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Low-End PS3 Comes with HDMI, Cheaper in Japan 173

Posted by Zonk from the little-consolation-to-the-us-fans dept.
jayintune writes "2old2play has a nice round-up on the main talking points from the Sony Keynote speech at the 2006 TGS (Tokyo Game Show). Most notably, Sony announced HDMI ports will be included on ALL models of the PS3. Initially, Sony was worried that if they put the HDMI in the lower version, some would complain about having to pay for something they don't want. Apparently they realized people would be more upset without it." Additionally, it's been confirmed that the cheaper PS3 will be even less expensive ... in Japan. For now, it seems this price drop only affects the Japanese Market. For many additional viewpoints on the announcement and keynote, click through to see this post's associated links.
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Low-End PS3 Comes with HDMI, Cheaper in Japan More

Low-End PS3 Comes with HDMI, Cheaper in Japan

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  • Yawn... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by sporkme ( 983186 ) *
    How many PS3 articles can there be in a day? Can consoles really be this exciting? Many crappy blogs^W^Wnew articles, little new information.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      The Tokyo Game Show is on but this is nothing compared the number of Nintendo announcements that appeared on /. when E3 was on.

  • Sony is starting to get it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mikachu ( 972457 ) <burke,jeremiahj&gmail,com> on Friday September 22, 2006 @02:36AM (#16159360) Homepage
    I think Sony is starting to realize that their business plan of "we'll get the fanboys to buy it" isn't going to win the market for them.

    I wonder if they'll do the same thing in the US... although I think that if they were going to, they'd have announced it already. Not like I was gonna buy a PS3 anyway, though. Even the cheaper model is too expensive for me. Nintendo Wii all the way, baby.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Turken ( 139591 )

      I wonder if they'll do the same thing in the US...

      I'm almost certain that the US will NOT be seeing a price drop. Why? Pricing comparison...

      In Japan:
      Wii --> 25,000 yen
      PS3 --> now 50,000 yen
      HD-DVD 360 --> no one buys anyway.

      so, PS3 is NOW twice the price of the Wii.

      In the US:
      Wii --> $250
      PS3 --> $500
      HD-DVD 360 --> approx $480.

      PS3 is already twice the Wii price. Why drop the price further in the US when relative pricing is already the same. And the price is already competitive with an HD-

  • So now, they've changed their stance, and they're including the HDMI output. According to http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pag econtent?lp=ja_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jp.playstat ion.com%2Finfo%2Frelease%2Fnr_20060922_ps3_hdmi.ht ml [altavista.com] this link. The translation's bad, but it will suffice, I hope.

    Hmm... Sounds like it's getting to be a better bargain. Not necessarily a good one, but a better one compared to the original price.

  • "Price Cut", that sounds nice doesn't it... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MrChom ( 609572 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @02:59AM (#16159401) Homepage
    I hear "PS3 price cut" so then I look at the price of all the major consoles in Japan:
    Wii... 25,000 yen...
    360... 29,800 yen...
    PS3... 62,790 yen...

    Now this is all for "Low End" models but forgive for saying that the PS3 price is still ringing the insanity alarm inside my head. The console is STILL more than double the price of either of its competitors (Yes, I know 360 isn't selling in Japan but Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon et al. may help to convince the Japanese market that 360 is worth it).

    I've never been a big fan of Sony, never will be, but their recent list of faux pas, technical errors and the mockery of the whole is world is slowly making me think that one day they might just not bother with consoles...maybe not this generation, or the next....but soon...and for the rest of my life hopefully.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by spindizzy ( 34680 )

      Except that the new price announced is:

      PS3... 47,600 yen

      Which as the article states makes the PS3 cheaper than a core XBOX 360 and HD-DVD addon which doesn't include a HD. Seems like competitive pricing there.

      Sony will have done market research to find the best price (for them) to sell the PS3. Time will tell how good this strategy is...

      • That they haven't given any price cuts for the US and Europe suggests that they will try a similar trick closer to release in those markets, to attempt to create some goodwill at the time time as the hype.
        Or they will just screw us over because the "fanboys will buy enough" principle may have more weight in the West. I dont know if that is true but it may be what SonyEurope and US Sony (not sure the official name) is thinking.

