SEGA Demands PS3 Price Cut (Again)

Also, is the next Will Wright developing for the Wii right now?

Posted by Staff
SEGA Demands PS3 Price Cut (Again)
SEGA president and COO Simon Jeffrey has thrown his lot in with publishers calling for a PS3 price cut.

Speaking to industry magazine MCV, Jeffrey said, "All our research shows us that millions and millions of gamers are just waiting for the PS3 price threshold to reach a certain level before they buy".

It's not just the PS3 that needs to hit more homes, however. "We want to see next-generation consoles in as many homes as possible, as fast as possible. The next year to two years will be a profit margin struggle as the industry spends on the future, so the more hardware units installed, the more software sales we'll see," he said.

With that in mind, it's little surprise that SEGA is trumpeting Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on Nintendo's strongly selling platforms as potentially making the equivalent to a quarter of last fiscal year's earnings for the company.

Jeffrey isn't the first SEGA bigwig to suggest the PS3 needs a lower price point, with SEGA's corporate director, Masanao Maeda, making similar comments a couple of months ago.

Jeffrey was quick to praise Nintendo's approach to hardware, saying, “There is no doubt that we will see more risks, and therefore more creativity on both the Wii and the DS in the next couple of years.

“Just look at what EA is already doing on the Wii – EA doesn’t do that kind of game", he added. "We also see the same trend emerging on Xbox Live Arcade and on PlayStation Network. A new Peter Molyneux or Will Wright could well be cutting their teeth on this stuff right now.”

Source: MCV
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Comments

OptimusP 24 Sep 2007 10:37
1/4
There are some that say that the Nintendo DS actually prevented the industry to crash a second time, especially in Japan.

The DS is (with almost worth 50% of all the revenue of the gaming industry now) funding every 'next-gen' game out there sort of speak.
tyrion 24 Sep 2007 12:29
2/4
OptimusP wrote:
The DS is (with almost worth 50% of all the revenue of the gaming industry now) funding every 'next-gen' game out there sort of speak.

Revenue is total sales, not profit. Profit funds future projects. I'm not saying that the DS isn't contributing, but you have to look at the margins.

Also, "50% of all revenue", I'll bet a huge chunk of that 50% is hardware sales, so that's all going to Nintendo and not funding PS3 or 360 titles.
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deleted 24 Sep 2007 15:10
3/4
tyrion wrote:


Also, "50% of all revenue", I'll bet a huge chunk of that 50% is hardware sales, so that's all going to Nintendo and not funding PS3 or 360 titles.


And rightly so, Nintendo took a risk, instead of shoving another Gameboy into are grubby hands, they took a risk and with that captured the casual market and is taking the hardcore old school along for the ride too, it allowed the Wii to become a reality and are making a s**t load of profit ready for next gen while their at it, if Sony of MS want some then they need to take risks, risks that us gamers like, risks make new games and new expereinces and it can only get better, as for price cuts on the PS3 i think nough said, its needed and then we can see a real console war.
OptimusP 24 Sep 2007 17:16
4/4
The many Square-Enix spinn-offs and remakes, the Konami-games, Ubisoft's mainstream efforts and so forth, games that take a fraction of the money and time to build then a PS3 or X360 game. They sell 50 000 copies and the rest is profit.

Sure, Nintendo is probably raking in the biggest DS-profits, but those other profits are very likely feuling 'next-gen' games for PS3 and X360. Hell, i would go so far as to say if the DS failed...and the PSP kept selling no games as it is, PS3 and X360 development would probably shifted greatly to the Wii for being the only viable choice. Now if only someone would hoop up a superomputer to analyse the numbers.

Also, still, if the DS isn't fueling 'next-gen'...a handheld is responsible for almost 50% of the gaming's industry revenue! As in...it's annual worth! A Handheld! That was said to be doomed by 2005! Combined with the Wii...do you have any idea what it would mean if Nintendo suddenly went bankrupt now, for the gaming industry? It would shrink by 50-60% in a year or so (well not really, just to show the impact Nintendo now has directly and indirectly on the industry right now). In the GC-era that was only a third.
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