They can make it if they can afford the reduction of it's price for a while, the consumers needs a price of $299 for this thing to be awesome deal !!

"At present, Sony PlayStation 3 is the worst selling latest-generation video game console."

Have you looked at the latest NPD numbers for June? or for the last 6 months of 2008? Granted NPD numbers are only for the US. But the console rankings on units sold on a monthly basis in Europe and Japan is the same.

Now, if you are counting sold-since-launch numbers, that's a complete story. And a useless one, too.

sell it at $99 a piece and it will become the best selling game console of all time.

PS3 is a victim of it's own hardware superiority. The majority of future PS3 buyers are those that have yet to buy an LED LDP HD TV w. HDMI because of the current U.S.A. recession /depression.

Once the economy of the U.S.A. turns tide, then Sony will overrun its competitors as usual.

The formidable PS3 is a victim of it's own hardware superiority. The majority of future PS3 buyers are those that have yet to buy an LED LDP HD TV w. HDMI because of the current U.S.A. recession /depression.

Once the economy of the U.S.A. turns tide, then Sony soon will overrun its competitors as usual.

Wish in one hand...

They'll sell 150 Million once the PS4 comes out and the PS3 is selling for dirt. Economy sucks, the system is in year 2 of a typical 5 year console life...another 12-15 months and we'll start hearing about the next-generation consoles...I can see people holding out for deep price drops or future consoles....

Whenever I read these articles about how the Nintendo Wii is dominating console sales, I can't help but wonder if the writers really understand what is happening in the industry. Sure, the Wii has outsold both the PS3 and 360, but whether or not it has actually stolen customers from Sony or Microsoft remains to be seen. I for one, cannot imagine anyone who owns an X Box or PS2 upgrading to a Wii. The Wii is really a second-gen console with an ingenious controller and more ingenious marketing. If this sounds like a criticism, it's not. The Wii has saved Nintendo from oblivion much in the same way that the iMac rescued Apple (Note: The iMac wasn't a revolutionary product either, just a clever packaging exercise). So, in my opinion, what Nintendo has managed to do with the Wii is not so much to steal customers away from their rivals, but rather to expand the gaming market to demographics which have been previously untapped. Just looking at the year to date sales figures for the gaming industry will lend credence to this theory.

I'm sure that Sony would love to sell 150M units over the life of the PS3. It is by far the best console out there, so it is possible. But Sony seems to have concentrated too much on the machine and forgotten about the games, and how customers want to play them.

Nintendo made gaming fun for everyone by using new motion controls, no more memorizing complex button sequences. And Xbox360 has made sure there were games to play, and did a much better job of creating a social network that allowed competition among gamers.

The biggest thing PS3 has going for it is that it has a Blueray Player built-in...

Of course that's only good, if you plan on buying more expensive Blueray disks. Or if you even buy disks anymore.

Sony consentrated too much on the hardware and their disk format, they forgot that people buy these machines just to have fun....

Let me be the first to say... ROFL @ SONY

I was a proud owner of the Playstation I and II but when they released the Playstation III, I was shocked at the arrogance of Sony. The price for a unit that was backwards compatible with the hundreds of dollars of PSII games was an outrage. The only reason I did not purchase the PSIII was price. I was a die hard PS fan until the PSIII arrived.

Sony lost me as a loyal customer. Whoever came up with that pricing strategy should have lost their job.

Sony wants to sell 150 million PS3's over its lifetime. We're on year 2 out of 10 and according to current sales trends the PS3 isn't all that far off from how the PS2 was doing. Give Sony a break -- they've got a ton of time, a lot of games to release, and a bunch of price drops to dish out over the next 8 years. We're just getting started.

Hopefully Sony learns something from Nintendo and puts the focus back on games and fun, not new formats and technology. Then maybe we can get an affordable console that isn't all that different from how the PS2 was. I doubt Microsoft will ever learn, but then again people don't seem to realize just how much more expensive owning a 360 is over the long-run when you factor in all that cash spent on Live membership (it makes the PS3 look cheap actually).

Hopefully economic conditions improve and the value of the dollar increases so more people can pick up Wii's and PS3's, and that price drops are possible, which right now they're probably not due to the dollar's declining value. Sony's long-run goals are not unrealistic and hopefully this console cycle lasts a little longer than normal.

