NORTH AMERICAN 60GB PLAYSTATION 3 TO BE DISCONTINUED?

So much for a long term price cut… GamesIndustry.Biz (by way of Kotaku) is reporting that in an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, Reeves answered the question of why Europe was not seeing a price cut by announcing that once Sony expends all it’s existing stock of the 60GB PlayStation 3 in the United States, the company will only supply 80GB models to the region;

"GamesIndustry.Biz: How concerned are you about possible criticisms that you should have given European consumers what SCEA has given US consumers, i.e. the option to pay a lower price?

David Reeves: 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.

GamesIndustry.Biz: So once the 60GB is gone, that will be the end of the 60GB then?

David Reeves: In America, yes." – GamesIndustry.Biz interview with David Reeves

Now, either Reeves is just trying to cover for the lack of a European price drop or Sony really does plan on shooting itself in the foot yet again. What a public relations nightmare this one is going to be. Leave it to Sony to take the one positive piece of press they’ve gotten recently and totally screw it in a matter of days.

• E3: David Reeves Talks PS3 – GamesIndustry.Biz
• 60GB PS3 Being Taken Out To Pasture – Kotaku

KAZ HIRAI AND DAVID REEVES PROMOTED

Yes, that’s not a misprint – Sony has promoted SCEA president Kaz Hirai and SCEE president David Reeves to executive vice presidents of Sony Computer Entertainment’s corporate executive group. According to an article over at Gamespot, in addition to their current duties, Hirai and Reeves will also be getting more involved in the corporate strategy for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Apparently, someone at Sony really likes it when you make an ass out of yourself in front of you customer base. That’s really the only thing I can think of that would explain this, unless the idea was to move them a bit further away from the day to day operations of both SCEA and SCEE – if that’s the case, then I think it’s a brilliant move on Sony’s part.

You can check out the Gamespot article here while asking yourself if making some outrageous claims at work on Monday will result in you getting promoted as well.

SONY PREPARING FOR THE WORST?

Kikizio Games is reporting on an interview trade magazine MCV had with Sony Europe’s David Reeves in which Reeves not only claims that Sony had been working on the tilt technology they premiered at E3 for “around two and a half years” but quite interestingly stated that Sony is not concerned with market share with the upcoming Playstation 3;

“The name of the game is not market share, it’s how fast we can grow the industry – our ambition is to grow 15 percent a year on hardware and software if we can, we want to try and double digital entertainment in the next five to six years. Whether we have 40, 50, or 60 per cent market share is not that important.” -David Reeves

This is a pretty surprising admission coming from the industry market share leader for the last two console generations. It makes you wonder if Sony is preparing for the possibility that they could lose the top slot this time around. The interesting part of the quote however is that with Sony’s current dominance in the industry, you would assume that the only way they could grow 15 percent a year would be by retaining that lead or expanding it.

One is left to wonder if Sony expects the video game market to increase in terms of installed base, software sales and advertising sales to such an extent that it would be possible for them to expand their earnings while losing the battle for the top slot or if they’re simply blowing smoke to try and cover the possibility of losing to either Microsoft or Nintendo.

No matter how you look at the statement, it would at the very least seem that Sony is preparing for the possibility of losing some dominance this time around, and with the current missteps with the Playstation 3 and how it’s being perceived, that’s not overly surprising. As for the question of how long Sony had been working on that tilt technology, no matter what they may say about wanting to hide it for fear it would have been stopped by some patent maneuvering by the competition, you would think two and a half years of work would have looked a bit better in action. Click here to check out the Kikizo Games article.