It is no secret that both Playstation 3 and PSP sales have failed to achieve Sony's expectations, but new Sony plans may put fans at ease for the first time in a long period.
MegaGames has already reported that Sony plans to ship 15 first party games and promises another 100 third party titles by the end of the year. We have also reported that Sony is planning to add Force Feedback to its PS3 SIXAXIS controller. And just a few hours ago, Capcom announced that Time Crisis 4 will ship with a new Playstation 3 Light Gun that utilizes WiiMote-Like technology to work with LCD screens.
But the greatest problem facing PlayStation 3 is being too expensive compared to both Xbox 360 and (the much cheaper) Wii. Playstation 3 price cut is now official. It is just a matter of time. Sir Howard Stringer, the chairman and chief executive of Sony, said in an interview with Financial Times ""That [price cuts] is what we are studying at the moment. That's what we are trying to refine". Sir Howard Expects those price cuts to cause ""energy [in PS3 sales] by Christmas, and then you will begin to see break-out games".
Sony is still working on "refining" the price cut amount, but analysts expect it to be around $100 and to be announced by the time for Christmas.
Sony didn't exclude PSP from its revival plans. Sources close to Sony have revealed that Sony is working on a new redesigned PSP. The focal point of the new design is a new screen that allows PSP to be much slimmer and battery life to quadruple. The new PSP will have the same hardware but it will utilize a faster version of its UMD drive and 8GBs of internal flash memory to speed up loading and gameplay. Finally, PSP's button layout will be revamped into a more D-pad like alignment.
Attaching a camera to the new model will be decided according to its price which Sony hopes to be less than $170. The redesigned PSP is expected to be officially announced during this year's E3 and to be available in market around August or September.
Keep in mind though, that Sony has refused to comment on the redesigned PSP news and dimmed it as a "rumor or speculation".
