We expect a price cut for the PS2 later this year. We believe that Sony will respond to Microsoft's introduction of its next generation console with a cut from $149 to $99 some time before the November 22 Xbox 360 launch, ... We think that Sony has positioned itself to lower price by reducing the production costs of its console when it redesigned the box to a smaller format... Should Sony choose to discount the PS2 to $129 or even $99, we would expect a dramatic lift in PS2 hardware sales, and a corresponding lift in PS2 software sales. Our model forecasts that Sony PS2 hardware sales will be 1.8 million units higher this year compared to last year. |
We expect a price cut for the PS2 later this year. We believe that Sony will respond to Microsoft's introduction of its next generation console with a cut from $149 to $99 some time before the November 22 Xbox 360 launch. We think that Sony has positioned itself to lower price by reducing the production costs of its console when it redesigned the box to a smaller format... Should Sony choose to discount the PS2 to $129 or even $99, we would expect a dramatic lift in PS2 hardware sales, and a corresponding lift in PS2 software sales. Our model forecasts that Sony PS2 hardware sales will be 1.8 million units higher this year compared to last year. |
We expect modest growth in November and dramatic growth in December, |
We note that NPD U.S. retail video-game software sales data for the January quarter implies that Take-Two's sales are down 40 percent compared with the prior-year quarter, so we believe that the company is likely on track to meet our revenue and earnings per share estimates for the period. |
We think that the decline in overall sales of current-generation software in December indicates the beginning of a trend that will persist well into 2006, and we anticipate double-digit declines in current-generation software sales for the first half of 2006. |
What everybody needs to understand is Sony is not competing with Microsoft. Sony's competition is with Toshiba. |
You need people to buy more stuff. This is a bad downturn. |
You're going to see the Revolution as the second console of choice in the household. |
[As such,] only one in 16 people need to rent an extra movie in the new extended rental period to offset the late-fee loss, and that's not that hard to get, ... When you let people rent for seven days instead of two, the consumer tends to grab the extra movie. |
[Microsoft is] trying to turn this into the Cabbage Patch Kids, ... It's brilliant marketing. |
[Sony's people have] bet the entire future on this, ... It's too important for them to lose, so they will do everything they can to win. |