Ben-DutkaThe differences between the late-2006 PlayStation 3 and the 2010 PlayStation 3 are significant. In fact, Sony says it has gone from a questionable $600 buy to the "de facto purchase."
This according to what Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Andrew House told Eurogamer ; the new "entry level hardware price point" and the release of the PS3 Slim have proven to be sales catalysts. From the start, Sony has always called this generation (and indeed, every generation) a marathon rather than a sprint, which is why early on in each console era, the PlayStation brand met with a fair amount of criticism. But at the end of the day…well, the PS3 is certainly following that well-established line. Said House:
"We're really pleased. I'd characterise it as right on track. The important thing we always frame the discussion with is our view that the full length of the life cycle is likely to be significantly longer than anything we've seen before. We offered some fairly good reasons for that: the fact you have a network device, the value of the network that grows over time, a portfolio of services that grows over time.
Within the context of assuming this will be a different and much longer life cycle than previously, we're right on track where I would hope we would be at this point in the life cycle."
As of now, there are 38 million PS3s in households around the world and as the PS3 has routinely outsold the Xbox 360 in the past year, the gap between Sony and Microsoft has almost closed; Microsoft reports 41.7 million 360s sold globally. House said Sony now has the momentum and things like PlayStation Move will help. He says that after the "slow burn" that was the PS3's start, the system should now be the de facto purchase for anyone interested in getting involved in gaming. During his GamesCom briefing, House added that PS3 software sales are up 38%, and says that "software performance on a tie ratio basis is better on PS3 than it was at the same point on PS2." Finished the president:
"That's very good. We have sold all of these consoles at price points that are way significantly higher than those comparably at the same point in the life cycle on PS2. What that says to me is the consumer is seeing intrinsic value in the offering we're putting out there."