Sony Corp. said Monday it is bringing out a cheaper player for Blu-ray discs early this summer, a crucial step in its battle to make the high-definition format the replacement for DVDs.
The BDP-S300 will cost $599, yet will have the same capabilities as the $999 BDP-S1 Sony is currently selling, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the home products division of Sony Electronics.
Sony and Samsung Corp., which also makes a Blu-ray player, have been undersold by Toshiba Corp.'s players for the rival HD DVD format. Toshiba has a model on the market for $499.
However, sales of players for either format have been tepid, as consumers have stood back, waiting for the market to settle on one of the discs.
Most people buying high-definition discs are apparently doing so to play them on PlayStation 3 game consoles. There are two versions of the console, for $499 and $599, and Sony sold 1.8 million units last year...
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
At first I tought "How is this related to gaming ?" but when you think about it, if there is a cheaper BR player then the PS3, it mean less people buying the ps3 just to play movie (those who buy the console will do it for games).
If BluRay components are getting cheaper, along with the other cost cutting measures happening lately, hopefully the enevitable price cut will be sooner rather than later. Still wont be for quite a while though.
It was already launched last Nov...The model i believe was called PS3.
Cheaper component does not equal to price drop. Companies are no in business to brake even. Sony is selling the PS3 as a lost and we are not even talking about other expenses(i.e. advertising). Take microsoft for example, they are making a profit on every console yet the division lost money. They also have a responsability toward investors. It's too early for a console to drop price; it can be seen as a sign of weakness. Also there is no need since it is a new console and there is a big enough fanbase that will pay the price Sony asks(who do you think is buying it now?). Eventually they will reduce cost and base on the console performance in terms of sells they will do a price cut. For the most part companies do not do a price cut due to cheaper components. If the PS3 demans is high and stays high you will not see a price drop even if it cost them $50 to produce the console. When was the last time the Nintendo DS got a price cut? And how much you think it cost Nintendo to product them?
if i wanted a BR player, i would buy a ps3 hands down. but i dont care for BR/HD DVD as i dont see myself buying $30 for a movie i'll watch once. i debate wether i should pick up a dvd at $7 and this goes across MANY people's minds. i mean isn't there a buttload of dvd sales per the minuscule hd dvd/br sales combined? tells u something... people aren't ready for this technology.