Sony was named by the Harris Poll the #1 brand for the 7th straight year.  The poll was conducted online of 2,351 American adults who were asked to name the best brand completely unaided, and without being given any choices.  Since 1996, Sony has been named #1 nine times, losing the #1 spot twice to Ford.  This year, Dell was #2, Coca Cola was #3, Toyota #4, and Ford #5.  Microsoft who was in the top 10 of the Harris Poll in 2005 dropped of the list in 2006.  Nintendo did not make the list either.  Thinking in terms of the next generation console war, Sony should have an edge when it comes to trust and general brand name.  However, knowing a company, and following a company on a daily basis are two different concepts.  Many casual gamers are going to find the PS3 pricing structure very steep, and that may damage Sony’s brand.  It will be interesting to see if/how the Harris Poll changes in 2007.

Software publishers Sega and Ubisoft have both commented publically that they would like a PS3 price drop in order to keep it competitive with the other next generation consoles.  Scott Steinberg of VP of Sega said, “I think it’s an expensive device, but it’s a very powerful device. Their job is to convince the world that Blu-ray has a high utility and delivers on a promise, a value promise, and I’m sure they’ll sell out.”  Meanwhile Ubisoft President, Yves Guillemot, said the PS3 price must be lowered by 2007 in order to stay competitive with the Xbox 360.  In any case, 2007 is truly going to be the year that defines the Playstation 3.  Everyone knows all the initial orders will sell out, no matter what the price, but the winner to the console war is going to be the company who can get the casual gamers to purchase their console.  If PS3 is able to drop its price in 2007 to say $400 they are going to have a significantly greater chance of accomplishing this.

Sony has launched the official Playstation 3 European Website, though it is far from complete.  The new website has some screenshots from the launch titles, a nice gallery of PS3 pictures, a brief FAQ about PS3, the specs from Playstation 3, and a press release section.  While there may not be that much actual content, this launch is a great thing as it will provide a reliable source of PS3 information and news, and hopefully limit the rumors flying about the web, most of which contain absolutely no truth.  Now the question is: when will the North American PS3 website launch?