Sony's PSX tanks in Japan

by Peter Rojas on Sep 7th 2004 12:26PM

The domestic release of the PSX, Sony's souped-up version of the PlayStation 2 that comes with a built-in hard drive and can double as a digital video recorder, keeps getting pushed back and pushed back (the earliest we've heard it might arrive here is 2005), and the latest news that sales have been so god-awful bad in Japan that retailers there have slashed prices almost in half, certainly isn't going to encourage the wise men who run the company to bring this out here any sooner. That is assuming they haven't just killed the thing altogether, which might not be such a bad idea at this point.

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Reader Comments (3)

"That is assuming they haven�t just killed the thing altogether, which might not be such a bad idea at this point."

Just a thought, but why would bad sales in Japan translate into bad sales over seas? They reflect two totally different markets.

I predicted this many months ago. Soon as they announced it, I said 'watch it flop'. The japanese won't like a new console unless it takes up less room then their current version. Ps-Psone. Getting the picture?

Hopefully sony, who I have much distaste for, with continue this way and end up deciding consoles aren't it's forte anymore and quit it.

And don't say it's not going to happen, that's what people said about sega during the genesis days and look where they're at now. >=D

I have one, and like it a lot. The problem isn't with the machine itself, but with the market, and the marketing. There is a big hurdle with the fact that PS2 has tremendous saturation already in Japan. Why should someone buy a machine that they already own?

The latter sentence may seem telling, but its also misleading. It's not just a PS2 with Broadband Adaptor and HDD capabilities, it's a reasonably priced TiVO-ish HDD-recorder and DVD-burner for TV viewing, as well as supporting photo albums, music library creation (if you don't mind ATRAC compression).

The trouble comes that it is being sold primarily as as PS2 with extras, rather than a media center with a fully-outfitted PS2 attached.