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PS3 likely to finish behind Xbox 360 and Wii, say analysts

by Steven Williamson on 3 July 2006, 10:32

Tags: PlayStation 3, Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE), PS3

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PS3 in third place?



A new analyst report from market research company,DFC Intelligence, predicts that Sony's Playstation 3 may struggle against the stiff competition from Microsoft and Nintendo. Company analyst, David Cole stipulated that, "Sony has done very little to justify why the system is worth a premium price for consumers that don’t care about raw hardware performance and are not hard-core audio/visual consumers. Unfortunately we believe that represents over 90 percent of the consumers in the marketplace."

The report states that exclusive PS3 titles may not be help bolster the sales of the PS3, in fact they estimate that only 20% of PS2 owners actually bought a Grand Theft Auto game - surely not! Whatever the case, DFI Intelligence, believe that consumers may look for an alternative console. and those Sony fan boys may well turn their backs on the Playstation brand.
Our concern is that 1) Sony’s hands may be tied in regard to price cuts and 2) Sony drastically underestimated the competition. The price of the PlayStation 3 does not exist in a vacuum and consumers will clearly look at the competitive alternatives. Right now both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are looking like much better alternatives than they did a year ago. Core PlayStation franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and others are starting to appear on other systems. In short, we have seen absolutely nothing that would justify a $200 price difference.
Although the price appears to be the main downfall, DFC Intelligence have based their findings on ten key factors, which include upcoming software releases and extra features. They predict that Sony could easily move from being a market leader to a market loser over the next couple of years.

Read the full report here


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last place isn't a problem per se - nintendo made healthy profits on the n64 and gamecube, despite last-place positioning

the problem is in last-place for profit - which seems highly likely