      • Re:"Price Cut", that sounds nice doesn't it... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Duds ( 100634 ) <dudley&enterspace,org> on Friday September 22, 2006 @04:03AM (#16159520) Homepage Journal
        It makes it cheaper than a Core 360 and a Ferrari too. Don't add optional accessories that people might not want.to try and make the PS3 seem cheaper.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          You're right. I don't think anyone would want the ugly external HD-DVD drive. But you can bet Microsoft will stick an internal HD-DVD in their next revision of the 360. I expect they'll also want to include HDMI and some other bits and pieces to close the gap with the PS3. HD-DVD still won't be any use to games though, unlike Blu-Ray.

          Anyway, for Japan at least, the basic PS3 is almost the same price as the XBox premium which isn't bad going at all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HaggiZ ( 68526 )
        "Sony will have done market research to find the best price (for them) to sell the PS3."

        If that is the case, just why exactly do we have this variation in the price now? If by "market research" you mean "consumer/press backlash", then maybe you are right.

        It seems more and more often Sony have shown that their strategy is poorly thought out. I couldn't care less about them as a company, I'd like it for PS3 to be at least moderately successful though even if it is just to keep the others honest and keep looki

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by BeShaMo ( 996745 )
      El cheapo PS3 is been slashed to 49,980 yen in Japan.
    • There is a possibility that the PS3 really is that good. Its paper specs really are pretty impressive. Perhaps it will live up to the hype.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ArwynH ( 883499 )

      Well, the 62,790 yen PS3 now will cost 49,980 yen. I doubt that includes tax btw.

      On a related note 50,000 yen is my current bugget for end-of-year console spending. So now it's either a PS3 + 1 controller or Wii + 2 Wii-motes, 1 nunchuck, 1 classic controller, 4 games and 5000 yen to spend on classics. Let's see... um... well, my choice is pretty obvious, but TGS opens to the public tomorrow, so Sony has 1 last chance to convince me (and others) to buy the PS3 over the Wii.

      Ok, it's a small chance, but a c

      • 360? Japan? New games? You have to goto the 2nd hand section in my local games shop to find 360 games there. The 360 demo box standing outside has been converted to a ps2 demo box. I doubt new games or even droping the 360's price below 10,000 will help MS in Japan now.

        I'm still not sure why Microsoft has such a hard-on for losing in Japan. The original XBox was a dismal failure in Japan, but it was a pretty solid yet distant second place in just about every other major market in the world. The ONLY reaso

        • ...won't be supported in the future by a cash-strapped manufacturer...

          This is supposed to refer to Microsoft? Are you joking? I am not a fan of Microsoft but the implication that "cash-strapped" might ever apply to them during our lifetime is hilarious. They may decide simply not to continue but it won't be because they are cash-strapped. You should also add to your analysis that, unlike their Windows platform, Microsoft gets a royalty for every unit sold by third parties for XBox.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Phisbut ( 761268 )
          I'm still not sure why Microsoft has such a hard-on for losing in Japan. The original XBox was a dismal failure in Japan, but it was a pretty solid yet distant second place in just about every other major market in the world. The ONLY reason why there's this pointless debate about "which console was #2 last generation" was because the XBox failed so miserably in Japan.

          I'm still not sure why Nintendo has such a hard-on for losing in the US. The original GameCube was a dismal failure in the US, but it was a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      The low-end PS3 is more comparable to the high-end XBox 360. It's lacking a wireless controller, but otherwise they're mostly at parity.
    • From TFA the new price of PS3 is just 49,980 NOT EVEN TWICE THE Wii!!!
      Wow, that's peanuts... around 200 pounds of peanuts to be precise...
      Now everyone will get one... in Japan! ;)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )
      The price drop if (and I mean IF!!) it occurs across all countries would make the PS3 basic (with HDMI) a very attractive machine. Now before I get flamed lets look are the announcement.

      The 20GB version will cost 49,980 yen (EUR 335 / GBP 225), down from 62,790 yen (EUR 421 / GBP 283), Kutaragi said.

      Now doing some currency calculations (I live in Australia) and the above translates to AU$570.00 and adding 10% GST and most likely some other tariffs (assume 30% overall - a ripoff I know) then the retail price

  • Good choice of words... (Score:5, Funny)

    by asb ( 1909 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @03:00AM (#16159406) Homepage

    For some weird reason I like the statement "even less expensive" very much.

