A spate of price cuts has hit game hardware. Famitsu publisher Enterbrain examines how it has affected each platform. Let's have a look, shall we?
On September 3, the price of the PS3 was dropped by ¥10,000 to ¥29,980 from the previous price of ¥39,990. In that week, 150,832 units were sold. By October 11, Sony had seen a 707 percent increase in PS3 sales in Japan.
Sony also lowered the price of the PSP-3000. The ¥19,800 was lowered slightly to ¥16,800. Small price cut or not, PSP sales in Japan spiked 126 percent by October 11.
Last month, Nintendo announced a price cut for the Wii: the ¥25,000 console would go for ¥20,000 starting October 1. According to Enterbrain's data, Wii sales increased by 29 percent as of October 11.
Microsoft also cut the price of the Xbox 360 in Japan. On September 10, the ¥39,800 Elite console was marked down to ¥29,800. During the week of September 7 to the 13, Microsoft did see a bounce in sales. But for the period ending October 11, Xbox 360 sales were actually down 70 percent in Japan.
According to Famitsu, the spike in sales for the PS3 and for the Wii can be attributed to the upcoming end-of-year titles: Final Fantasy XIII and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
シェア争いに異変あり!? 相次ぐハードの値下げによる効果を検証する [ファミ通.com]