Will Sony Reduce Prices and Heat with 45nm Chips?

Reportedly we’re going to see smaller 45 nanometer cell processors in 2009 which leads to similar cost savings as we saw in the Xbox 360 hardware. Cost savings appear on the manufacturing side, of course, along with less power consumed by the processor leading to less heat generated by the console.

The Xbox 360 was able to benefit from chip reduction when for stability and overall heat issues, although the stability is still out for debate at the moment. The concept is fairly simple to understand; heat causes problems in closed systems with few fans and a high degree of complex components. Reduce the heat means reducing the overall need to cool and get air flow into the hot little box.

Console hardware is owned by a broad audience, not all of which understand technology and its ability to boil an egg. Consumers toss consoles and their power supplies in closed cases within their entertainment system and restrict air flow further. Any reduction in heat is a good thing for the console developer.

We’re not guaranteed, however, to see cost savings. Microsoft passed the cost savings to the consumer, recently, but went awhile with their lower-cost “Falcon Chipset” received such a cut. They were, more than likely, trying to recover some of the expenses associated with creating the system and cleaning up the disaster that was the red rings of light.

Will Sony do the same? As the year rolls on into 2009 and these processors start to hit store shelves, what benefit will we have, as the buyer? With the 360, people would scamper out with flashlights and manufacturing codes to find the infamous stable Xbox 360PlayStation gamers haven’t had such a need for heat reduction; they’ve got a need for cost reduction.

Sony’s taken a lot of heat for their high priced Trojan blu-ray appliance along with substantial costs for winning the format war. They have a 10-year plan for the PlayStation 3 and price reductions may definitely accelerate their plan of dominance before Microsoft tosses out some next-generation news.

The huge boost in 360 sales prior to their price cut was fairly significant in the market, presumably Sony would get a similar pop in retail. Gamers want cheap PlayStation 3‘s now, not in 2009, but the idea of a price reduction is always a nice incentive for future buyers to consider.

Of course, Sony would never talk to this topic as the threat of consumers holding out for a price drop would be way too high to take such a risk.

Anyone forsee a price drop for PS3? Would that intice you to buy?

(Thanks, Engadget)

0 thoughts on “Will Sony Reduce Prices and Heat with 45nm Chips?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Trials of a World of Warcraft Player: Entry ThreeTrials of a World of Warcraft Player: Entry Three

“Gold Rush”

It’s amazing how economies thrive on virtual worlds like Azeroth. One can buy and sell wares at an auction house to bring in money and spend money. Unfortunately, on my return back to Azeroth after a large siesta from the virtual world, many things seem to have changed… it costs an arm and a leg for almost everything. Perhaps the Burning Crusade expansion has set a new level of cost?

Here’s the deal. If you’re a brand new World of Warcraft player, you’re going to find yourself having to harvest the materials of the world (known as “mats”) for yourself because the auction house is way too expensive for everyday items. Inflation is out of control, imagine going to the store to purchase a leather jacket for the price of a car. You’d go cold wouldn’t you?

Once upon a time things were different, “low-bee” items (items between 1 and 15 let’s say) were a reasonable price, usually in the silver range of money. Today, they’re weighted in gold. The concept of supply and demand is at work but how is it we can purchase the supply at such a high cost? Because we’ve got friends or other characters with a lot of unused cash!

With Burning Crusade we saw basic quests tossing around gold as if it were common place. A character would save up thousands of gold for mounts and then horde the gold as if it were precious until they realized it was nearly infinite in supply and would start passing it around their guild or to other low level characters in their account. The end result, a low level character can go into the auction house with 100 gold in hand and buy whatever they need for basic materials no matter the price.

The laws of supply and demand take on a whole new meaning when people buying have nearly infinate supplies of cash. For me, I’ve decided to purchase some materials while “grinding” for others because they’re just too costly to purchase. However, I’ll do what needs to be done to also exploit the high prices when selling items back to the auction house and contribute to the over-inflated economies.

Perhaps, over time, Blizzard will create a platinum piece to replace the common nature of the gold as it depreciates in value. Although that’s said more in jest, it’s unfortunate that brand new gamers to this MMORPG won’t be able to take full advantage of the auction house as they could years ago with the influx in gold deposits.

Episode 550: Kowtowing to ChinaEpisode 550: Kowtowing to China

Blizzard finds itself in hot water as it finds itself having to explain its actions in pleasing the Chinese government, in news that’s still hot and doesn’t look like it’s going to cool down anytime soon. It’s enough to overshadow even an official console announcement from Sony. There’s a Gaming Flashback, the embarrassingly bad FMV game Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties.

The news this week includes:

  • Blizzard is facing a boycott after removing a Hearthstone Grandmaster
  • PlayStation 5 launches Holiday 2020
  • Doom Eternal delayed until March 2020, Doom 64 goes multiformat

Let us know what you think.

Episode 346: Back PainsEpisode 346: Back Pains

Paul wasn’t able to make it for this podcast thanks to a hospital trip due to back pains, but Jordan and Jonah get into it a little themselves. They also avoid the predictable April Fool’s gags since even though the episode was recorded April 1, it wasn’t going to air until 2 days later. This week’s Gaming Flashback is Ubisoft’s first person shooter Far Cry.

The news this week includes:

  • EA deletes nasty Wii U April Fools’ tweets
  • Indies praise Xbox One self-publishing – but Microsoft must drop its launch parity policy
  • Uncharted 4 game director leaves Naughty Dog

Also included is Listener Feedback and the Question of the Week, “What was your favorite videogame-related April Fool’s joke?”