As many of you know, Sony’s pricing on the PS3 is as mysterious as pricing on the gas. The speculations changes on a regular basis that no one can pinpoint exactly how much it will cost. Just a couple of months ago, the analysts predicted the cost of PS3 to be equal that of Xbox 360 premium version which was $399.99. Furthermore, the supply and demand has boosted the price of Xbox 360 on the Ebay up wards to $1,000 plus.

He said She said

Recently, the father of Playstation Ken Kutaragi told attendees of a 2005 corporate meeting that the PS3 will be “expensive.” Analysts and game developers foresee that Sony will launch the console at $500. Furthermore, P.J McNealy from the American Technology Research stated to his clients that the PS3’s price will range from $399.99 to $499.99 and the price tag of $499.99 will be more “realistic.” Some game developers said PS3 could cost as much as $700!!

Expensive next-gen DVD format

Once again, in the midsts of pricing speculations from analysts and industry experts, Ryan Bowling, PR manager for Sony, said “No official announcement about pricing yet,” and added that “At this point, that’s all speculation.” One of the reasons why PS3, logically, will be expensive is that Sony is virtually giving away Blu-Ray drive for free at a huge loss on their part. This tactic has been used by Sony before in hopes to gain a strong market share and with the launch of PS3, to maintain as a leading console maker. To give you a better understanding of how much the Blu-Ray player is worth, read the recent press release by Pioneer. The company is selling the stand-alone Blu-Ray player for $1,800. From this account, anyone can make an educated guess as to whether PS3 will be expensive or not.

Too many factors involved

At this point, without any confirmation from Sony, there are way too many factors involved on the PS3 pricing scheme some experts say. One can speculate how much it will cost based on the realistic price of Blu-Ray players alone but at the same time, in the past, Sony has shocked the industry by lowering the price by 25%.
For example, prior to PSP launch, CEO of Atari commented that Sony PSP would cost around $500 but Sony launched the PSP at $249. Let’s even take this situation take few more years to PS2 launch speculations. Many media journalists and experts agreed that the given the specifications of PS2, Sony would launch the machine at $350 to $400. Sony launched the console for $299.99.

Potential Pricing Options?

CNN Money reports the following about Sony’s possible pricing scheme:

There’s one other possibility about the PS3 that few people have discussed: Dual-pricing strategies. It’s frustrating from a consumer standpoint, but Microsoft proved it can work ? at least in the U.S. Whether Sony’s willing to risk fragmenting the market by offering both “bare bones” and “bells and whistles” versions of the PS3 is another matter.

For one thing, it would look as if Sony were following Microsoft’s (Research) lead ? a vision the market leader does not want to convey. Offering a PS3 with reduced features would also chip away at the company’s stance that the system is much more than a video game machine

Who knows

Sony PS3 practically was a no show at promising CES. Instead the company showed the conceptual model of PS3 and just boasted about company’s other gadgets. Hopefully, at DevStation (Developer only conference), Sony unveils the pricing structure for their highly anticipated console.

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