In a recent interview, SCEE president David Reeves has stated that this holiday season is not necessarily the most important one in the Playstation 3’s lifespan.
"I think each peak is crucial to maximize what you can do, but I don’t think this Christmas is necessarily the most critical one – I think that’s going to be Christmas 08. I see this more as kind of like a tsunami – it starts small and gathers speed, and eventually, after four or five years, it will start to take you over."
When questioned about the absence of a European price drop, he responded with a now-is-not-the-right-time sort of answer:
"July is not really a gamers’ month unless you get a big, big title, so we thought if we reduced the price, we’d annoy a lot of people. We did think about it, but we also felt that it wasn’t doing that badly. In the U.S., they’ve been going for more than six months, so they took the decision that going down in price was a better thing to do than a value pack."
"We know exactly what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do [it]. We are confident but not arrogant about reaching a very, very good installed base on PS3, and having the same momentum that we had with the PS2. We’re not putting our heads in the sand – we know it’s not selling that well, but we know that it’s selling according to the targets."
I would have to agree with him about the summer being a slow season for the videogame industry, but holiday 2007 is crucial for Sony, in my estimation. The PS3 will be more than a year old by then, and will need heavy-hitting software support to combat the seasoned Xbox 360. It’s not enough to have a basically functional console (got MS beat, there) with only a few quality games.
