Sony has "no plans" to cut PlayStation 3 price

Wait a tick -- if Sony has "no plans" to hack off a cool hundie from the price of its PlayStation 3, what mothership is directing Circuit City? In a brief blurb that can't exactly be taken as the unequivocal truth, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters that "at present, we have no plans" to lower the pricetag attached to its PS3 console. Of course, we mustn't forget those contradicting reports showing that Sony actually has been mulling PS3 price cuts since the beginning of this year, and better yet, Sony's been known to deny blatantly obvious price alterations a time or two before. So there you have it, a denial that reeks of non-denial, but even analysts are betting that Sony (officially) trims at least a Benjamin from the machine in the relatively near future.

[John Zupancic @ Jul 6th 2007 11:54AM]

Interesting, maybe Circuit City is doing this on their own?


If so, go Circuit City!

[Ravi @ Jul 6th 2007 11:55AM]

Well, of course they'd say that. The price drop is probably one of their announcements at E3.

[kaztm @ Jul 6th 2007 12:49PM]

Yes, and Engadget knows that, too.

However, Engadget must post a worthless article such as this in order to keep them afloat.

What we should learn from this article is not the news, but their writing skills to make no-news sound like a news.

[Ricardo @ Jul 6th 2007 11:57AM]

buauauhahahahahah...

[Tyk @ Jul 6th 2007 12:03PM]

And O.J. Simpson is still looking for the real killers!

[ray @ Jul 6th 2007 12:06PM]

they are trying to see if they can lure in a few more suckers before they drop it.... maybe a few folks who dont have the internets yet... shhhh

[lolec @ Jul 6th 2007 12:06PM]

seliously, learn how to use photoshop

[mart1082 @ Jul 6th 2007 12:16PM]

Really? ... I would have guessed MS paint.

[Kamokazi @ Jul 6th 2007 12:18PM]

'seliously', learn how to type.

[Emceay @ Jul 6th 2007 12:46PM]

Learn to type from a man who can't spell divine wind properly?

[Mike @ Jul 6th 2007 12:07PM]

Even if it is only circuit city dropping the price, Wal-Mart will match the advertised price.

[gibber9583 @ Jul 6th 2007 12:15PM]

So will every other major retailer....Dont act like Wal-Mart is the only place to match prices.

[tiuk @ Jul 6th 2007 12:10PM]

I always take these things with a grain of salt. Many's the time a company has refuted a statement, only to announce it at their own chosen venue a week later.

[John B @ Jul 6th 2007 12:18PM]

Well, that's fine, then, Sony. If you have no interest in cutting the price, then I have no interest in grabbing my ankles and paying $500+ for what is (at this point, anyway) a glorified BluRay player. When the games really start to roll off the assembly line, then I'll see what the PS3 is worth.

Fortunately for you, Microsoft's recent admission about the XB360 is keeping me away from that, too, for the time being.

[Stephan @ Jul 6th 2007 12:20PM]

I don't know $499 still kind of high for us cheap ass Americans!

[Mr. B @ Jul 6th 2007 12:33PM]

"at present" coould mean anything... today, this week, this year.

[loci @ Jul 6th 2007 12:34PM]

we have no plans to buy it either.
great! none of us have plans, im glad we got that sorted out

[Jon @ Jul 6th 2007 12:37PM]

So glad i got mine at launch , You know because of all the amazing games since launch till now .. whoa .. um .... resistance and .. well thats it ... they should refund all early buyers $100

[Emceay @ Jul 6th 2007 12:43PM]

Such a shame, I have no use for over-priced high def movies, nor it's over-priced player.
Had they stuck with just making a game console, I might have one already.
But, that's assuming they didn't market with such arrogance. I see myself playing used ps3 games sometime around 2009. And somehow, I'm not the least bit anxious to push that date sooner.

[Dan @ Jul 6th 2007 1:02PM]

Give everyone a $100 credit who bought it earlier? Sorry, it doesn't work like that. Early adopters pay more, that's the price of being the first to own something.

By your logic...

$2000 computer bought today is on clearance for $500 in two years. Should they give everyone $1500 back? No.



If CC really is doing this on their own, then good! I'm so sick of market prices being set on everything these days. This shows that retailers should be able to charge what they want, and not be stuck with some "sell it at price X or don't sell it at all" ultimatum.

And yes, price matching will eventually cause everyone to drop the price $100.

[Dave @ Jul 6th 2007 1:54PM]

fwiw, if Apple drops it's prices and you purchased within 2 weeks (or maybe it's 10 days) they will give you a refund on the difference. Some Apple retailers will, too. clubmac.com gave me $500 back when Apple dropped the price on their 23" displays and I had just bought one.

[Jon @ Jul 6th 2007 1:49PM]

Oh .. I don't want money back because i got it early , i want $100 back because the thing just sits there collecting dust because they have no games (that are not Ports), Is the PS3 even out yet ? i could have waited till after the price drop and not even known the system came out 6 months ago .. Xbox 360 can drop to $100 and ill be happy i paid full price at launch

[Dahk @ Jul 6th 2007 2:35PM]

Dave: Most retailers do this on their own. Best Buy has a two week one.

As Dan said, its what you get for lining up early. If you did any research whatsoever beforehand you would've knew PS3's crappy launch line-up. You would've found out about the 3 months of utter NOTHING that actually came out. You would've found out about the 6 month delays of Vegas and Lair.

