While we’ve yet to see, I do think that the new Slim model could, in fact, be Sony’s savior. Sales of the PS3 are around 25 million as of this month, and the Xbox 360 was around 30 million back in April, so one can only assume what the latter number is today. Either way, the sales difference is most likely somewhere around 10 million, meaning that Microsoft has a rather formidable lead on that front.
However, that could easily change given the right conditions, and those conditions might just be here. While Sony isn’t about to make up a 10 million console lag overnight, that gap could be closed up a bit now that the price point of the PS3 is at the level with that of the 360′s. There has been a really solid lineup of PlayStation 3 titles on shelves as of late, and many consumers will really like seeing that, along with free online play and a Blu-Ray player. None of these features are better than what the 360 has to offer, but to many consumers it will make it seem like a much better value, and that is what will change the momentum.
I could go further into this, but everybody already knows the basics of the two consoles, and I’m just saying that now that the prices are the same, things will be looked at differently. Of course, Microsoft is lowing the price of its Elite SKU to 299 and dropping the Pro model, but I don’t think that will affect the scene to much, considering that it really only changed HDD size.
The big hurdle that needs jumping, though, is the one of the dumb consumer, who simply goes by ads and prices, and when it comes to the PS3 and 360, could choose either. But, there is an approach to that that most businesses haven’t looked at: avoiding it completely. While Nintendo has done a great job of leaping it, and Microsoft has tried its best to at least get a feeble hop (Read: Arcade console), Sony has so far just gone around. It makes it a lot easier to market to the right segments and have a consistent image, and it’s another small reason that the PlayStation brand could see some success in the PS3. Though an entire argument completely is that it already has.
But to sum it up, the PlayStation 3 has been the runt of the pack (for lack of a better term) this generation, and there is a chance that the status quo could change.