  • You would think they'd make the console cheaper in areas where there is likely to be fiecer competition such as North America or Europe (Especially as a way to make up for the delayed launch) rather than in Japan where the console is going to be bought for the fact it's Japanese alone. But then again, who am I to question the infallilable logic of Mr. Kutaragi?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kellererik ( 307956 )
      It's not about being cheaper in Japan, it's about getting as much DRM as possible into the Japanese households. Just imagine a lot of PS3s without (gasp) copy-protection. The movie industry would be forced to, either sell Blue-Ray disks willing to output HD-signals to TV-sets without checking for an active DRM, or deal with thousands of angry customers feeling cheated. OK, now they have been cheated into buying PS3s with DRM, which will - in the not to distant future - not allow them to use the product they

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pthisis ( 27352 )
        OK, now they have been cheated into buying PS3s with DRM, which will - in the not to distant future - not allow them to use the product they bought with their first- or second-gen HD-TV.

        There's no serious DRM on the PS3 output. HDMI/HDCP has been completely broken; see, for instance, http://apache.dataloss.nl/~fred/www.nunce.org/hdcp /hdcp111901.htm [dataloss.nl] which concludes with:

        Conclusion: We can:

        • Eavesdrop on any data
        • Clone any device with only their public key
        • Avoid any blacklist on devices
        • Create new device keyvec

    • Re:Why cheaper in Japan? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Mitaphane ( 96828 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @05:53AM (#16159707) Homepage
      The Japanese aren't willing to jump on the PS3 just because it's from their country. Many think the console is over priced(a Famitsu poll I think showed it around 70%). From what I've read, polls and Nikko Citigroup, most people are predicting that the Wii is going to be the market leader in Japan. The XBox360 is a non issue over there so if Sony is hoping to have a chance for market dominance in Japan a price drop to a reasonable level will have to be it. I really wouldn't be surprised if they anounced a price drop here. After a string of bad news coming from Sony, they need something to show that they aren't completely inept.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
      Losing Japan would mean losing many Japanese developers that make games people traditionally associate with the Playstation name. Who'd buy a PS3 if games like Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry or Metal Gear Solid were suddently exclusive to another console? US developers aren't such a big deal, they're more likely to make multiplatform titles. And who'd court European developers?
  • With these Japan-only price cuts, no region locks, an earlier launch date, and what looks to be a disastrous US launch situation, where do you think all these Japanese PS3s will end up on launch day? And what will that do to the early adopter market in Japan?

    • where do you think all these Japanese PS3s will end up on launch day?

      These PS3s for the most part will NOT end up in America. I preordered a Japanese DS Lite over 2 weeks before the Japanese launch date (early March) from an import shop. My order was made roughly February 23rd, and I received my white DS Lite in the third week of April. If it took me that long to receive a DSL after 100s of thousands of units sold, what are the chances that many of the 100k Japanese PS3s will make it to US shore?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by iainl ( 136759 )
      All what Japanese PS3? They're only getting 100,000 of them. The US is a slightly larger market, but not 4 times as large, so expect the situation to be even worse over there.

  • Disappointing generation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nightspirit ( 846159 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @03:22AM (#16159456)
    The Wii could be an outright failure. Yah, Nintendo fanboys will boast that they havn't played a console in years even though they have a gamecube and 12 different mario games for it, and internet hype says "oh my godz ta Wii!" which further proves the Wii may be the Snakes on a Plane of consoles. Makes a little bit of money, but eventually the hype doesn't live up. The Wii controller may be just a gimmick, and a few months after the console release we'll see if it truly lives up to the hype. But anyone saying they will buy a Wii without even playing one first is just as much of a sheep and fanboy as a final fantasy droolboy. Time will tell if it is worth buying a slightly souped up gamecube with a new controller. I may buy one just to play some gamecube games that I've missed out on though.

    The PS3 will likely deliver the goods, but nevertheless is too expensive. In the end the only exclusives will be metal gear + 100 different japanese RPGs that we've all played different incarnations of dozens of times before.

    And the 360 isn't faring much better. The most interesting titles are $5 arcade games (I may pick one up when settlers of cantan is released), and the best games that look good are not only released on the PC as well, but the PC version offers mods (looking at Oblivion and the upcoming Star trek: legacy). Perhaps I wouldn't be so disappointed with the 360 if I wasn't spoiled on xbox media center for my xbox.

    Want to know the best bet right now if you havn't jumped onto the ps2/xbox/gamecube generation? Pick up an xbox original and mod it (which is actually not that difficult), install xbox media center, and not only play nes, snes, n64, tg16, genesis, MAME, etc games for free but you'll have an extensive library of great $5-$15 used games available to load onto the harddrive (or rent and steal if you are so inclined). Alot of the xbox games have 480p 16:9 if you have an HDTV, and the only exclusives you will really miss out on are a bunch of square-enix RPGs, which honestly you arn't missing out much on (seriously, did anyone play through more than 25 hours of dragon warrior VIII or kingdom hearts 2 without wanting to rip their eyeballs out?) and katamari damacy (which is a great game, but isn't alone worth getting a console for). Otherwise most games on the ps2 are available on the xbox, and the xbox is a bit more mod friendly (with xbox media center + emulators, etc).

    I think what may happen is alot of the people who skipped out on the gamecube may just get a Wii to play gamecube games they missed out on. I actually hope Nintendo does well this generation and doesn't turn into another Sega. I'd hate for the only players in the field to be Sony and Microsoft.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Dan Guisinger ( 15506 )
      The games everyone has been waiting for on the Xbox 360 are Gears of War and Halo 3. Those are the big upcoming titles. Gears of war comes out in 2 months, and there are hundreds on reserve at every store in my area, and the gameplay and graphics are just a big WOW when you see them.

      Sure, games like Perfect Dark Zero sucked on the 360, but they are finally about to have their 2nd wind of games. Sony has such a convoluded development enviroment I'm sure it will take longer than a year for the really good
      • I agree. The only reason I havn't picked up a 360 is I keep thinking "Ok, $400. Just what the hell am I going to play on it NOW?" and the only thing that came to mind is geometry wars, which is a great game, but not $400 worthy. Perhaps Lego Star Wars II but I get that essentially free for the xbox with a rental, and I heard the graphics arn't that much better. Burnout takedown is fun, but I already have that for the xbox, and it looks good enough.

        Gears of War and Halo 3 look sweet, but am I going to buy a

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          The sad thing is if the 360 came with native divx and FLAC support I'd probably pick on up right now (as I have no desire to install windows xp media center).

          Exactly. The 360 had a great potential for multimedia but was deliberately crippled to prop up Windows Media Center. I expect some flack at Microsoft thought "if we let this thing store and play movies then who is going to buy WMC? So let's cripple it so it only streams movies!".

          One would hope that as Sony is more agnostic on video formats than MS

          • Re:Disappointing generation (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Aurisor ( 932566 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @07:08AM (#16159935) Homepage
            "One would hope that as Sony is more agnostic on video formats than MS"

            BWAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

            *oh my god*

            HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

            *wipes tear from eye*

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by xtracto ( 837672 )
              JAJAJJAJAJJAJAJJAJAJJAJAJ
              no mames

              JAJAJJAJAJJAJAJJAJAJ
              este guey esta loco.

              "One would hope that as Sony is more agnostic on video formats than MS"
              Yeah, the beta-minidisc-umd-stickproduo may have taught them something

              but then again...

              jajajaajajajajj
              no mames

          • Reminds me of when Sony's 'mp3' players could only play ATRAC audio files. Also, the PS3 only plays Blu-ray, not HD-DVD, agnostic?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DrXym ( 126579 )
              But the Sony PSP can play MP3, ATRAC3plus, WMA and AAC. Not copy protected content, but the unprotected stuff. You can also rip DVDs, encode them with AVC upload them to the PSP to play. That is what I am referring to, not what physical discs it plays. Sony has also done some incredibly stupid things such as your example and the whole DRM CD debacle. Let's hope that they gotten a clue because its probably their last chance.

              But as for HD-DVD, I'm sure that can be attributed to the fact that Sony co-invente

      • Just a small revision to your numbers. MS has shipped over 6 million. The SOLD number somewhere between 2.1 and 2.5 million. The 360 so far is selling slower than the Xbox during the same time-frame and it had two competing consoles at the time. I'm not anti 360 (hell I will buy a 360 for GOW) but MS is failing atm with the 360 in the US just theres no other next gens to compare numbers with. Hell the PS2 is even outselling the 360. WTF is with that?
        • The PS2 would be expected to outsell the 360. It's 1/3 the cost and has a huge game library.

          You have to remember that a lot of lower income families (specifically kids from these families) tend to lag a generation or two behind on their gaming consoles - these people aren't going to buy one until it gets close to $100. Heck when I was a kid I know that the NES had been out for 3-4 years before I got one. SNES about the same with me getting it a few years after release - one of my friends at school (circa
      • I personally own a 360, and also am planning on grabbing a Wii or two. Both are excellent systems,

        Now now, let's be honest here, while the 360 may be excellent, we don't know a damned thing about the Wii, aside from the marketing buzz, their demos, and the experiences from some select reviewers/testers. Time will tell if it really is as good as we all hope.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @07:42AM (#16160043)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I think what may happen is alot of the people who skipped out on the gamecube may just get a Wii to play gamecube games they missed out on. I actually hope Nintendo does well this generation and doesn't turn into another Sega. I'd hate for the only players in the field to be Sony and Microsoft.

      You *do* realize that, out of those three gaming companies/divisions (Nintendo worldwide, Sony Entertainment wordlwide, and Microsoft Home Entertainment), *NINTENDO* is the one the most in the black right now, right

    • Time will tell if it is worth buying a slightly souped up gamecube with a new controller.

      Going off of Moore's Law, one might assume that a $250 Nintendo console sold in 2006 is roughly four times as powerful as a $200 Nintendo console sold in 2001. That's a bit more than "slightly" souped up, if you ask me.

      I think what may happen is alot of the people who skipped out on the gamecube may just get a Wii to play gamecube games they missed out on.

      You can buy a brand new Gamecube for $90. The Wii is going to l
    • the Wii may be the Snakes on a Plane of consoles

      Motherfucking Wii in my motherfucking living room?

  • more bad marketing... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AceJohnny ( 253840 ) <jlargentaye@gmail. c o m> on Friday September 22, 2006 @03:47AM (#16159497) Journal
    Initially, Sony was worried that if they put the HDMI in the lower version, some would complain about having to pay for something they don't want. Apparently they realized people would be more upset without it.

    So they misevaluated their market, and the media backlash made them change their minds? Shouldn't this be the kind of element that should've been identified earlier on? As largely mentioned earlier, if they're pushing the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, it's pretty dumb to "forget" the HD output...

    Wow, I keep being surprised by how their marketing department sucks. For a consumer-electronics company, I find this plainly catastrophic.

    Or maybe the dept doesn't suck, but they're crushed under other interests, which is just as bad.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Yonatanz ( 798506 )
      Remember the old saying, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

      The more articles they get, the more the acronym "PS3" gets into people's minds.

      In today's marketing media, companies plan their campaign so that they will "change their mind" a couple of times in order to achieve another slashdot/blog/newspaper article.

      A so called bad-design-decision that gets some hype around it, is actually nothing more than a good-marketing-decision in disguise.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        I don't think there's any console gamer who doesn't know about the PS3 and even without any publicity a majority wouild have bought the thing no questions asked simply because they expect it to perform like the PS2 did. It's only this negative publicity that makes people doubt that Sony will have a huge lead next generation and look for alternatives.
        • Acutally, by "marketing department", I meant the guys who are supposed to identify the market and specify what features should be included in the product to cater to that market. If Sony has such an entity, it is the one that failed to identify (or was overruled) that the market for a blu-ray player/console would also expect and HDMI output on such a product.

          I guess it's common to mix up this definition of marketing department with that of the "public relations department", which would be responsible for do

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Haeleth ( 414428 )
        Remember the old saying, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

        Yeah. It's about as true as that other fine old saying, "the moon is made of green cheese".

        For example, consider the hypothetical case where a prominent politician is implicated in a child-porn ring, but never prosecuted due to lack of evidence. Do you think all the publicity he will get, as a suspected pedophile, is going to improve his chances of re-election? If there were no such thing as bad publicity, it would. Somehow I doubt it, tho
      • "The more articles they get, the more the acronym "PS3" gets into people's minds."

        I was thinking about the fact that.. if you make too many bad decisions, when it comes time for me to purchase a console I'm going to take that all into consideration. If I've heard nothing but bad things about your system for the past 6 months, I'm buying someone else's. That being said -- This could also be a very calculated system of fake 'bad decisions'.. the high price, the lack of HD output, a company could release an

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mcmonkey ( 96054 )

        Remember the old saying, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

        There may be no such thing as bad publicity, but there certainly is useless publicity.

        Ever hear of a movie called 'Snakes on a Plane'? Thought so. Perhaps you've even familiar with some of the dialog from the movie, something about farking snakes on a farking plane. Hmmm.

        Now, did you actually go out to the theatre and pay to see this movie? Right. Useless publicity.

        I know all about the PS3. Seen all the threads here on /. Chance

    • Amazing marketing (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Forkenhoppen ( 16574 )
      This is actually an example of very good marketing. Others have touched on it, but I can think of a couple of reasons why this is working out better than expected for Sony.

      1) They probably wanted to put out all of the consoles with HDMI anyways. As Kutaragi said, they didn't want people to feel like they were paying for something they'd never use. This is a powerful statement, in my mind, because it shows that Sony was willing to put out the PS3, knowing that they would be fragmenting the HD market into
      • Sorry for slashing your coments like this, but I just don't get your point:

        As Kutaragi said, they didn't want people to feel like they were paying for something they'd never use.
        ...

        Your Toshiba HDTV doesn't have HDMI inputs? That's too bad, you should've bought a Sony set

        ...Umm?? Those statements just don't belong in the same argument. I do not have a HDMI-TV, and when I buy a next generation console I will feel like Sony is trying to make me pay for something I will not use.

        In effect, they've managed to

        • So you say. I am an example of a long-time customer that just isn't interested in this offering -- we'll see if there are more people like me.

          There are. I've long been a PS2 > XBox kinda guy. I just like their games better (I do like the XBox's controllers better, the positioning of the joysticks on the PS2 controller aren't the best thing IMO, but my wireless logitech helped that ;) ) In any case, I have a PS2 and an XBox, and if there's a game available for both systems, despite the better grapics a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Burz ( 138833 )
        2) In effect, they've managed to convince consumers to go out and pick up HDMI-equipped HDTVs

        My first reaction to Sony dropping HDMI from cheaper units was: "Huh?? Sony is passing-up the promotion of their new copy protection scheme? Can't be!"

        Now your message puts it into nice perspective. Threatening to take it out made a chorus of resolution-fiends sing "Gimme!"... and lo, Sony is really gonna give it to 'em and HDMI is now cherished without reservation by high-end gamers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MikeBabcock ( 65886 )
      Forget what HD output? Component video cables provide equal (or better) quality output to HDMI (especially to those of us with CRT HDTV sets). HDMI is only barely interesting for newer resolutions and encryption (ugh) and its ability to carry audio as well (which no HiFi geek or audiophile wants anyway).

      I'm currently using [mikebabcock.ca] (and plan to continue using) component video cables to my TV and coax digital audio cables to my receiver for the near future. When I buy a new receiver with DTS Master [dts.com] audio support,
      • Component video cables provide equal (or better) quality output to HDMI

        That's utterly ridiculous. HDMI is digital, the TV set will receive an exact copy of the data from the original media. Component cables intrinsically have some level of degradation.

        and its ability to carry audio as well (which no HiFi geek or audiophile wants anyway)

        Again, utterly ridiculous. It's a digital signal. It won't degrade(Well, that's not entirely true. It can, but it will be very obvious.). Whether to use the audio from
        • Lets cover B first ... most audiophiles are aware of the fact that audio uses such low frequencies (compared to say, light) at such low power levels (compared to say, your halogen light bulb) that digital connections make almost no difference.

          Case in point -- do you have fibre optics connecting your rear speakers to your amplifier? Of course not. You have "normal" analogue wiring going 10, 15, 20 feet to them. In a THX certified theatre, that non-digital wiring will run hundreds of feet with no audible s
          • Wow, still clueless. And you mark me a foe for it. Nice.

            If you get a better signal from an analog input, your digital cabling is just plain bad. If your analog cable was equally bad, it would be awful too. In all cases, if your digital cable is GOOD ENOUGH -- where Good Enough is actually of much lesser quality than a Good Enough analog cable --, the data arriving at the video device will be an exact copy of the original media. That is NEVER the case for an analog signal. End of story.

            Secondly, I said
    • The truly sad thing is you and so many other people have become a sales tool of the vast media empire.

      The cheaper PS3 had an HD output - component. You can do 1080p over component, no problem.

      What the cheaper PS3 did lack was a HD video output with DRM.

      What Sony then failed to realize is just how pervasive the myth that you "need HDMI" to do HD really is, how well the marketing drums had beat that little white lie into the minds of the populace. This was a case where the true technical designers originall
  • They basically just threw away a prototype motherboard and production line only weeks away from the delivery date. Talk about expensive!!!

  • Note how few of these there will be (Score:3, Insightful)

    by robosmurf ( 33876 ) * on Friday September 22, 2006 @07:25AM (#16159985)
    The price drop only affects the Japanese release, and then only on the lower-end model.

    Sony have already stated that there will only be 100,000 PS3s at launch in Japan. They have also stated that the vast majority of these will be the higher end version. Thus the price cut will be on a very small number of units.
    • Don't forget that the high-end PS3 will have open pricing in Japan, so those 100k units will be priced through the roof if there's high demand for them.
  • What if Sony is changing their focus from a home console to an arcade console? Bring people back to the arcades at the malls, but now the consoles will be linked to the net. Sounds like a pretty good idea. I haven't been to an arcade since PS1.

    The article does mention they want to put 15000 units in stores for people to pay and play.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SendBot ( 29932 )
      Nice post - I want to chime in on this:

      The focus on consoles would also undermine (as it is today) [Microsoft's] PC operating system business.

      I see Microsoft's gaming division as a separate entity that comingles with MS's "core" businesses in a way that is beneficial all over to MS, hardly undermining or distracting from anything else that they do. This is a good thing - it makes for some nice gaming (good to consumers) and promotes Microsoft's brand in a good way.

      As for MS's OS biz, I think the biggest thi

  • Wii and Xbox 360 fans should want a PS3 price cut (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ConfusedSelfHating ( 1000521 ) on Friday September 22, 2006 @09:37AM (#16160601)
    Even if you don't want a PS3, you want sharp PS3 price cuts. Because both Microsoft and Nintendo are in a position to slash the price of their consoles. Microsoft has an enormous war chest and has been producing Xbox 360s for a year which should bring their manufacturing costs down significantly. Nintendo is selling the Wii for a profit and it's very simple technologically.

    I could see the Xbox 360 Premium package with Project Gotham Racing 3 going for as low as $249 and the Wii with Wii Sports going as low as $149.

    Nintendo will quickly get the cost of the Wii manufacturing to below $149, they can afford to bleed a little money at the start. Except for the Wiimote, the Wii is last generation technology. The only reason the Wii is $250 is because of the insane price of the PS3.

    Microsoft needs to protect the Windows franchise. With Linux coming on the PS3 and web browsers coming on both the Wii and PS3, Microsoft should be worried. Microsoft desperately needs people to feel that in order to surf the Internet they need a computer with Windows. The last thing that Microsoft wants is people using Linux boxes with Wiimote-like pointing devices instead of a mouse and keyboard Windows Vista system. Microsoft will either spend billions to get as many Xbox 360s in homes as possible or they will drop out in exchange for Sony and Nintendo disabling certain console functionality.

    I guess you could argue that people who purchased Xbox 360s early would be screwed by this. But then again early adopters always pay the most for a system.

    Personally, I own a Xbox which I've enjoyed. I've tried a PS2 and a GameCube, but was never impressed with either of them. From the video I've seen of the Wii in action, I don't think I'll like it. I neither want nor need the Blu Ray drive of the PS3. I am looking forward to the Xbox 360 switching to 65nm, Microsoft has stated that it should reduce manufacturing costs and heat. Heat seems to bedevil the current version of the 360. With price cuts in the system and older games, the Xbox 360 becomes much more price competitive with the Wii. However I am open to my mind being changed.
    • You raised a very interesting point there - one I jealously admit that I've missed!

      We all know MS relies on lock in. Regardless of how we feel about that. MS views an Open Standards based Internet as a threat to that lock-in. Hence IE brokeness and the number of IE only sites out there. Sure, there's now a good deal more non IE clients but we all know that there's still a depressing number of sites that are "Best viewed using Internet Explorer 6".

      The PSP, PS3, DS and Wii browsers certainly aren't using Inte
  • I won't buy in the first wave instanity. But once the buzz dies down and prices drop, A HDMI equipped low end PS3 sounds like no brainer to me now. I would never buy a $500 game machine or a $500 next gen DVD player, but combine the two for under $500 and it becomes worthy of consideration.
  • "Sony was worried that if they put the HDMI in the lower version, some would complain about having to pay for something they don't want."

    It's a pity they didn't take that view with Blu-Ray!
  • Sony has said the PS3 runs Linux, but I haven't heard about anyone using it. Nor do I see an option to launch Linux in any of the videos or pictures of the interface. Is it still in?

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