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Businesses PlayStation (Games) Sony Games

PS3 Enjoys Retail-Wide Sales Spike After Price Cut 167

Posted by Soulskill from the gamers-have-short-memories dept.
donniebaseball23 writes "Sony, after nearly two years on standing firm on PS3's price, dropped the console to $249, and it's been having an immediate impact. GameStop has already noted a 'significant' increase in PS3 sales, while big box retailer Target confirmed an 'immediate lift' in sales and recommended PS3 as a 'great option' for its customers. Not only that, but leading e-tailer Amazon saw PS3 sales explode by 400% in the days after the price cut. All told, in the months ahead, analysts are expecting Sony to see as much as a 30% sales bump for PS3 this holiday season."
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PS3 Enjoys Retail-Wide Sales Spike After Price Cut More

PS3 Enjoys Retail-Wide Sales Spike After Price Cut

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  • Is there any other way to get a 3d bluray player and a sixaxis (to use with my n900 and android tablet) for cheaper than this price?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      pc

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by adolf ( 21054 )

        A PC with 3D Blu-Ray playback and a Six-Axxis controller for less than $249?

        Where?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Well you already have a PC. How much does a Blu-Ray drive cost?

  • but it took so long I did not care, I got a 99$ gamestop trade in 360, it plays new games and looks fine on my crt tv

    =|

    • *twitch* You're using a PS3 on a CRT TV? That's like the A/V equivalent of buying a Ferrari and never driving over 30 mph. I think I'm going to have a seizure...

      • Why? My old QXGA CRT would like to inform you that I have been gaming in higher-than-hd resolutions and refresh rates since before halo came out. That's right, 2048x1536.

        • My old QXGA CRT would like to inform you

          Does this monitor have a TV tuner? If not, it's technically not a TV.

          If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?

          Seeing as ninja were covert agents in feudal Japan, a close modern counterpart would be the kind of stuff reported on by WikiLeaks.

      • You're using a PS3 on a CRT TV? That's like the A/V equivalent of buying a Ferrari and never driving over 30 mph.

        Then which console plays PS3-exclusive franchises and is better for use with a paid-for TV, either a CRT SDTV or an early adopter CRT HDTV? To continue your analogy, there exist parts of the country to which the only roads are roads on which only a Ferrari can travel.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by macshit ( 157376 )

        *twitch* You're using a PS3 on a CRT TV? That's like the A/V equivalent of buying a Ferrari and never driving over 30 mph. I think I'm going to have a seizure...

        Hmm, I bought a PS3 (when the slim dropped the price a few years ago) because it had some games I wanted to play... The only TV I had was an old low-end 20" CRT, kinda fuzzy.. so that's what I used.

        The games play just fine for the most part -- they're fun, look good, etc.

        However ... there is one significant exception: many games use absurdly small fonts, which look like they'd be appropriate for a big computer monitor, but work pretty badly on anything with lower-resolution. This can make text super an

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      I have not been waiting for this day.

      I will never -- NEVER -- buy any equipment manufactured by Sony. Sony has been on my shit list since the Rootkit Fiasco. The GeoHotz issue just cemented my resolve even further.

      • Re:I have personally been waiting for this day (Score:4, Insightful)

        by indeterminator ( 1829904 ) on Friday August 19, 2011 @05:04AM (#37139504)

        Heh, I have to pay the MS tax every time I buy a laptop, even if the first thing i do is to wipe Windows off the hard drive. So why should I give them even more money?

        At least all the money I've used for buying Sony stuff (not much more than a PS3 + games really) is based on a voluntary decision.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          I have to pay the MS tax every time I buy a laptop

          I know of at least two companies selling laptop computers with an operating system other than Windows. One is Apple. Another is System76. Dell used to, but Dell.com/ubuntu appears to be empty as I submit this.

          • I think I remember Walmart was or is in the game of selling linux laptops too... (?)

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
            I think it's a pretty hard sell to list Apple as an alternative to sony for ethical/moral reasons. What sony has done pales in comparison to what Apple has been doing recently.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )
              At least Apple officially allows homebrew for $99 per year. To what do you refer? Apple's refusal to license the MagSafe connector patent to accessory makers?

