$499 PlayStation 3 Confirmed

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?

Blu-Ray

I want one for the Blu-Ray player. I have a 61" DLP set that is just screaming for Blu-Ray or HD DVD, Personally I like Blu-Ray. Currently stand alone Blu-Ray players are $650+ (from a quick Google search). From the reviews I have read [pcworld.com] it holds up fairly well against them. Plus an awesome gaming machine.

Re:Blu-Ray

As a parent of a child that *really* wants a PS3, I can say that the price has been the biggest barrier. It's hard to justify this sort of expenditure for a twelve-year-old... I sort of feel like he'll grow up like his gaming-geek old man if I give in and buy one. I'm glad to see that they are coming down in price. -W

Re:Blu-Ray

It's hard to justify this sort of expenditure for a twelve-year-old...

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.

Re:Blu-Ray

so bluray is good? so what? I dont want a hd video player right now, I want a video game console. I have a perfectly good upscaling dvd player that sits there unused because basically everything I watch is kept in digital formats on my home server and then streamed to my TV via HTPC. sure, the upsampled picture doesnt have the definition of bluray, but seeing as it's only being played back on a 26" 720p tv the difference is ignorable. it seems impossible for sony apologists to say why the ps3 is good value for money without resorting to it's wonderful "blue rays", something that most consumers neither need or want.

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.

Re:Blu-Ray

So you have a multi thousand dollar PC sitting there holding your ripped DVD's. I have a 24" LCD and I can tell a HUGE difference between 720P and 1080P. Now having said that, it appears that the PS3 isn't for you, nor is it for anyone who has a standard def tv at the moment. However, if you have a HDTV and a large library of PS2 games then this isn't a bad buy at all.

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 :-) Some people don't have HDTV's so why are they trying to cram HD down EVERYONES throat? You see the argument can go both ways... Sony included Blu-Ray in the PS3 and basically killed any chance of HD-DVD becoming the standard, but the cost of it may cause Sony to come in 3rd place with regards to console sales. Then again, some development shops are starting to fill over a 9GB DVD and like the 50GB of extra space that the PS3 provides, so in the next 3 or four years when the Xbox 720 or Wii 2 or whatever needs to come out, people can still use and buy a PS3. It is a tactical decision and I honestly don't know if it is the correct one, but I am not about to fault a company for pushing new technology.

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

Re:Blu-Ray

I've seen a few places like the Fry's Electronics store near me that had 2 identical Sony 1080p displays next to each other, playing the same HD movie, one in HD-DVD and the other in Blu-Ray, both stand-alone players. The HD-DVD version always had MUCH less compression noise and blockiness than the BR one. Then again I'm a real pixelophile and am far more offended about such things than the average person (I think that the visual quality of both suck dung and aren't worth the money; don't get me started on digital cable vs analog ;) ). I haven't seen BR movies on the PS3, but I suspect it'll have the same or worse quality than a standalone player.

Waiting for Metal Gear

It's the only game I need that's only for PS3. I might even wait until they port it though. $500 for one game is too expensive.

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:Waiting for Metal Gear

Its not a whole lot more number-wise, but heres a few more [wikipedia.org] that are set to be PS3 exclusive, and these are series highly reputed for the game play, not just graphics.

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):

• Castlevania (not much into it myself, but its a longstanding franchise)
• Genji: Days of the blade (I've played the demo, which made me rent it - its a great game with gameplay like the Onimusha series if you've played those)
• God of War 3 (never played 1 or 2 myself, but since just about every review site gave great critiques for months on end, it can't be too bad)
• Gran Turismo 5 (not a fan of racing games, but I know enough to know its big)
• Gradius (the latest in a great line originating with the side-scrolling NES space shooter)
• Haze (sounds decently fun, even if it only turns out to be an average FPS)
• Hot Shots Golf (if you like playing golf or other casual party games like this)
• Killzone 2 (I found the first to be fairly fun as even as a somewhat generic FPS)
• MGS4 (as you 2 have listed)
• Mobile Suite Gundam: Crossfire (looks like a fun clone of Armored Core with destructable buildings)
• Resistance: Fall of man (rented it, is extremely fun and is hard enough to suck you in and make you at least try)
• SOCOM (personally only the first was nothing short of spectacular, the second was mediocre, and the 3rd was just horrible - hopefully this will remedy that)
• Tekken 6 (not a fan of fighting games, but the only one I know of more popular than Tekken is the Guilty Gear franchise)
• Time Crisis 4 (everybody's favorite Peter Piper rail shooter with a guncon, this guncon model is supposed to have analog sticks and allow the player to roam freely the level)
• Warhawk (never played the original, but it sounds like there are legions of people waiting to sell their souls when this comes out)
• Zone of the Enders 3 (now I thought this series was finished, so the existence of this is news to me, but the first 2 were great fast action with superb mechanical designs on the mecha - this is definitely one to pick up if you like fast action that makes you have to really pay attention to where you are, not to mention where the enemy is)

Re:Waiting for Metal Gear

I read your post until the part you called Genji "a great game." What???

