GamesCom: Tretton - $299 price tag is the 'sweet spot'

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) chief Jack Tretton has described the PlayStation 3’s newly introduced $299 USD/£249 GBP price point as a ‘sweet spot’ among consumers, feeling the high end machine offers punters the best value on the market.

Speaking in a video statement on the U.S. PlayStation Blog, Tretton also observed how the PS3 reached the milestone short of its third year on the market, beating out its predecessors, which received hardware revisions in their third and fourth years on sale.

“We're extremely pleased that we've been able to meet production efficiencies that have allowed us to pass those savings onto consumers," said Tretton. "We're very pleased that short of its third birthday, the PlayStation 3 has achieved tremendous milestones which have allowed us to bring out this new form factor."

"We really think that USD 299 is the sweet spot when consumers think about all the features that exist in the PlayStation 3. There's just no better value on the market," he added.

In regards to the competition, the executive stated that Sony feels it is competing with any form of entertainment, and not simply rival consoles in the form of Wii and Xbox 360.

"When we talk about competition, I think we're really competing with any form of entertainment, not only hardware devices within the gaming space, but clearly multimedia devices, portable and console-based. And we're competing with entertainment in general - we're just competing for people's free time,” said Tretton.

"This device is less than three years old," he continued, “We're still in the infancy stage, especially for a company that consistently delivers ten year product life cycles.”

"If you look at how far PlayStation 3 has come in terms of features, in terms of the great games that have been offered and to understand that's being done at half the original price with a 120GB harddrive being built in, with a new slimmer lighter form factor..."
 
"It's staggering to think how far this has come in less than three years - and to envision how far it will go before this system is over and done with."