Publishers Are Delighted By Sony's Bold Pricing Move.

It's thanks, in part, to the newly announced PS3 Slim. It's an announcement which Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot and Electronic Arts’ Frank Gibeau are both very, very pleased about.
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"It's exceptional news," Guillemot told GI.biz, "I think the machine is a great machine, with the Blu-ray. I'm happy that they were able to move to that [price point], particularly in the UK."</blockquote>

Electronic Art's Gibeau echoed Guillemot's thoughts.
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"I think it's awesome. It's an old line, but it still rings true for us: 'We make the ammunition for the hardware wars'. So the lowest priced hardware possible is a good thing for us. We want to see as big and broad a base as possible, and the Sony hardware is a good piece of equipment.

"It's also going to be a smaller machine, and I think this will help Sony and the whole industry - because everybody will react, and so we'll be able to see it come to the mass market."</blockquote>

Gibeau also suggested that the new pricepoint will help publishers reach out to new territories, particularly in Europe:
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"Getting into that price point is just going to expand the market for us, especially in Europe. We have a lot of PS3 games, we're a good supporter of Sony, we believe in the platform. We've got a lot of PSP games coming, and frankly we also support the PlayStation Network with direct-to-consumer releases,” he said.

“So we're strong, committed partners of Sony and I'm extremely excited about the Slim - I think it looks great. And the price point will be hot."</blockquote>

Analysts are already predicting that Sony will gain some ground on Microsoft's XBOX 360 this holiday season, which is likely to see a price drop of its own to counter. Analysts have described the Slim as a "superior" piece of hardware to the 360 at a "much more competitive price point".