EA and Ubisoft praise "exceptional" PS3 price cut
European publishers predict console will now finally break mass market with new price and slim model
Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot and EA Games president Frank Gibeau have both praised Sony for cutting the price of the PlayStation 3, making the home console an attractive prospect for the mass market consumer.
"It's exceptional news, actually. I think the machine is a great machine, with the Blu-ray,” commented Guillemot, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz. "I'm happy that they were able to move to that [price point], particularly in the UK."
Sony has reduced the price of its console to EUR 299 in mainland Europe, and GBP 249 in the UK with immediate effect, ahead of the release of slimmer unit due in the first week of September.
"I think it's awesome," enthused Gibeau. "It's an old line, but it still rings true for us: 'We make the ammunition for the hardware wars'. So the lowest priced hardware possible is a good thing for us. We want to see as big and broad a base as possible, and the Sony hardware is a good piece of equipment."
The redesign will help the PlayStation 3 shift more units in Europe, said Guillemot – a positive for Sony as well as the industry as a whole – as it now becomes a more attractive purchase to a mass market consumer.
"It's also going to be a smaller machine, and I think this will help Sony and the whole industry - because everybody will react, and so we'll be able to see it come to the mass market," he said.
Gibeau agreed that the new price will allow publishers to reach more consumers. "Getting into that price point is just going to expand the market for us, especially in Europe. We have a lot of PS3 games, we're a good supporter of Sony, we believe in the platform. We've got a lot of PSP games coming, and frankly we also support the PlayStation Network with direct-to-consumer releases.
"So we're strong, committed partners of Sony and I'm extremely excited about the Slim - I think it looks great. And the price point will be hot."
Lower prices will help the current console market sustain a longer lifecycle, said Gibeau, meaning publishers and developers can concentrate on existing hardware rather than invest in future technology.
"The good news is that we still have a lot of price points to go yet - Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony - which points to a longer cycle for hardware this time around. And again, for us it's great, because we don't have to go out and build a whole new set of engines for next-gen," he said.