Sony's "big" announcement...

Welcome to The Meat Quarter, people. I'll leave it up to Jules to issue the official welcome. Instead, I just wanted to rant a little bit.

Today, Sony went through with the big announcement they've been hyping through gaming sites like Kotaku. The rumor was that the PS3 would be getting a much needed price drop that would position the unit for sales to the hold-outs. The rumor carried weight since April 1st is the start of their new fiscal year and their previous price drop denials only extended as far as the end of fiscal '08, as well as various retailers taking turns giving out free gift cards with the purchase of the system.

But!

Sony had recently declared that their announcement had nothing to do with the PS3's price. So what, then?

Well, we've known about the PS2's price drop to $99 for months now (September, I think), and who cares about that, anyway? So, of course, it couldn't be that.

And, of course, it was.

Sony, I have a question for you: why the fuck would the denizens of gaming websites, arguably the hardcore (expect a discussion about that word on this site soon), give a rat's ass about how much the PS*2* costs? And even leaving that to the side, why is that even a big secret announcement, especially since you've been talking about it yourselves for months?

I understand why the Triple isn't getting a price cut. You feel the loss you are already taking on the system would be too greatly increased so as to not be compensated by the increase in your user base. I get it. But what happens if you do nothing? You have an amazing system on your hands that is barely treading water. Being third place in the market is meaningless, but third by such a wide margin is an unarguable shame. And what are you getting all excited about? Your nine-year-old system going from cheap to a little cheaper.

Please, Sony, for the sake of the amazing things you have on offer, pull your heads out of your asses.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]