Wii to Lose Market Share to $99 PS2, says Sony

GameDaily BIZ just got off the phone with John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, to discuss the news of PS2 dropping down to just $99. And of course, we had to talk about PS3 NOT getting a price drop as well...

BIZ: I think a number of industry pundits were expecting a PS3 price drop today in addition to or instead of the PS2 price cut. With the fiscal year having just ended, we thought Sony might kick off the new year with a bang... So my question is why not PS3 right now? And for the PS2, was this move already pre-planned long ago?

John Koller: So, I'll take the last question first. We do plan price cuts and most major moves well in advance; they're done for a variety of reasons. This particular reason on the PS2 price cut was done really to extend the overall viability and versatility of the platform. We're looking at 70-80 titles launching on PS2 this coming year, and about the same number next year in 2010. PS2 shows very little signs of slowing down, and we wanted to continue to really target that lower income consumer, as well as that lapsed gamer or young family consumer that is still purchasing PS2 and wants some of that evergreen entertainment – the social gaming and sports are what they are particularly gravitating towards. A lot of the development is going in that direction.

In terms of the PS3, our is on the versatility of the system and the overall value that's inherent to the system. We've been focusing on development of key software franchises, and this year should be the best software year launched yet. On PS3, we look at that as a significant advantage versus Xbox 360. In particular, our first party group has really stepped up with some tremendous franchises, whether they're iterations [of existing properties] or new IP like LittleBigPlanet, MAG, etc. You also look at the continued strength of the Blu-ray format and we're starting to see some cases where movies are helping to sell hardware - Dark Knight certainly did for a time in December. So we're seeing different patterns of growth. Last year was the best sales year ever for PS3 and we are very bullish on the platform this year.

Full article here - http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/wii-to-lose-market-share-to-99-ps2-says-sony/?biz=1

Does anyone think they are competing with the Wii?

Gotta love MS and Sony. -_-

Wow, Sony...

They are not even competing.....

they should package eye toy with it. that might help with it. whats funner then watching yourself on the tv.

I told sony to focus on how the ps2 worked- not to focus on the ps2....

>:\

Wait, so now ps2 in competing with the Wii?

Cool.

Wii is competing with the PS2 according to Sony.
Wii isn't competing with the 360 according to Microsoft.
Wii isn't competing with the PS3 according to Sony.

You've gotta love this.

Now if MS didn't kill off the original XBox. -_-

In this particular perspective, the PS2 has like 70-75% marketshare, so it's not bad spin.

The PS2 is saturated.. I bet most sales of the PS2 come from replacements and DVD Playing.