Howard Stringer on Activision’s CEO: “He Likes to Make a Lot of Noise”
Speaking at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer recently addressed the mounting pressure from 3rd party developers to cut the PS3′s price. Leading the charge was Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who literally threatened to drop all support for Sony consoles, if they did not lower the PS3′s initial pricepoint.
“He likes to make a lot of noise. He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”
Going on to address the idea of a PS3 price point, Stringer remarked:
“I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic.”
When will it be necessary for Sony to drop the PS3′s price point? Is it time for Sony to start listening to some of their biggest 3rd party developers?
[Source]
8 Responses to “Howard Stringer on Activision’s CEO: “He Likes to Make a Lot of Noise””
When they release the PS3 Slim we will get a new price point. That is a fact of business, until you get the manufacturing costs to a manageble level you can not reduce the losses of each sale. Sony has it correct since, M$ has removed functionality to get their console to the $299 price.
The new $299 console does not come with wireless networking or even HDMI and if you want a Hard Drive you have to buy it extra. Sony includes many of these items in the console it sells for $399, which when you do the math on all the options needed to get online and playing AAA rated games is less than the cost of M$’s console.
you are very correct SPD55, but may I also add that with the newest bundles for the PS3 you are essentially getting the system for $310. In case some don’t understand how I’m getting this here’s an equation: MGS4 ($30) + Killzone 2 ($60) + PS3 ($310) = $400. The same goes for the bundle with LBP & Wall-E. So basically they have already released a $90 price drop, especially since most people buying a new PS3 would probably pick up MGS4 and Killzone 2 shortly after anyway.
Get em Stringer.
How about Sony tells developers to lower the prices of their games? They would disagree surely. They are just bitching because if Sony lowers THEIR console price, the developers games would sell MORE on the console.
I don’t think its fair for Sony to drop their price. I know it’s expensive and all but it’s just not the right time.
I disagree with everyone..
im sure developers (except) Natizvision are asked there opinion. it doesn’t make any sense why developers would open there mouth unless asked. Sorry, but price reduction is a hot topic to ask developers.
Well look at it this way. Do you care that developers really care about the cost of a system? In this case, yes.
Why? Because if they lower the price of the PS3, consumers will be able to buy their products. They want what’s best for them. More revenue coming in. But I also agree w/ devs, the PS3 would also increase the number of units sold but the bitching from the devs need to stop. They aren’t accountants, they’re developers. lol
please reference a better pic of stringer, that lump on his right cheek that extends to his neck is downright creepy.
ty
That is a horrible picture of stringer.