Sony: Enough 60GBs for "several months" in U.S. [Update 4]
Dave Karraker of Sony Computer Entertainment of America has contacted Joystiq to give us clarification on the story that would have made us believe Sony had truly lost its mind once and for all. The fun never ends, does it?Karraker says the quotes from David Reeves are not accurate. He explains that if they had lowered the price in Europe, that territory would have run out of their current inventory by the end of July. He says in a statement, "As announced this week, SCEA's product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future."
Update 1: There are some serious conflicting reports going on at the moment. We're working on answers while still trying to cover E3 the best we can.
Update 2: As you may have seen in this clip about 1:45 in, Kaz Hirai says "The $499 price adjustment that we did for the 60 GB version for the American market, we're no longer in production for that product. So once that product is gone from the retailers shelves, then we're back to the $599 SKU only, so it's not like we have a two price strategy here in the U.S. market, which we found early on consumers react most to just having one SKU as opposed to two." So, we're attempting to get some clarification. You'll know when we do.
Update 3: According to Karraker, "The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted. We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our hardware offerings in the North America at this time." In our opinion, it's a touch disingenuous for Sony to just now be bringing this information to light, even though Karraker goes on to insist that this is not a bait-and-switch. If that's the truth, why make it seem like the company was returning to a two-SKU strategy when that was clearly just temporary?
Update 4: We got this clarified statement from Karraker, who said "The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted. We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Diecast @ Jul 13th 2007 1:44PM
rofl all the fuss for nothing
THE_Giant_Crab @ Jul 13th 2007 2:11PM
Kaz Hirai CONFIRMS what Reeves said, dumbass Karaker am cry:
"[We do not] have a 2 SKU strategy in the US, we learned very quickly customers respond better to having one SKU than two."
"We dropped the price on the 60GB model, as you know that model is no longer in production, once it's no longer on store shelves it will just be the $600 SKU."
http://atvs.vg.no/player/?id=10235
At the 1:40 mark.
john @ Jul 13th 2007 2:16PM
If by nothing you mean another lie. Who honestly thinks that they're not going to drop the 60 gig when they're off the shelves? I say it will be gone before 2008.
They announced this "Price Cut" right before E3 and rode a wave of good PR through the show. I think a lot of people (including me) saw this as Sony turning over a new leaf, and that colored their perception of the show.
Now their going to drop the 60 gig and the price of entry will still be $599. It is a cynical move, that they'd hoped to keep under wraps for a while longer. Unfortunately for them it's been leaked early. Sony has made a lot of people look like fools, and I think they're going to have to face another backlash from people who thought the price cut was real. Let's just hope (for their sake) that their holiday lineup is good enough to power through it.
MosquitoControl @ Jul 13th 2007 2:26PM
No immediate plans to phase out the 60GB.
Like how, last week, there were no immediate plans for a price drop, even though it had already well leaked.
Joshua @ Jul 13th 2007 3:03PM
Of course they want to drop the 60 GB model. It still has the EE+GS chip in it, so it must cost more to make than the 80 GB model, which is backward compatible only with software emulation.
The last 60 gig units drying up from store shelves are the last PS3s with native backward compatibility. If you want that, then you have to buy your system now.
austin @ Jul 16th 2007 1:17PM
what happened to the 40GB model Playstion 3?
Royale @ Jul 13th 2007 1:44PM
20 extra gigs for a hundred bucks...? Is that the only extra feature? I'm sure I've missed all the other posts about this.
Mark Mifsud @ Jul 13th 2007 1:49PM
20Gb don't cost $100 (not even with the high dollar inflation)
Apart from that let's not forget that the PS2-on-a-chip is missing and all backward compatablity on the 80GB model is done in software.
So what they're really doing is deliver less for a higher price!
You'd be better off buying a 60GB model and replace the Hdisk with an off the shelf one, or one that's been lying in a PC but has more volume!
SeNiLe911 @ Jul 13th 2007 1:55PM
You're better off buying a 360. Fony is lying again. Don't believe anything they say.
BruceLeroy @ Jul 13th 2007 1:59PM
Mark Mifsud
Jul 13th 2007
1:49PM
20Gb don't cost $100 (not even with the high dollar inflation)
Apparently to MS it does. Remember all those Core owners that had to buy the 20GB HD for $100. At least before MS came out with the even more overpriced 120GB for $180?
Triforceowner @ Jul 13th 2007 2:02PM
Ironically enough the price does come out exactly even...
Mark Mifsud @ Jul 13th 2007 2:06PM
BruceLeroy
No one said MS's hawdare pricing is fair!
AoE @ Jul 13th 2007 3:11PM
Royale,
Actually, there is one other feature we can look forward to, vastly reduced backward compatibility! I think this feature fed more into the price hike than the additional 20 GBs did...
Mr Khan @ Jul 13th 2007 3:55PM
actually you get more bang for your buck with MS's 120 GB HDD
120/$180 is $1.50 per Gigabyte
20/$100 is $5 per Gigabyte
James @ Jul 14th 2007 3:35AM
BruceLeroy
For the extra $100 MS charges you for the premium you get a 20 gig hard drive, a wireless controller, and component video cords... you only get compostie video cords, no hard drive, and a wired controller with the core system.
BruceLeroy @ Jul 13th 2007 11:17PM
Both are still rip-offs.
Evan @ Jul 14th 2007 12:58AM
TO give small credit to Sony, they were much smarter when choosing the HDD format. Sony opened it up to swapping and compatibility with multiple manufacturers. MS went with expensive slim HDD's and threw them in an unsightly case. I took apart my 20 GB HDD after I got my elite, it is unreasonably tiny for the case it is in.
MS HDD upgrades costs a lot more because they chose the wrong HDD hardware.
That doesn't condone anything Sony is doing with these "sales."
Freelancepimp @ Jul 13th 2007 1:45PM
FRACK! I just went out and bought one about 2 hours before this postthinking it was limited. Damn it!
baby sea tuna @ Jul 13th 2007 1:55PM
But the upside is...um...uh...well, you got a blu-ray player out of the deal, right?
Freelancepimp @ Jul 13th 2007 3:13PM
@ baby sea tuna
LOL Well at least I can laugh at my self,,,or laugh at you make fun of me( I guess thats actually pretty sad.) :(
dum dum @ Jul 13th 2007 1:46PM
PS3s running out of stock? Like that's gonna happen...
Evan @ Jul 14th 2007 1:00AM
Ha... they will start to when they don't may anymore ;)
Mr.X @ Sep 13th 2007 12:46PM
haven't you're heard of the news in america that 60 gb ps3 is almost runs out that mean it could runs out before end of this year (2007) so please stake fact and do not make any useless comment Ok so just think before u say or u might bite u're tongue instead
rom @ Jul 13th 2007 1:47PM
Then what the hell would give David Reeve the idea? He seemed to say it like it was a fact. Did he just wake up in the morning and decide that he was going flat out lie to anybody that asked him about it? I believe there might be more to this story.
Kaemon @ Jul 13th 2007 1:47PM
Oh, basically they are saying there will be some for the foreseeable future, like a year, why? Because no one will buy them.... so they just sit there.
Jay @ Jul 13th 2007 1:48PM
Umm, that doesn't sound exactly like a denial. Did he say that they were still manufacturing the 60GB systems? Reading between the lines, it sounds more like he said, "We have plenty of stock on hand to keep selling the 60GB PS3" -- what he didn't say was, "We are definitely continuing to manufacture the 60GB system and we will have it in stores through the holidays."
As I said, sounds more like spin than denial.
Crono @ Jul 13th 2007 2:04PM
Thats exactly what I was thinking. His explaination seems to say that Europe would run out of 60's by august if they had a price drop, but america won't. He really isn't contradicting anything at all.
Jay @ Jul 13th 2007 5:01PM
Ha! I WAS right! :P
Tony @ Jul 13th 2007 1:48PM
He just says there's ample supply of both to last for the foreseeable future... not really that they're in production anymore. Maybe the first guy was just overzealous with how many he thought would sell?
Airman @ Jul 13th 2007 1:50PM
Seems to be a failure to communicate between Sony America and Europe. Gamasutra reporting different info.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14685
Peter @ Jul 13th 2007 1:50PM
Dave Karraker: liar, liar, pants on fire. What a load of BS he's trying to sell. Read the interview and quote yourself at gamesindustry.biz - Reeves was in no uncertain terms NOT talking about European supply; he was talking about America. Here is the quote:
E3: No more 60GB PlayStation 3 in US after July, says Reeves
Ellie Gibson 07:50 (BST) 13/07/2007
'All they're doing is taking their stock and marking the price down'
SCEE president David Reeves has told GamesIndustry.biz that the 60GB PlayStation 3 will no longer be available in the US after stock sells out - which he predicts will occur by the end of the month.
Reeves was speaking at an E3 event to announce the introduction of a new PS3 bundle in Europe. When asked about possible criticisms over whether SCEE should have given consumers the option to pay a lower price, as SCEA has done, he replied, "Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game.
"All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July."
"their stock" not "our stock." Karraker's explanation is pure bullshit because if you believe him, Reeves is crazy. Why, if Reeves is talking about European supplies, does he talk about "marking the price down" since Europe ISN'T getting a price cut?
And read Karraker comments; he intentionally and carefully avoids denying what Reeves and Kaz said in their interviews: that production on the 60gb SKU for the American market has ceased, that once the 60gb supply is gone, PS3 will return to 1 SKU which is the new $599. All Karraker says is that there's plenty of supply for the foreseeable future? What the heck does that mean? Foreseeable? To who? Nostradamus? So this isn't a price cut, it's a sale. Boy, you're a terrible liar Dave Karraker.
sweethavok @ Jul 13th 2007 1:51PM
Sony exec's need muzzles.......enough said
mccomber @ Jul 13th 2007 2:08PM
Short, sweet and oh so true.
