PS2 - PS2 On Way Out, EA To Cut Prices: Analyst

PS2 News by Lyndon M STAFF 199 days ago
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Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel believes that Sony's Playstation 2 may be on its way out. This assumption was based on the NDP Group's report for September which shows that software sales for the said console is going on a downward trend.

The decline in sales for the PS2 could not be determined whether it was due to “consumer transition to next-gen software or weak spending patterns amongst the low-end consumer.” This can be a major downfall for Sony's 10 year life-span commitment for the PS2.

Patel says, “With tougher comps ahead for PS2 software sales, we think that the PS2 may finally be on its way out of the industry for good.” However, the case applies only for software content as the PS2 console itself continues to sell and remains to be played despite the emergence of next-gen consoles.

The decline in software sales may be traced to the lack of backwards compatibility for the new PS3 consoles, which could be seen as a marketing strategy so as to help boost sales for the PS3 games by limiting them to be played on that format alone. As a consequence, it is the PS2 games that suffered from this.

Aside from this, Patel has also observed a poor performance on the games market from two EA franchises: NCAA 08 (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2) and Madden 08 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS). He traces the reason for this to the “competitive environment” with bigtime gaming companies such as Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo competing alongside one another.

He believes that the best remedy that EA can do about this is to introduce a price cut in November (just in time for the holiday season) to change their game's fate and improve a bit in sales.

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