Kazuo Hirai, Sony Chairman Howard Stringer’s top lieutenant, signaled yesterday the company won’t engage in a price war with Nintendo.
“Gamers are increasingly anticipating Sony to lower prices, especially after the 3DS cut,” said Hideki Yasuda, a Tokyo-based analyst at Ace Securities Co. “Sony is under major pressure to cut the price of the Vita or risk a major failure.”
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“The environment for portable game players has become more difficult because of smartphones,” said Koki Shiraishi, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc., who estimates shipments of the PS Vita will be about half of the PlayStation Portable sold during the product’s first two years.
Hirai isn’t alone in expecting Sony to resist price cuts.
“The customers Sony is targeting with its Vita are those willing to spend a lot of money,” said Shiro Mikoshiba, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Tokyo. “That’s a valid strategy even if the volume’s low as long as it can sustain the higher price.”
Sony is unlikely to cut prices until next year, said Harding-Rolls, a London-based analyst at IHS. The company may sell 36 million PlayStation Vitas by 2015, short of the 46 million PSPs sold at the same stage of its lifecycle, he wrote in an e-mail.
