Despite an uphill struggle that sees Sony's PlayStation 3 dead last in this generation's tumultuous console wars, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves remains optimistic for the future of his beleaguered console.
"We simply have to suffer a little," Reeves told the Guardian, "go down in market share and mind-share."
While he admitted that customers are more likely to buy PlayStation's lower-priced competitors in the midst of a global recession, Reeves believes that the capabilities of the PS3 as a multimedia device justify its relatively high cost of ownership.
"With PS3," he explains, "you can go online for free, it's got all the games you want, it's got a Blu-ray drive...you can store photos on it, and you've got Home." Despite all these features, Sony recent financial quarter showed sales falling across the board, dwarfed by Nintendo's and Microsoft's.
In contrast to his boss Kaz Hirai's recent comments, Reeves lauds Nintendo and Microsoft's successes, citing the lessons Sony has learned from its competitors and "[celebrating] the industry and how we've collectively grown it beyond all recognition."
While the recession-resilient (if not fully recession-proof) videogame industry has seen moderate success despite economic downturns, Sony won't exactly be able to simply ride the general tide of success if it's hoping to clamber out of the financial muck. "We took our cuts in 07 and 08, we restructured and streamlined and we're as lean, as mean as we can be." PS3 game sales have risen, and Europe is seeing 1.1 million pre-orders for the highly anticipated Killzone 2.
Nevertheless, a price cut doesn't seem to be in the cards. Reeves believes that Sony "can survive unscathed while resisting the urge to reduce and re-price as the 360 did," suggesting that reduced manufacturing costs and the launch of new IPs (should they prove successful) could help to at least keep Sony afloat.
Image: MNgilen / Flickr
"We Simply have to suffer,' says Sony Europe's gaming chief [The Guardian, via MCV]
See Also:
