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$499 PlayStation 3 Confirmed
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:24 PM
from the finally-come-down-a-bit dept.
from the finally-come-down-a-bit dept.
Gamespot is reporting that the rumoured price drop from earlier this week is a reality. Starting on July 10th, the current 60GB model will sell for $499. Coming to US shores in August is the 80GB version only available in South Korea at the moment, which will retail for $599. They're bundling that unit with Motorstorm, so it's not just another 20 gigs for $100. "The price drop further indicates that, after a slow start, Sony is now aggressively trying to expand its customer base in the US. The move comes none too soon. According to the latest figures from industry-research firm the NPD Group, the PS3 only sold 82,000 units in the US in May, compared to the Xbox 360's 155,000 units and the Wii's 338,000 units." So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3, or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?
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Both Sides of the PS3 Price Cut Rumor 257 comments
So here's the deal: Kotaku has a flier for an upcoming Circuit City deal on the PlayStation 3, putting the price at $499. There's some confusion about whether this is just a sale from Circuit City, or an actual price drop from Sony. Next Generation has Sony saying 'no', indicating that this isn't a sign of an across-the-board price cut. Meanwhile, GameDaily says 'yes', with sources in the retail industry indicating this is the price adjustment we've heard coming for a while now. "As it turns out, a merchandising manager (who wished to remain anonymous) at one of the world's biggest retailers has confirmed to GameDaily BIZ that the price drop is indeed retail-wide and it's scheduled to take place on July 12, although the first wave of ads to promote the PS3's new price won't kick in until Sunday, July 15. Many analysts have speculated that Sony would drop the price on the expensive console this year, and some even predicted that it could happen this summer. It's starting to look like they were right. We're sure to find out much more next week when Sony holds its press conference at E3." Luckily we won't have to wait long to see what's the real story here.
[+]
Microsoft Readies Cheaper 360 249 comments
Officially Microsoft is putting on a brave face, saying they won't drop the 360's price even in the console's weakest market: Japan. Just the same (probably in anticipation of Sony's PS3 price drop), the San Jose Mercury news says the company is secretly working on preparing a lower cost Xbox 360 SKU. Called 'Falcon', it's a cost-reduced system using 65nm chips instead of the at-launch 90nm electronics. This ties right into Michael Pachter's expectation of such a cut; it should be noted he doesn't see the DS or Wii prices moving any time soon. Related to all of this, Newsweek's LevelUp blog has two great interviews today: a Peter Moore discussion harkening back to last week's warranty announcement, and a chat with Jack Tretton about the price cut and the 360's hardware issues.
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Blu-Ray (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Blu-Ray (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Blu-Ray (Score:5, Insightful)
A twelve-year-old boy is probably old enough to mow lawns, run errands, etc. to earn his own income.
It shouldn't take him much of that to understand how much money $500 actually is.
Parent
Re:Blu-Ray (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If I were in the market, I would personally go HD-DVD on price alone (about $250 last I looked). The theoretically superiority of Blu-ray (in capacity and transfer) means fuck all in the common case. To exceed the practical limit of HD-DVD you've to do something like encod
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When I had learned that Microsoft was entering into the video game industry I had several predictions, and they've all happened and we as the consumers are the ones who suffer.
Microsoft has enough cash to drown out any compitition
Re:Blu-Ray (Score:4, Insightful)
microsoft may be evil but at least they arent trying to jam their stupid hd format down my throat, and charging me more for the privilege.
Parent
Re:Blu-Ray (Score:4, Interesting)
Now for your argument that Microsoft isn't trying to "jam" something down my throat with the 360... Well I don't want or need another freaking DVD player, so why did they include it? Wasn't CD good enough... It is for me
As far as your argument of a streaming server... How many content providers are up for you doing that? I don't see many jumping at putting their HD content on iTunes, and ripping a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disk is illegal so I imagine your HD content selection pretty much sucks now. Also, not that you care but you can use your PS3 to get that media off of your server and display it to your TV and then also stream it to your PSP over the internet if you wanted. Just to clarify, you can at this time download movies to your PSP OR have them streamed to your PSP. That to me is much cooler than say an iPod because I don't have to carry some 80GB ipod around with all the movies I "may" watch. I can keep them on a PS3 with some huge HD on it and then stream those to a PSP when I want to watch them. Granted, much like the iPod I could download them to the PSP and watch them locally, but I am not locked in to syncing. Again, not that you care but you could also take remote control of your PS3, download some new movies and then stream them to your PSP also.
Ok, enough for video crap. You may or may not care about that. The game lineup for the PS3 is poor, but there are some great games out. Motorstorm and Resistance fall of Man are two very good titles. The downloadable games Calling all Cars and Super Star dust and very good for under $10. Home looks to be a great way to interact with users online and if done correctly it will be (in my opinion) the best online experience of any of the new consoles. Little Big Planet looks to be a great game that may be out this fall. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (also on 360 but not as well done), appears to be a very good game, and Oblivion (also on multiple platforms but well done on PS3 with very low loading times... nice to have a HD in every system). Obviously future games like MGS4 and FF will be system sellers but those are not out yet and probably won't be out this year. In short there are quite a few very good games and some are on other consoles (primarily the 360). What I have found out is that the games developed for the 360 first and then ported to the PS3 look bad (not Wii bad), but bad, however games developed for the PS3 first look fantastic and play very well. I will also add that playing PS2 and PS1 games works very well. Seeing that the PS2 is still selling like mad, and developers are not going away from it, that is another nice option for "kids" games.
So I just laid out some very good games and there are quite a few more. Sony had and has some major issues but they are addressing them somewhat quickly. Would I love a PS3 for $200? Yes! But at the expense of quality (less than 1% of PS3 consoles are defective as opposed to another m
Parent
Waiting for Metal Gear (Score:4, Interesting)
Also going to wait to see what Wii games are out this Christmas. With the immense popularity, I expect Wii will get a surge of games - but knowing that games take time to make, I wonder when it will happen. Perhaps Fall of '08.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As for the Wii and new games, I would love to see more games on the Wii, being that I have had one since release day (was up in line at 5:45am). My only concern is that the games will be horrible ports from other systems. The uniqueness of the Wii controllers is not something that makes it easy to slap on any old game that was designed for something else. You need to
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Hear, hear. But even Nintendo fell into this trap with Twilight Princess. They used shaking as another button which triggers attacks, since the Wii game is more or less a direct port from the Game Cube.
To date, only a few game actually use the controller in a proper game (I'm not counting Wario Wares and Mario Party 8 type games): Wii Sports, Tiger Woods golf and maybe one or two more that I've forgotten.
Also disappointing to me is the fact that there aren't any RPG's for it yet. No, I'm not talking about
Re:Waiting for Metal Gear (Score:4, Informative)
Of the exclusives on this list, I know the following to either be historically good franchises or good games for a new franchise (or at the absolute least have heard a few of them to be good):
Parent
Re:Waiting for Metal Gear (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
"aggressively"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"aggressively"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I'd use the word "desperate" not "aggressive."
It's not really aggression when the entire game retail industry comes to you and says "either you drop the price on these pieces of crap or we will do it for you / or we're taking them off the shelves."
Parent
Re:"aggressively"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And you did what MS fanboys always do. You assumed someone can play games on the $299 Core. The Core system doesn't have a hard drive or memory card, which is necessary [xbox.com] for online play or to play original Xbox games. So you have to pay extra for either of these if you want to play online games. A hard drive is required to
Please mod parent funny (Score:3, Insightful)
You start with:
And you did what MS fanboys always do. You assumed someone can play games on the $299 Core.
and after a random anti-Microsoft rant you finish with:
So yes, you can play games on the Xbox 360 Core system for $299, assuming...