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
                Have you seen the price of apple hardware? The microsoft tax is insignificant in comparison to the price disparity of apple hardware to comparable pc's and laptops.

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
                Just to hammer home the point more, see the next slashdot story on apple and the australian government. As well, pc development has always been free with your choice of any language you choose. You can also develop for xbox360 for free, $99/annum if you actually want to distribute it. PS3 and nintendo homebrew is just a hack away but granted less than legal. Apple just sells you a very expensive cage, granted a very shiny and pretty cage, and they're hell bent on taking out their competition through leg

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Ant P. ( 974313 )

            I've got two Asus laptops with Linux preinstalled. And I've heard a few horror stories about System76's support...

  • I know quite a few people who have consoles and are looking at buying a new video card for their PC instead of getting BF3 on their console (PS3). The PS3 getting the price drop before several high end games (MW3, BF3, Mass Effect 3, etc) come out this fall doesn't seem like a huge surprise. For the less technically inclined, a $250 console might look like a better option than a $200-250 video card + installation + buggy drivers.

    Heck, as a "PC guy", I might finally consider getting a PS3 simply as a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 )

      Yeah, im also considering buying a PS3 just as a media center. Not many console games that interest me, but blu ray and netflix sure do. Not a big fan of sony, but its the best device for what i want. Have a Wii and no blu-ray now, waiting for them to definitively say the WiiU will not have blu-ray before i buy a PS3

      • The Wii U will have a 25 gigabyte disc format like the PS3's 25/50 gigabytes discs, but it won't be a standard Blu-Ray drive and won't play Blu-Ray movies.

      • Re:PS3 now costs as much as a midrange BF3video ca (Score:4, Interesting)

        by joocemann ( 1273720 ) on Friday August 19, 2011 @02:01AM (#37138588)

        For both ya'll... PS3 are great. I've had one for years, has lasted this whole time, and is playing the new Bad Lieutenant right now on netflix. If you have a media server on your home network, you can access it with the PS3. You can also put in yoru own HDD and not break the warranty. Sony tells you exactly how. That way you can do all kinds of media storing, etc.

        PS3 is great. Blu Ray, HD, 3d gaming and movies, media playing, open platform for USB hardware and bluetooth hardware. I know people on slashdot hate sony and for their reasons, and i understand them. I've thought about whether i would buy the next generation... who knows.. but I do appreciate what I have. Great gear.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

          I agree on all those points, except some games really suck with a controller and the web browser on the PS3 is a joke.

          Otherwise great device, glad to have it.

    • If all you want to do is Blu-Ray and Netflix, than the PS3 is just fine. If you plan to do anything else home-theater-esque with it (even web browsing), you'd really be far, far, far better served by a cheap HTPC. There are things like PS3 Media Server that help serve video from your PC to PS3, but it's frequently more trouble than it's worth.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Splab ( 574204 )

        Amen. I started out with PS3 Media Server and the PS3, but gave up, it is such a friggin hassle to work with. These days I'm using a QNAP NAS and a small HTPC, works every time.

        (Shame less plug, one drive in the QNAP gave up and for some reason the entire soft array got whacked, the QNAP tech rebuild the array remotely for no charge; that's customer service).

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by stms ( 1132653 )

        Actually its pretty easy to set up a media server for a PS3/Xbox. I have an application that can share to both Xbox and PS3 I've never had a problem with it.

        • It's easy but it doesn't work for shit. I used the PS3 with Tversity for a while and it was a buggy pile of crap. Movies would just randomly quit in the middle, if you tried to fast forward it would get all screwed up, and Tversity would just randomly disappear from your list of media servers sometimes. Also I sometimes had to turn my PS3 off to get it to refresh the list of available movies/TV shows because the PS3 would cache and there was no way to manually make it take another look. I mean yeah, it

      • I can't answer directly about a PS3 (or xbox) as I use a Raidsonic icybox for that, but it all comes down to the video codec support on the playback device. Sure PS3MediaServer can transcode on the fly, but I never liked that too much.

