In a recent phone interview with gamedaily, John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America tackled questions regarding yesterdays announcement of the Playstation 2 price drop to $99 as well as discussed the overall value of the Playstation 3.

According to John, the Playstation 2 is still competitor in the console race, primarily in the lower end market. John was quoted saying:

PS2 shows very little signs of slowing down, and we wanted to continue to really target that lower income consumer, as well as that lapsed gamer or young family consumer that is still purchasing PS2 and wants some of that evergreen entertainment- the social gaming and sports are what they are particularly gravitating towards. A lot of the development is going in that direction.

“We do look at those as similar consumers. So, yes, we do think the $99 price point could steal some share [from Wii]. From a technological standpoint, the Wii is much closer to the PS2 than it is to the next-gen consoles.”

The Playstation 2 is on its ninth year of existence and was recorded at 2.5 Million units sold for the year of 2008. Currently offering over 1900 gaming titles, 250 of which are in Sony’s “Greatest Hits” collection.

The question on many gamers and gaming media’s mind is “why not a price cut on the PS3 instead?”, John had this to say on this question:

In terms of the PS3, our is on the versatility of the system and the overall value that’s inherent to the system. We’ve been focusing on development of key software franchises, and this year should be the best software year launched yet. On PS3, we look at that as a significant advantage versus Xbox 360. In particular, our first party group has really stepped up with some tremendous franchises, whether they’re iterations [of existing properties] or new IP like LittleBigPlanet, MAG, etc. You also look at the continued strength of the Blu-ray format and we’re starting to see some cases where movies are helping to sell hardware – Dark Knight certainly did for a time in December. So we’re seeing different patterns of growth. Last year was the best sales year ever for PS3 and we are very bullish on the platform this year.

In another interview with Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) Senior VP of Marketing, has been pitching the same angle, asking people to look at the PS3’s “High Value instead of its High Price”.

“…we had a profit goal and they had a market share goal. We’ve had a very successful year; we had record revenues across our three platforms last year, and our PS3 business was up 40 percent, notwithstanding the tough climate. So we’ve really focused on changing the conversation away from price and trying to communicate the value inherent in the PS3.”………Said Peter Dille

“I think when people start doing the apples-to-apples comparison, and see what PS3 can do, and see the value of Blu-ray, and what free online and free wi-fi with a hard drive in every box really means, it resonates,” ……Added Peter.

Peter then further drove his point home with this final statement.

“Yes, in tough times people think twice about discretionary spending, but we also know people spend for value. They are looking for things that will last before they spend the money. We believe that plays right into our strengths,”

What is more important to you? Lower Prices? or Higher Value?