"aggressively"?

Calling a $500 price "aggressive" may not be appropriate, really. Realistic, perhaps; it's still $200 pricier than an HD-DVD player or a basic XBox 360. I'd call it barely reasonable, but not aggressive.

Re:"aggressively"?

Not considering the original price, and not considering they've been staying on shelves in droves.

Re:"aggressively"?

Calling a $500 price "aggressive" may not be appropriate, really. Realistic, perhaps; it's still $200 pricier than an HD-DVD player or a basic XBox 360. I'd call it barely reasonable, but not aggressive.

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."

No "large future performance increase"??

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.

Why should it?

It wouldnt make me bite when it was this much for the 20 gig... why should the 60 dropping 100 buck matter, its till more costly than a 360 which atm has more games.

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?

Sony really think about what made their PS2 a huge seller.

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 ... depending on how you look at it.

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

So is this it

So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3

no.

or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?

no.

Panic Time

This just confirms that Sony is in full-blown panic mode... They keep talking about the long-term viability of the PS3, and I can see why since it is a pretty nice piece of hardware. But they're obviously very worried about their near-term prospects so I could easily see how they'd cut another $100 before the end of the year if things don't turn around quickly.

Those that fail to learn from history

are doomed to repeat it.

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

Get your facts straight, according to your own wiki link:

However, this plan was quickly scrapped and when the system had its national launch it debuted at $649.99

$650 in 1990 dollars is $1120 in 2006 dollars. Not to mention the fact EACH neo geo game cost $200 in 1990 dollars ($313 in 2006 dollars).

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi [westegg.com]

Compared to the neo geo, the PS3 is a flippin bargain.

Re:Those who fail to learn from economics 101

And $3000 in 1990 dollars, what a half-decent desktop PC cost back then, is $5169 in 2006 dollars. Except a half-decent PC is 1/10th that price. Could you imagine spending $5000+ on a PC these days? Yet they're faster, have more storage, massive improvements in graphics hardware...

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.

It won't help

The PS3 is still too expensive. But the bigger problem is, there just aren't any "must have" games. I was at Wal-Mart the other day, and just for kicks I was looking at the PS3 game selection. There were about, oh, 25 titles or so, and fully HALF of them were crappy movie tie-in games. That's nuts.

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

My opinion isn't indicative of your average gamer. I bought an Xbox just to see the Halo 2 phenomena. I learned that voice chat lets you know you're playing with 12 year olds who get mad whether they win or lose. I learned that Halo 2 had no depth besides a couple insta-kill moves. I had my fun with it though. I won't buy a next gen system until I find a game that breaks ground with online play because that's all I like.

This may be it!

I've been debating getting a Game Cube or PlayStation 2, now maybe I'll seriously look at the PS2. :-) Prices are soo much better at the trailing edge.

Doing business in 21-st century

"$499 PS3 rumored"

"$499 PS3 denied by Sony CEO"

"Sony rejects $499 PS3"

"Sony Spokesman says $499 a hoax"

"$499 PS3 confirmed"

AU prices

I doubt we'll see anything like this. A typical price, ie. on 'sale' at Big W here w/free game is $987. That's around $847 USD. This is also the European model where they ripped out the hardware backwards compatibility.

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!

Yes, I know, Kaz quit. Still, this YTMND [ytmnd.com] is still good. I still won't by it for that amount.

Crappy poll

"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?"

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

This is absolutely fantastic news.

It will now cost me $100 less to not buy one.

Re:Incredible

Yeah but the downside is that you won't be saving as much by not buying one.

To buy from Sony or not to buy from Sony

Sigh. I know I'm going to probably get modded "Flaimbait" for this, but here goes anyway...

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

As posted on the PS3 blog [playstation.com] - "In short, we're introducing a new PS3 model with a 80GB hard drive which will include a free copy of MotorStorm, all for the retail price of $599. This 80GB package will be available starting in August, just a few short weeks from today. The larger hard drive will give players more of an opportunity to take advantage of all the downloadable games and trailers on the PLAYSTATION Network, including the content from our forthcoming download service which will include videos, movies and other entertainment content."

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

"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...

I'm not waiting for a specific price point, I'm just not enamoured with the product. They have generated no "need to own that" within me for it. And therein lies the failure.

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?