        You can get little boxes that sit under the TV and are networked to your PC over cabled ethernet for £20 and they work for practically all codecs (some .mkv contaners can have unusual contents). Buying a PS3 for this task is a lot of money in comparison. There's ba

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        Actually it's easy enough to use the PS3 through a DLNA server. Windows 7 Home Premium comes with a server in the OS so it's a small effort to set up. Personally I use a Synology NAS (which is excellent kit btw) and stream from that. Put the PS3 on the same network as the server and UPnP should take care of the rest.

        Generally it makes an excellent media box allowing content to be played locally, from physical media or remotely over http or DLNA. There are a couple of major issues with the PS3 for media st

        • The PS3 doesn't support MKV container formats. Instead you use AVI (for DIVX format) or MP4 (for AVC H264) and you're good to go.

          No, no, a thousand times no. This makes both the PS3 and Xbox 360 utterly unsuitable as a stand alone media player. In order to play these files anyway you now have to transcode them or use PS3MediaServer to transcode them on the fly, either way there is a loss of quality and a need to have another [powerful] computer active at the same time. Or you could have one quiet little HTPC connected to your TV which would perform this task better, run quieter... and yes, cost more.

          Web browsing is poor on the PS3. There have been off / on rumours of something changing in that department for a while but nothing concrete. The issue is Sony uses a licenced browser called Netfront and it's a heap of crap.

          Netfront has been around for etern

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I do not know why people keep saying this, i have not had a problem with buggy drivers (nvidia) in atleast 5 years. I have atleast 6 computers here all with nvidia cards including configured as sli, hybrid sli, and sli with independent additional cards. At one point i was even running 2 different versions of the nvidia drivers simultaneously to handle a brand new 560ti (prior to the driver becoming unified) and an additional 8000 series card driving the 3rd and 4th monitor. All of this has worked flawlessl

    • You're forgetting the fact that the PC had the power of the PS3 4 years ago. You can get an 8800 GTS for less then $100 there's no point in comparing if you forget the used video card market. Comparing a PS3 price dropped TODAY against a modern videocard is dumb as rocks considering the PC has been well ahead of the consoles since the 8800 and Core 2 duo which was 4 years ago.

      I can run any big name multiplatform game on a core 2 + 8800 GTS (Assasins creed, Darksiders, etc) at higher resolutions and better

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        Heck, you can buy a 460gtx which is 2-3x as powerful as a 8800GTS for $120 these days. $100 for an 8800GTS is wasting your money. I was in the BF3 alpha and can confirm that BF3 runs at a solid 60fps on a 460gtx.

        I totally agree! I was running Bad Company 2 (BF3 lite) on a 8600GT and a midrange Core 2 for a few years (I've since upgraded). BF3 is definitely geared towards turning the screws on even a high end PC with all the settings maxed out... but at the same time, the engine still has to run on s

    • The PS3 is a horrible choice for a HTPC replacement. It won't let you update your codecs, it won't play .mkv, it doesn't support subtitles, it doesn't let you record anything, the only way to get anything on it is via the slow-as-molasses USB2 connection or via lan (but it won't be much faster because the hard drive is a slow 2.5-incher) and you have to buy a remote seperately (which you can't replace with a universal one - bluetooth).

      • Or, you need a PC or comparable somewhere on your network to run PS3 Media Server software.

        But as a standalone media server, the PS3 really is a pretty bad choice, you'd be much better off with for instance a WDTV, which still costs considerably less.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        Recording is only important if you subscribe to live TV

        • There's this new invention called an antenna, that lets you get magical pictures that come through the air, at no cost to you.

          (Yes, I have cable, but plenty of people have "cut the cord" and use OTA + sometimes streaming or DVD/BluRay services.)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Hadlock ( 143607 )

            I used to use OTA for political speeches (2008 presidential inaguration, etc) and live news, but in recent times I've found that YouTube's streaming video has improved dramatically. The white house streams most of it's video live over youtube now, and Al Jazeera has a great live streaming (English Language) channel for world events. I watched hours of footage online during the "Arab Spring" Egypt/Libya protests and the hours following Joplin, Mo.