So, your rant is completely out of place, if someone wants to play the new Xbox-360 games he just have to pay the $299 + a memory stick which as someone else state is about $20...
Not that I care about the systems being discussed
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Cheers.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Bluray isn't a proprietary format like those other ones you listed. It's got the support of most of the major consumer electronics manufacturers as well as almost all the studios http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_ supporting_Blu-ray [wikipedia.org]. So please stop trolling.
Good day
No "large future performance increase"?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, that's the craziest "advantage" I've ever heard anyone cite :-) "PS3 is slow right now because it's hard to program for, but you should buy it anyway because one day hopefully they'll figure it out" - where do I sign?
Here's a thought - why not just wait until when/if they do figure it out, and then buy it? It'll be cheaper too.
Parent
Why should it? (Score:5, Interesting)
And honestly looking at FFXIII despite being a huge FF fanboy doesnt make me bite at all, not for 500 dollars. As for the other PS3 killer apps right now, more than a few are actually out or coming out on the 360, which I already own.
Im sure a bunch of people are going to jump on me with bluray this, and HDMI that, but quite frankly Sony really think about what made their PS2 a huge seller. They though it was the diehards, and built a system perfect for them. What they forgot was the casuals, of which the 100 dollar PS2 became a big seller not the 300 dollar original pricetag version.
Re:Why should it? (Score:4, Insightful)
They did, it had a DVD player in it. Critically the PS2 came out and was cheaper than a DVD player, meaning that guys like me could get approval from the domestic commandant with the words "but you wanted a DVD player, right". So they thought they'd pull the same trick again - make the PS3 cheaper than a standalone BluRay player and you either get a free games console with your BR player, or a free BR player with your games console
As far as I can see it, Sony have made two big mistakes with the PS3:
* Nobody wants a BluRay player.
* Nobody wants a PS3 either.
Because both value propositions only make sense if you drop $2k on a new telly at the same time. Furthermore, where the PS2 was a giant leap from the PS1 and where DVD was a giant leap from VHS, the same cannot be said of this new generation. Consequently they're stuffed.
FWIW after the dead 360 debacle it's becoming clear that the only winner from this round is Nintendo. Who'dve thunk it?
Dave
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So is this it (Score:5, Funny)
no.
no.
Panic Time (Score:5, Informative)
Those that fail to learn from history (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone remember the NeoGeo [neo-geo.com]?
Well anyway it was set to debut at $599 [wikipedia.org] want to know why it didn't do so well? Due to the price. $500 and up game consoles don't sell that well. Sony needs to find a way to lower the price to $299 on the base model and $399 on the advanced model or else the Wii and XBox 360 will eat their lunch.
Those who fail to learn from economics 101 (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi [westegg.com]
Compared to the neo geo, the PS3 is a flippin bargain.
Parent
Re:Those who fail to learn from economics 101 (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology gets CHEAPER. Far out-pacing inflation. The PS3 pricing is a joke when compared to any other modern consumer electronics - then again, game consoles pretty much have been for a while now.
Parent
Sony should be terrified of you (Score:3, Interesting)
You're about their least-favourite kind of customer - you like their heavily-subsidised hardware, but for running Linux on, not for the games. You'll cost them $200-300 with no hope of making back even close to that on game licence fees.
leat
I never really understood why Sony went to the trouble of making Linux available for the PS3 (at least, not why they did it for free). I can only think it was Krazy Ken's engineer training overriding his good sense. Yes, they got some good PR from it, but only in a sma
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
a.) $600 then is a LOT more than $500 now, and I don't just mean the $100 difference. The PS3 has already way out-sold the Neo Geo.
