Both Sides of the PS3 Price Cut Rumor

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.

Nice, but not enough

[ShadowsHawk]

I bought a Wii and a DS:Lite on a whim, but $500 is simply too much. I'll consider it when it is around $300.

Re:$499

[Sciros]

Well... unless you really care about Blu-Ray movies (which IMO are way overpriced), by the time you pick up a game ($60), an extra controller, whatever other accessories (maybe component cables?), and factor in the tax on all this stuff, you end up paying $650 or more. When more must-have PS3-exclusive games come out (or Blu-Ray films become anywhere near a sensible purchase), the PS3 will become an ok purchase, but until then it seems a bit pricey.

The 360 isn't necessarily that much more bang for the buck on its own, either, given the extra costs due to setting it up for XBL and such, but given that its game library is FAR better across the board, all of that barely matters.

Basically as I see it the only current-gen console that is enough *if it's the only one you have* is the 360. The others just don't have enough games to play yet...

Now, if only they'd port that White Knight game to 360 and make the characters run less lame....

Re:I might buy at that price....

[Achoi77]

I bought a ps3 back in January, mostly for Blu-ray. If you get a chance, try and get the Planet Earth documentary - absolutely stunning. I also bought a dvd copy of Planet Earth for my coworker, and while it still looks good - it's true: you really can't go back once you go HD.

I'm sure the console is nice too :-) In all seriousness, my friends have been coming over, downloading demos like Gran Tourismo and Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and they do indeed look very pretty, I just haven't been interested in playing anything lately.

But as a Blu-ray player, I picked up a bluetooth remote and some movies. I was good to go.

Re:$500 is a steal, why are people being so diffic

[antime]

I would assume that with a price drop Sony would switch to the EE-less PS3 everywhere, meaning backwards compatiblity takes a hit.

Re:$499

[Anonymous Coward]

Way off topic here, so posting as AC... But yes, there are good Adam Sandler movies:

- Punch Drunk Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/ [imdb.com], great romantic comedy.
- Click! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/ [imdb.com] will probably make you cry.

Note that in both movies, Adam Sandler is not playing his normal Happy Gilmore / Big Daddy / Mr. Deeds role.

Re:Nice, but not enough

[absorbr]

you're sort of correct... the irony is that most if not all of the high end tv's have some kind of input lag. Even my 70XBR2 has 40-50 ms lag when using the HDMI input. All digital! I gave up with PC->TV for playing games. It's not even worth trying with a mouse-controlled fps'er.. I guess with a console you're limited from the get-go, controller wise, so it might work. I just decided that the next large purchase I make for entertainment will be for one of those 30" 2560x.... monitors. The TV just isn't ready for serious mouse/keyboard-style gaming.

Re:...zzz...Is it less than $200 yet? No?...zzz...

[el_gordo101]

Is there a term for products like this? I'm sure there is... ya know, something that is put out in very small supply, just so that a company can claim it exists?

It's called bait and switch [wikipedia.org]. Advertise a low-price item and then try to up-sell the consumer to a more expensive one when they come into the shop.

Re:Great Price

[Anthony Baby]

I'm not sure. I own a PS3. With the latest firmware, the PS3 gives me upscaling DVD and PS2 support as well as H.264 High Profile. I just encoded some video H.264/AAC and it looks and sounds awesome... but that's all I have been doing lately, video experiments. I am certainly using the PS3 as Sony intended since I am taking advantage of all of the PS3's features. However, at hundreds less, I own an Oppo reference deck that blows away most high end video components, including the PS3. Blu-Ray is nice, but at $30 a title, the next gen video formats don't thrill me. Once again, you get more from a quality upscaling DVD player that outputs to HDMI than you will out of trying to replace your video collection with Blu-Ray/HD-DVD.

I'll return to PS3 gaming once GTA and Resident Evil come out, and once Home launches. I think Nintendo and Microsoft understand better that gamers want options. Discounting the PS2 support, the PS3 only gives you a choice between genres. Wii and Xbox 360 gives you a choice between genres and then more specifically between different titles within the genre you chose. I think a typical game consumer will want that strong set of options, and will happily live without the PS3's other features. As the PS2 fan said to the Xbox fan, "It's all about the games."

I do love my PS3... but I can't help but feel that for the second time in my life, I own a Neo Geo while everyone else owns a Sega or a Super Nintendo. I think Microsoft will only be afraid once PS3 titles start challenging the 360 for storespace. I think so far the Wii is the winner. Aside from idiots tossing the wands into their TV sets, I've heard of no one with Wii-grets.