Price is not PS3's main hurdle, says Sony

Sony Computer Entertainment chief Kaz Hirai has spoken in defence of the firm's PlayStation 3 console during an interview with consumer site Spong, claiming supply is what worries him most.

Despite many industry developers believing that Sony needs to lower the price of the system in order to succeed, Hirai claims supply of the system has been more of a crucial issue.

“I think the original price-point was the right price-point,” Hirai said. “This was evidenced by the issues we had at launch when we couldn’t supply enough units to consumers in the Japanese market and the North American market, and it was a huge challenge to try and meet that demand because of all the production issues we had.

“When we started this business, we started from zero. We were a nobody. We had a zero installed base with the original PlayStation and we worked our way up from there. When we launched the PS2, the Dreamcast had a head-start and they had an installed base and we had to ensure we caught up and surpassed.

“We’re in a position where we’re having to play catch-up here. The PS3 has been on the market less than a year in the US and Japan and, what is it, less than that in Europe? It’s difficult right now to say who’s where. Five years from now, ten years from now, you look back and can see what kind of business you’ve generated.

“So, clearly we’ve never started from a position of strength and we’ve always had to catch up with every generation of hardware that we’ve brought into the market.

“In the PS3, we’re very excited about this holiday season, moving into the new fiscal year. We’ll have 200 titles worldwide, 120 of which will be available in the North American market, so we go into the holidays, we’re really going to be cooking on all cylinders with all three platforms and we’re really excited about going into the holiday season. I almost wish the holiday season was here now so we can really get in there.”