To American_ShareCropper:

The prices weren't numbers that Sony pulled out of their rear-ends. Those console prices were dictated by the cost of hardware. You're aware that they were and probably still are losing money on every console they sell, right? Sony isn't getting rich from selling the Ps3, not with a negative profit margin. If you want to complain about the price, then blame the hardware, but don't blame it on the "price setters" of the company.

“I for one, cannot imagine anyone who owns an X Box or PS2 upgrading to a Wii.”

I am one of those people and I’ll be happy to explain how it happened:

. I got in into the second generation of consoles a little late because I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to tie my wagon to. Once Microsoft got XboxLive up and running, I decided to go with that system. The graphics were good, the online play was great and many of the games seemed great... till I realized that most of the ones with better play all shared a common theme - first person shooter. I have nothing against them exactly but as I’ve gotten a little older, priorities for me have shifted and I no longer consider adding yet another joypad or stick and a half dozen more buttons to my controller (along with an even thicker manual for the game) to be an improvement in gaming for me. I understand that deep games need a learning curve but I don’t want to make a life commitment to Halo. These days, I’d rather spend a little bit of the time that I’m not using to “master” a complex game finding a woman to make that kind of commitment with.

I got back into Nintendo because a few coworkers would play Mario Kart on the DS at break. I remembered it from when I was really, really young back in the SNES days. I got hooked in with it and when the Wii came out, I stood in line on the first day to get it with those same co-workers. At the time, I didn’t plan to do much with it but with the promise of online play with Nintendo (yes, it took a lot longer than I expected) and shortages sure to last through that holiday season, I opted to get my console early to be in with that crowd so I’d have it when those games we’d play together online came out. In hindsight, nothing has gone according to that original plan at all.

Fast-forward nearly two years and I sometimes think about getting a 360. The recent price drop almost got me to act but then I thought, “What’s the hurry?” That one’s going away and their online media stuff where I’ll want more storage is ramping up... I may eventually decide to get one when the next price drop comes around if Microsoft still has the clear dominance over online that it does today but I’ll probably use it as more of an entertainment system than for the games.

The thing with Nintendo is that the games they make are fun (I know the “fanboys” like to say that but isn’t that why we play?). They aren’t another world to escape from life in. To the contrary, I’ve had a lot more fun playing them with friends in the room with me than I’ve had alone with them which is a first for any console I’ve owned. Instead if sitting online playing in my underwear, we have parties and play together - even now with Mario Kart on the Wii, we still play together more than online - split screen and all. The graphics aren’t great - I know, but they’re more than adequate to carry the game play I”m interested in these days.

There’s a lot of 3rd party shovel-ware out there (like there always is for the top selling console) but there are more than enough good games coming out at the pace I’m buying them.(average of about 1 a month)

In the end, I don’t want a bigger, more powerful system that hogs more electricity and more of my time. The Wii is smaller, simpler, uses less power and the vast majority of it’s games have a much lower barrier to entry than nearly all of what I’ve seen on the other two consoles (or what the Xbox originally had) and to me, that is truly “next-gen”. Superior graphics? Wasn’t that the battle last gen?.. And didn’t the least powerful of the three systems still win that one?

BTW, my current girlfriend waited in line to buy a Wii the day the balance board came out. She’s one of those new, expanded market customers we hear about. She’s now serious competition in Mario Kart and I’d much rather play that at her house in my underwear than a FPS on the 360 in my underwear at home against a trash talking 13 year old.

How much does any of that have to do with the hardware? Almost none of it. I think Nintendo got lucky with their little console while the other two were focused on an arms race and world domination with their consoles and figured out quickly how to capitalize on that luck by focusing on what the other companies seemed to forget - good for them. I don’t really care. I’m just happy I got my Wii early.

the only reason that the wii is outselling all other consoles is becuase its the most cheapest thing out there. everybody know that if people had the money they would much rather want a 360 or a PS3

Uh...it's not rocket science. Drop the price to something reasonable. Of course it's too late at my house. I wanted a backwardly compatible affordable machine but since neither were available I sold off all my old PS2 games and used the money to buy a 360.