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According to figures released by research group NPD, Sony’s PlayStation 3 console has seen a year-on-year sales slump of almost 25% percent this January (US sales figures). In the preceding year it sold 269,000 consoles, whilst this year the figure is 203,200. Sony must be worried as their rivals see a major growth in sales (see previous post – Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii see sales surge) as well as Sony themselves suffering their widely publicised financial woes. The reasons for this sales slump cannot be solely due to the world’s current economic climate considering the performance of the PS3’s chief rivals. In my opinion it is down to two factors. The first is the consoles high price. It is over two years since launch and we have only seen one relatively minor price drop. The RRP of a PS3 is almost double that of either an Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii. Sony must have to drop prices to compete but this lead to another problem for them – they are still loosing money on each PS3 console sold. In light of this I would assume that they are better off selling less until they reach a production cost where they can make money on each unit. The second factor concerns the integrated Blu-ray player. Since the formats launch the PS3 has been widely recognised as the best and cheapest Blu-ray player. Within the last six months new stand alone players from the likes of Sony and Panasonic have tipped the advantage away from a PS3 towards owning a dedicated Blu-ray player. It appears to me Sony is stuck in a hole with the PS3 that it may well struggle to get out of. Have you still not purchased a PS3 due to the high retail price? Why not obtain a free PS3 80GB console?