****The Playstation 3 Slim Thread****

Robert1986 said:
They could sell one without a HDD for those that just want it for movies and streaming.
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They could, but that would create another SKU and more options for the consumer :(

Personally, I believe that having 1 choice is the way forward. That's the way it was in the old days with the NES, Dreamcast etc and I think that Microsoft introducing a cheap version of the 360 really hasn't done them any favours IMO.

On the subject of uncompressed audio.. as mentioned already it's like the 1080p equivalent. Not everyone will appreciate it, but for those who spend the time and money it's worth every penny and adds to the experience.
 
TheVoice said:
It's a games console though, it's fairly useless if it can't play games and Sony would make no money from it.
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It would make sense for those that don't care about the games and just want it for all its other features. Believe me, there are a lot of people buying the PS3 and never buying games for it.
 
flibby said:
Surely more options is better than less options?
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Usually, yes.

However, I would argue that having 1 model that does it all is better than 2 or 3 options that sacrifice features just to bring down the price?. Average Joe doesn't want the hassle of having to choose between multiple SKUs when they just want a console to play games.

The big problem is that the manufacturers are trying to cram every feature under the sun in to the consoles to reach bigger markets e.g. Card readers, Blu-Ray in the PS3 (rightly so?) and they're sacrificing the affordability in the process. A weird irony.

Now, perhaps this is where Sony is headed with the Slim...
 
Robert1986 said:
It would make sense for those that don't care about the games and just want it for all its other features. Believe me, there are a lot of people buying the PS3 and never buying games for it.
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But it wouldn't make sense for Sony. They only make money if people buy games. It'd also be an absolute nightmare trying to market a PlayStation that doesn't actually play games. What you actually want is a different device entirely.
 
Not entirely true. Sony make a small bit of profit on every bluray sold so getting players in everyones home is still a viable tactic. My parents own one because, well put it this way, i can't think of another way they could have got a bluray player and media extender for £280, especially in one box. It is because of that purchase that they now own an assortment of blurays and, more importantly, is why they didn't buy into HDDVD.

There's more to the PS3 than just game sales. It was the tool Sony used to win people over to bluray and a good platform to advertise the Cell, the former is paying off more than the latter however.

I do agree that a PS3 without a hard drive would be stupid though, it would only confuse people. I like the idea of a single SKU, the number of times i've had to explain to mates the difference between the three 360 bundles was higher than you would imagine, especially for what is essentially a pretty simple system seeing as all the SKUs could play pretty much the same games.
 
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I'm not saying Sony couldn't market a device that plays Blu-rays and does media streaming, but it's not going to be a PS3 and it's not going to be based on PS3 hardware. They'd come up with something far cheaper to make (and thus more profitable) if they wanted to go down that route, rather than releasing a crippled PS3.
 
I dunno, the fact they're manufacturing PS3s in huge quantities probably pushes the price down far more than a unit without a hard drive (and a cut down gpu?) so it's a win-win situation for the consumer. If they want a bluray, media extender it's there for a pretty good price, if they want a games console again it's there for a good price.

However this is obviously complete speculation, there's a pretty good chance i'm wrong. I just believe the mass production of a single SKU pushes down prices more than producing two very different pieces of hardware that achieve similar means in terms of media.
 
But every PS3 is sold at a loss (unless the new one has changed that, of course). A device that doesn't play games won't need the same hardware (in terms of CPU, GPU etc), so it'd be much cheaper for them to just take one of their standard BD players and add a network port and wi-fi card to it.

They royalties earned on the games is what makes the PS3 profitable, I highly doubt they want to sell all that hardware to people who aren't going to buy games for it when they could just sell a device that is cheaper to make and will earn them a profit outright.

Funnily enough, it reminds me of all the things Sony said about using the Cell CPU in other products aside from the PS3. So much for that.
 
The Cell is beginning to show itself in the server market last time i heard, it's a small presence but it exists.

I dunno about loss but i was under the impression the 40GB SKU was their attempt to get rid of the loss per unit but i could be wrong. Overall you have a good point though tbh.
 
TheVoice said:
But every PS3 is sold at a loss (unless the new one has changed that, of course).

They royalties earned on the games is what makes the PS3 profitable, I highly doubt they want to sell all that hardware to people who aren't going to buy games for it when they could just sell a device that is cheaper to make and will earn them a profit outright.
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A Sony rep said they've managed to reduce costs by 70%, and it cost about $1000 at launch to make, albeit without bulk discounts. I imagine they could be about even depending on how much retailers are buying PS3s for, but I doubt it's less than $200 - they never make much on consoles apparently?
 
Robert1986 said:
They could sell one without a HDD for those that just want it for movies and streaming.
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The saving would be misiscule - it really wouldnt be worth it

As said it also makes it easier for Sony to manufacture - one less "option" to put in the production line (remember they would have to double some of the sku's - ie phat with and without hdd, thin with and without hdd all for a £20 saving or such)

look at costs on here for a standard 80GB 3.5" hdd, and thats with OCUK's profit for storing / advertising and packing it etc - they are practically give away items in a huge sale with 500GB + drives taking I would guess 90%+ of all hdd sales just becuase they are so cheap

Also remember Sony would be cutting their own users off from using the shop - whether this is for movie downloads/ home etc etc even demos, all require hdd, it just isnt in Sony's interests to do an SKU without a hdd

Sumanji said:
I'm sure I read somewhere that they would eventually put Cell into their TV's... not sure what for - maybe HD decoding etc?

Su
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Toshiba already have I believe (although Im not sure the model was available here)

Cant remember what it was used for Im afraid
 
Streeteh said:
The Cell is beginning to show itself in the server market last time i heard, it's a small presence but it exists.
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It's doing far worse than expected in the server market, which has really hurt Sony as it's a far bigger market than console manufacturing.

I believe that they're aiming for the small integrated devices next with very low power Cell processors.
 
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