Retailers are beginning to take it on board that most people are unwilling to pay £425 for any console, let alone the Sony PlayStation 3 . WH Smith and Play.com are among retailers who have recently cut the price of the next generation console to £399.
High street retailer WH Smith took out adverts in the weekend papers to promote its temporary PS3 discount which lasts until the end of today. Presumably the hope is that it can get rid of its remaining stock, after initially strong sales tailed off dramatically.
Play.com is now offering the Sony PlayStation 3 console with 60GB hard disc along with a free HDMI cable and the movie Click on Blu-ray Disc (BD) for just £399.
The fact that retailers are discounting the console so early vividly demonstrates the way sales of the console have diminished in the last couple of weeks. After the hardcore gaming elite flocked out in their droves to swap £425 for the shiny black console in the first seven days following its release, week two was a major disappointment for Sony.
Sales of the PlayStation 3 crashed severely, falling by a fairly drastic 82 per cent. Week two sales were around the 33,000 mark, with 132,000 less PS3s sold in the second week than the first. The PS3 has so far failed to sell-out in the UK, with these latest discounts evidence of a certain degree of desperation among retailers to get rid of the consoles .
