Right on the heels of Sony’s recent announcement that it is creating another SKU to confuse the market comes a couple of interviews that Sony hopes will finally clear the air about its stripped down 40GB console: Enter Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony’s American division. Speaking with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal and a couple suits at the Wall Street Journal, good old Jack did the usual song and dance routine that Sony is known for, when asked a few questions about the decision to lower the price point of the PS3, while simultaneously removing the one thing gamers thought they could always depend of getting from Sony — backwards compatibility. After all, they pretty much pioneered the stuff… right?
Maybe so, but those days no longer matter. The reason? Not only does practically nobody ever play those “outdated” PS2/PSone titles on Sony’s current number crunching beast in the first place, but the reality of it all is that not including such distractions is the surefire way to make sure that consumers take a bite out of the PS3’s gargantuan lineup of quality titles. As far as Jack’s concerned, if you really must stoop down to the level of last-generation games, by all means purchase one of those PS2-whatevers. Don’t fret, as it all makes perfect sense. Doing so will most certainly save you money in the process — limited entertainment center space is for losers.
I guess the way I tend to look at it, N’Gai, is if I’m a consumer, and I paid $599 for the Playstation 3 when it launched, I got backwards compatibility and I got PlayStation 3 technology. Today, for $399, I’m able to get all the same technology in the Playstation 3, and for $129, if I don’t own a PlayStation 2, I can buy that as well at any retailer in North America. So for a total investment of $529, I’ve got two machines that do everything the same machine did a year ago at $599. So it’s hard for me to see that as a negative for the consumer.
How can we hope to argue against that logic? Jack and Sony have us all pegged. You better run out and buy one of those 40GB deals as soon as they land on the shelves. Compared to first adopters, you are getting a steal! Who says two isn’t better than one?
