general consumer electronics stores which didn’t stock any games.
“Harvey Norman CE has been selling PS3 since May, primarily as a Blu-ray player,” he said.
“They only stock the PS3 and a Blu-ray remote, and they are selling it with high def screens.”
In addition to including a built-in Blu-ray drive, the PlayStation 3 also functions as a multimedia hub for organizing photos, music and movies.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 offers similar features but has always been marketed first and foremost as a gaming machine.
“Blu-ray and HDTVs is a category we will play a very big role in,” Ephraim said, but he stressed the PS3’s heritage was firmly based in gaming.
Sony in the United States recently cut the price of the PS3 by $US100 ($117), which was not mirrored in Australia. Here, the PS3’s $999 price tag is significantly higher than the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and even the overseas PS3 versions.
Ephraim defended the decision not to cut prices by pointing to Sony’s new PlayStation 3 “starter pack”, which costs $999 and includes an extra wireless controller and the two bestselling PS3 games, Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm.
The games and extra controller sell for $99 each and $80, respectively.
“So we’re delivering $280 worth of savings, where the US cut the price by $100,” he said.
Ephraim said around 61,000 PS3s have been sold in Australia since its launch in March.
According to GfK, the PS3 was the third bestselling console in the second quarter of this year, behind the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2.
With the aid of the new starter pack, Ephraim said he hoped to attract “the second level of gamers” who had held off buying the PS3 “until there’s a good offer”.
Ephraim said he was keen to offer full-length movies and a music library for PS3 users to buy over the PlayStation Network, but that there were many obstacles to get over before it would be possible.
“We are working within the limitations of broadband speeds and infrastructure, obviously the DRM [digital rights management] issues, obviously the commercial deals with content companies,” he said.
Ephraim said it was too early to call a winner of the next generation console wars, but “it’s possible that three formats could exist in the marketplace because the offerings are very very different”.
so witht he supposed DVR like tuner coming Playstation MIGHT be trying to get into tv services…the people that are providing the devlopment for the tuner might actually partner with Playstation to bring tv based programming to yrou household
the living room takeover has begun!
hmmm…even more subliminal programming for our heads?
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