Sony Cuts PlayStation 2 Price to Compete With Nintendo
By ERIC A. TAUB
Published: May 12, 2004
LOS ANGELES, May 11 - The Sony Corporation cut the price of its PlayStation 2 video game machine to $150 Tuesday to match the competition from Microsoft's Xbox as it moved ahead with its plans to challenge Nintendo as a maker of hand-held game players.
The announcements came on the eve of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, the annual computer and video game convention.
Nintendo, which has long dominated the portable game market, introduced a prototype for its next-generation DS hand-held model, which includes a wide range of additional features, like dual screens and voice recognition, intended to make game playing more compelling.
Sony, on the other hand, believes that high screen resolution and fast processors in its PSP portable will attract players beyond children and adolescents, now the largest users of portable video game players.
"The games available for portable game devices have not had enough depth and graphic experience to hold the older consumer," said Jack Tretton, executive vice president for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "The new PSP will have the same impact on the business as the PlayStation did on the console market."
Sony's PSP, to be introduced in Japan at the end of this year and in the United States and Europe next spring, will feature a wide-screen 4.3-inch diagonal L.C.D. display and be able to play movies and music videos in addition to games, according to Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
The new Nintendo DS system moves beyond its current Game Boy player to incorporate two standard-shaped video screens, to add voice recognition aimed at allowing players to instruct characters how to move, and to include networking so that players will be able to use WiFi hotspots to engage in remote Internet play. It will be more expensive than Game Boy, but Nintendo did not disclose specific prices.
"Today's gaming platforms are already photo-realistic," said Reggie Fils-Aimé, executive vice president for sales and marketing at Nintendo of America. "We wanted added functionality to increase the enjoyment of playing."
In the United States, the Nintendo DS is scheduled to appear later this year, before Sony's PSP introduction here. Nintendo plans to move into Europe and Asia next year.
Sony, meanwhile, announced that it has arranged a partnership with I.B.M. to develop a computer workstation intended to enable the creation of more realistic-looking video games in a shorter period of time.
The workstation will use the Cell processor, a device jointly developed by the two companies and Toshiba that should make it easier for entertainment companies to produce digital characters for movies and video games at the same time.