            In terms of sitcoms... well, they'll always be around!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
        Or you can just just use the samsung remote from your tv to control it :) Then again if i do want to play media files i just stick a usb stick or harddrive into my samsung tv, it even plays mkv. Cant stick a 3d bluray into it though, and i'm guessing you can't do that with a htpc either.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      The web browser on the PS3 sucks. It is so bad, I pretend it does not exist. It also cannot be used for Hulu or most similar free services. A PC hooked up over HDMI is pretty much the only way to get those on a TV.

      For some games I like the PS3, but any decent FPS or similar is much better on PC. The real problem recently has been the shitty console ports to PC.

      • Agreed, except a little fuziness on the "PC" part.
        I have an apple macbook :)
        Spent $10 for an adaptor, and now when I want to watch hulu-type services, I plug it into the HDMI port on my TV, and watch it that way.
        (sound and video over the single cable, if you have a non-ancient mac)

        For other folks, investing in a 20' HDMI cable from their "desktop" computer would be all right, probably.

        I find it absurd that companies are even bothering to limit consoles out of stuff like "hulu", when other computers, includ

  • Does it run linux? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I was one of those people who cared about this.

  • Count Me In (Score:3)

    by vga_init ( 589198 ) on Friday August 19, 2011 @05:36AM (#37139618) Journal

    I'm by no means a console fanboy or gaming nut. I grew up playing video games and still do. I was skeptical about buying into the current generation of consoles, but I purchased a PS3 Slim shortly after the price cut. In the prior years I hadn't played any recent games because I didn't have any recent console, nor did I ever purchase PC gaming hardware (a regular desktop was always good enough for me). It's a slick device and well worth the money; I'm really glad I bought it. Since then I got more into gaming and purchased a couple other consoles and a high end video card for my latest desktop. Most of my game time is still on the PS3, and I would recommend it to anyone who had to pick just one thing.

    Also it's not just good for games. It's possibly the most well rounded general entertainment device I've ever owned. It makes the big HDTV in my living room come alive with on demand downloadable content, streaming movies and shows, blu-ray films, and whatever else a person could want from a home entertainment center. It's good at what it does and does it quickly and efficiently with great audio and video quality. Basically you're getting a lot of bang for your buck, because the PS3 has the equivalent functionality of 3 or 4 other devices that would require a high upfront cost and be more of a hassle to deal with. It's ironic considering how skeptical I was before I even thought about buying one, and I don't much like Sony, but after all is said and done, it's an awesome product.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Agreed. No Sony (or anybodies) fanboi here, but my original day of release PS3 is an awesome, well built bit of kit, and not horribly crippled like the 360 was on release (BTW have owned 3 360's now, still on PS3 one). I use it under my HDTV for just about all my entertainment. Especially good for wi-fi-ng downloads from Vuze over wireless for display on the big screen :)

      -- Colourspace.

    • As Sony president I can see you are aggressively utilizing all avenues of communication and I applaud your efforts!

  • So much for the boycott... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well, so much for all the ./ rage a few months ago about Evil Sony and their pursuit of poor hackers, DRM, and lax security procedures.... I guess at the end we all do have our price, don't we?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
      Thing is, all the other companies out there are just as evil or worse (apple)...unless you go with nintendo which really isn't good for anything but games.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )

      As you grow up, you learn all corporations are going to do something you find repulsive at some point. So might as well just buy whatever as long as it is a good product.

  • So, why now? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It is funny there is all this excitement now, when really the console has been $50 off at various sources for a while now. Hell, I got mine for $100 off with that Gamestop promotion a few months ago.

    For many observers, this actually comes a little late, because many were anticipating this after E3.

  • Not only was there the price drop, but DirecTV, Sony, & the NFL also just announced that the PS/3 will have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2011 NFL season.

    Sunday Ticket on PS/3 [playstation.com]

    For those that don't know, you pay $340/season and it lets you watch just about every NFL game. While the average Slashdotter may not care in the least, this is a pretty big deal for NFL fans who don't have DirecTV. I know of at least a couple of people who are planning on purchasing a PS/3 simply because they wan
  • ...the next time they think about overpricing their consoles.
  • Besides the price drop, I am sure a lot of the uptick in sales is due to DirecTV announcing the availability of the NFL Sunday Ticket Package on PS3.

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