Before this year's E3, it was widely rumored in the industry that Sony would announce a price cut for the PS3 at E3. However, after E3 ended, we did not see this news. On the contrary, Kazuo Hirai, CEO of Sony SEC, stated in an E3 interview that the PS3 will continue without a price reduction.
In fact, rumors about the PS3 price drop have been around for quite some time. There were similar rumors last year at this time, but so far, the price of the PS3 has remained firm, even as Wii repairs are being carried out. Before this year's E3, many industry analysts, considering that PS3 sales had already fallen far behind Xbox 360 and Wii, speculated that Sony would announce this "bombshell" at this year's E3. However, Kazuo Hirai stated in the interview: "Currently, we are very satisfied with this price. Of course, if necessary, we will adjust it in a timely manner."
The current market situation is clear: Nintendo's Wii is leading by a wide margin, having reached 50 million units sold, while PS3's biggest rival, Xbox 360, has also achieved 30 million units sold. In contrast, PS3 has only sold 22.7 million units. Regarding the reason why the PS3 cannot reduce its price, one analyst said: "Sony has been evaluating the impact of cost reductions on overall machine price drops. Currently, Sony hasn't made any money from hardware sales, and if it further lowers the price of the entire machine now, Sony will lose even more."
Although the price of the PS3 did not decrease as everyone hoped, Sony still firmly believes that the PS3 will sell 13 million units this year. Meanwhile, Nintendo set this year's Wii sales target at 26 million units.
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