Dadidito @ Jul 13th 2007 2:10PM
I agree. Seems that someone has to learn to teach the execs to just shut up and let one person speak only. Seems like they are lost when they do stuff like this. Gamasutra says they confirmed it as fact. Some say otherwise. Regardless confusion in the marketplace by the ill thought out comments of execs in a company is bad business.
Scott @ Jul 13th 2007 1:52PM
What about the video of Kaz Hirai saying that the 60GB is going to be discontinued?
Cats out of the bag and SCEA is trying to put it back in. They were going to do the same thing with the 60GB that they did with the 20GB. Stop making it but claim it is in the retail channels.
samfish @ Jul 13th 2007 2:56PM
A bit off topic, but why do people say, "Cats out of the bag"?
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I can't keep my cat out of bags (and boxes) to save my life. If my cat ever escaped from her proverbial bag, it'd be a simple matter of tapping on it and she'd be right back in.
Sean @ Jul 14th 2007 2:21AM
@samfish I believe that I've heard that back in the day people would sell live pigs... in bags... but pumpkin eaters would try and sell live cats... in bags, and so exposing the cat would expose a raw deal for the pig bag buying boy, or something. It's along those lines, just believe me!
Powerlord @ Jul 15th 2007 2:10AM
The expressions "Buy a pig in a poke," "the cat's out of the bag," and "left holding the bag" are all related expressions.
The first refers to not looking at something before buying it, the second is that a secret is revealed, and the third is to have get nothing for your efforts.
They all stem from a medieval practice of selling pigs in a poke (a type of bag), but putting the more commonly found cat in there instead. When you open it up and find the cat, you let it out of the bag as opposed to cooking it like you would a pig, leaving you holding an empty bag.
Evan @ Jul 13th 2007 1:52PM
Sony denied the 20GB was dropped when it was. Sony denied the price cut just a couple of days before the price cut came into effect. It's no surprise they'd deny the 60GB will be dropped.
lawrence @ Jul 13th 2007 1:53PM
60gb +200 i got my self a ps3 and add more memory to it just case its the ps3 and i downloads lots of movies an trailers on it and games now i have 232 gb left damn the ps3 is really a great system .360 is good too.but i prefer the ps3 and get to play ut3 "this year" even better .360 ill get once the price drops .im gonna get m second ps3 next month when they announce rumble in the controller for the 80 gb unit. 2 ps3 for ill get the 360 once bioshock comes out. which version of 360 is the best?
Mark @ Jul 13th 2007 2:00PM
Any 360 with a Hard Drive!
And for you, I'd suggest one with an English dictionary and a spell checker :-D
(Sorry I couldn't Resist)
Ahhh Bioshock !!! I'm waiting for that too!
Sesur @ Jul 13th 2007 8:23PM
From now on your name is Gomer Pyle!
unosturgis @ Jul 13th 2007 9:23PM
mark, to be fair..he only misspelled one word...his grammar and use of run-on sentences on the other hand... lol
Maxwell Ash @ Jul 14th 2007 10:26AM
I REALLY don't like the redesigned comments. Even if what he was saying was awful I still want to be able to read it please.
Triple07 @ Jul 13th 2007 1:55PM
Good I was beginning to worry sony was going to get rid of the ps3 I was going to get right as it was a more resonable price.
GiantHaystax @ Jul 13th 2007 1:55PM
So what is it? we can't trust anything Sony Europe tells us and it actually is just overpriced in the UK to fund the US price drop after all? Or there has been a genuine price drop in the US and are just shifting old stock?
Whatever the answer is it's not good either way...
SCEA have done so well the last 2 days, then this guy flys in from SCEE late last night, hasn't seen/doesn't see any of E3 at all. Spouts off a load of stuff undermining all the good work they have done the last 2 days to try and turn last years disaster around, then flies out again leaving SCEA to sort out the uproar over his comments.
LOL nice work!!
GiantHaystax @ Jul 13th 2007 2:00PM
oops that should read:
Or there has NOT been a genuine price drop in the US and are just shifting old stock?
faceless coward @ Jul 13th 2007 2:00PM
Thank God, or whatever.
Danny @ Jul 13th 2007 2:02PM
Good news. This proves that the corporation themselves are still on track to have a non-terrible month.
j.lee @ Jul 13th 2007 2:02PM
Well there go my hopes for a further price reduction this time next year, when I might actually be willing to pick up one of these monsters...Although by that point I'm sure Sony will have introduced the 100GB model, with full psx emulation in glorious mono and a free copy of spongebob for $699.