b.) The Neo Geo was NOT a mass market device. It wasn't built to be one, it wasn't marketed as one, and the games weren't designed that way. It was a niche device built for a small number of people that wanted to play arcade games at
It won't help (Score:4, Insightful)
The Wii is slightly better off, in that there are at least 3 or 4 really fun games. But in my opinion, it's not worth buying yet either. But the good Wii games are fun, and they are nice and "console-y". Which brings me to the 360-
Well, it has the most games, of course. But am I the only one that finds the 360s selection of games really dull? It seems like there are a lot of FPS and sports games, and not a heck of a lot else. I expect this will be the case with the PS3, also. It's almost like they are trying too hard to cater to the "hardcore" crowd. Lots of "heavy" games, not too much stuff that's simple to pick-up-and-play. Well, I guess the Live! Arcade games are. But all of those games could be done on the Wii, easily. Never mind the emulated games, which I refuse to pay for because I've been playing them for free for almost a decade now via PC emulators.
I only like groundbreaking online games (Score:3, Interesting)
This may be it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Doing business in 21-st century (Score:5, Insightful)
"$499 PS3 denied by Sony CEO"
"Sony rejects $499 PS3"
"Sony Spokesman says $499 a hoax"
"$499 PS3 confirmed"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
AU prices (Score:5, Informative)
Or I could get this one imported for $582 AUD but have no warranty. Both options are bad, but the fact I could almost get TWO from America at the same price makes the warranty issue not look so bad after all.
Sony doesn't stand a chance against the Xbox or Wii(which is still regularly sold out) in Australia any time soon. Even with the best damn games on the planet $1000 is a ludicrous price, next to $350ish Wii or $500ish 360. I could in fact get both consoles and some games for the same price... Bluray doesn't even enter into consideration.
Lex Luthor to Kaz Hirari: WRONG! (Score:3, Funny)
Crappy poll (Score:5, Interesting)
That's it? Where's the third option, "neither of the above". I want my third option, god damn it!!
Let's see, what does $499 PS3 change. XBOX360 is $399, Wii is $250.
For your extra money, you get poor list of games, $65 a pop, and Blu-Pending-Disaster support, at around $45 a pop.
I'm about as excited about all of this, as I would be if Epson released $50 cheaper printers. It's about the ink, people!
Incredible (Score:5, Funny)
It will now cost me $100 less to not buy one.
Re:Incredible (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
To buy from Sony or not to buy from Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
It's only been two years since the CD rootkit scandal and already it seems the consumers have either forgotten or forgiven Sony. So please bear with me while I just take a moment to point out that there are probably still holdouts like me out there who *really* meant it when we said we would never buy from Sony ever again.
We now continue with your regularly commercial sheep-like programming existance where electronics are mass-marketed to you as shiny new objects.
Another reason for the 80Gb bump (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words expect a full video / music download service and possibly IPTV to be announced at E3. It's been a long time coming seeing as it was such an obvious and natural feature for the PS3 to have.
Basic rule of capitalism (Score:5, Interesting)
"Stuff is worth what people will pay for it."
Clearly, the PS3 isn't worth $600 to very many people. I'll be surprised if it's worth $500 either. Despite all the technology they've crammed in there, the games library has almost zero appeal. Boring, joyless games plus Blu-Ray does not equal $500.
With the Wii outselling PS3 6-to-1 [engadget.com] in Japan, there's little reason to think third-party software makers will turn this around.
probably won't help... (Score:4, Interesting)
If there was just one really revolutionary , fun game for it then I might be swayed. The problem is for me to believe that I would want to play said game somewhere, maybe at a friends house, in order to seal the deal and get me to buy one. And to this point besides one gadget and gaming accumulator where I work I don't know a single person I socialize with who owns one of these things.
Where is this generations Katamari?
You're right (Score:3, Insightful)
Blu-ray player
Upscaling DVD player
HDMI out
I'm pretty sure when I want a Blu-ray player, I'll buy a PS3. Right now, I don't, so to me the PS3 is an exceptionally expensive game console, that plays about the same as the Xbox 360, but has fewer decent games. And it looks like the vast majority of people feel this way about it as well - there just isn't the demand for Blu-ray / HDDVD, which is crippling the PS3 sales.
I mean look at this: http://www.vgchartz. [vgchartz.com]