PS3's Price Won't Be an Issue This Christmas, Says Sony

Anyway you look at it, the PlayStation 3 is a pricey piece of hardware. Yes, it's got a Blu-ray player, integrated wi-fi, and all that good stuff, but $400 is a lot of cash -- especially compared with Nintendo and Microsoft's cheapest offerings being at $250 and $200, respectively. 

Even with that in mind, Sony Computer Entertainment's UK managing director Ray Maguire doesn't feel like price will be an issue for the company's flagship game system this holiday season. At the Gamer 3.0 conference, he spoke with VideoGamer.com, telling them that pressure from gamers isn't enough to warrant a price drop. "[W]e have a business to run, and we have to make sure we're doing the right thing for the shareholders as well," he explained.

Maguire claims that sales of the system in the UK are "absolutely on target," and cited the quality of games coming out in the coming months as why the PS3's price won't present "an issue at all."

I know a fair number of people who would beg to disagree, but we'll have to wait and take a look at the sales figures for the last quarter of 2008 before we're able to draw any conclusions. While you wouldn't expect Maguire to come out and say it, there's no doubt that Sony would have liked for the price to be lower in order to more directly compete with Microsoft and Nintendo for gamers in the market for a game console this holiday season who don't have the deepest of pockets.