And as an extra comment, I fully agree with what Woody said down there. They're not stupid enough to announce a price-cut until the day of. Obviously they don't want their sales to stop at a higher price until the last possible moment. Jeez just wait until E3 where they might (I'm actually still hesistant on PS3 ACTUALLY getting a price cut, but that's just me; I'm also hesistant on MGS4 going 360 degrees, but that's just me =) ) announce the price cut, and THEN argue all you want about ANOTHER price cut by the end of the year.

[Karan @ Jul 6th 2007 1:13PM]

hey, a note from the Aussies - Ryoji, Kaz, the Australian dollar's gone a long way. Maybe that AU$999 you're making us pay - US$850, or 105,668 yen - is just a little friggin ridiculous?

[DorianGray @ Jul 6th 2007 2:54PM]

@Karan

!!!GODD@MN!!! You folks pay AU$999 for a PS3???? Jebus -- why not get them offa ebay?

[Woody @ Jul 6th 2007 1:21PM]

I don't understand why people still don't understand that this is marketing. If Sony is planning on dropping the price at any given point in time, don't you think they would wait till the last possible minute?

Here's why. If people know that they will drop the price, people will wait until that day to buy a system. As long as Sony keeps people thinking there is no price drop, people will give in and buy a PS3 at the higher price. I know, cause I did. I couldn't wait to see when the price was going to drop.

And don't you remember that Microsoft kept denying an HDMI Black XBOX, un until the time it was about to come out. Cause they wanted people to buy the HDMI-less, white 360.

People, this is nothing new. Just because they deny it, doesn't mean they are not going to do something. Just means they arn't ready to announce it yet.

[Mike @ Jul 6th 2007 1:40PM]

Circuit City have been in bed with Sony for many years. I'm betting that this is a trial run to see how much sales increase based on the $100 price cut.

If the attach rate is high enough to offset the $100 difference, corporate could justify making the price drop official everywhere.

In other words, if they sell the razor even further below cost and make it up selling the blades (games and movies), it's a smart move.

It's also no surprise that Sony wants to end the HD format war sooner than later, not to mention the fact that they are getting their asses handed to them by Nintendo and Microsoft.

[m.knell @ Jul 6th 2007 1:45PM]

$100 isn't going to matter much.

Now that news is out that 3rd party developers are canning PS3 games this is only going to go one way.

Better luck with the PS4.

[Matt B @ Jul 6th 2007 1:53PM]

This is the second time you posted this nonsense of canned games!! What are you talking about?? Saints Row?? Seriously. What is the basis for this garbage?

[Sizer @ Jul 6th 2007 2:03PM]

Jesus. I think Sony execs just lie out of habit. So this is employees at Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and other major retailers confirming the price drop JUST NEXT WEEK, with printed ads to back it up, and Sony denies it all.

There IS a point at which you stop being shrewd businessmen and start being nothing more than lying sacks of @#$%, lying liars and nothing you say can ever be believed. I'm not exactly sure where that point is, but you Sony bastards crossed it a long time ago.

[NineT9 @ Jul 6th 2007 2:28PM]

Jeez guys calm down... the most logical comment I read (from another site) is:

"Sony Flat Out Denied PS2 price cuts HOURS before the official announcements in the past, as has Nintendo, as has Microsoft...

Admitting to a price cut before the announcement kills sales completely until the price cut happens, if they admit to it then they wont sell a single PS3 until the 12th and they'll want to maximize the number of units they sell at the higher price.

....Nothing to see here... move along..."

[Nin10dude @ Jul 6th 2007 2:38PM]

Remember, Nintendo had "no plans" for a DS redesign the day before the lite was shown off.

[SimbaDogg @ Jul 6th 2007 2:54PM]

@Dave...
have you ever shopped anywhere before...ever? There's nothing special about Apple @ all. its called a PRICE MATCH. Many retailers allow you to do that for 30 days, some even 60 days (as long as their return policy is). So being able to have your price adjusted through apple 10 days or 2 weeks down the line is really nothin to write home about...

[Peter @ Jul 6th 2007 3:10PM]

Oh, this is just silly corporate tap dancing. Chubachi is president of Sony Corporation - he denied that parent company Sony Corporation was planning a price cut. But as Bloomberg News reported, he also said that it was Sony Computer Entertainment, not parent company Sony Corporation, who has authority over price cuts. So with some creative fine parsing of words and a mastery of the Sony organizational flow hart, Chubachi gets to have his cake and eat it too!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=avaBEItJZtRo

[Rick @ Jul 6th 2007 3:13PM]

Yeah and it could be some cruel bogus joke too. Look at all the attention its gathered - LOL.

[Jojo @ Jul 6th 2007 3:36PM]

I guess the 4 largest PS3 retailers all reducing PS3 prices by $100 on the same day is just pure coincidence.

[s @ Jul 6th 2007 4:14PM]

Jobsus said no video on ipod cause the screen is too small week before "Video iPod"

[ET @ Jul 6th 2007 5:01PM]

Didn't we have a $500 20Gb version before? Would dropping 60GB version to $500 really makes a difference? Wouldn't the same guy who could not spare out the extra $100 bought the 20GB half a year ago already? Or the 20GB was never available?

[Rob @ Jul 6th 2007 5:27PM]

Yes, the 20gig version was around that price. However, you need to remember the major differences between the 20 and the 60gigs. It was more than just the hard drive difference. Which by the way it's swappable from what I've read.

Also, what some people tend to forget is that the PS3 is more than a gaming machine. That's the same thing with the Xbox 360. The final objective of these two products is to dominate your living room. That's the point of their hdd, online stores filled content ready to be downloaded, for free or for a fee. Also, they're made to interact with your network, and peripherals attached to them. That's why Sony included the Blu-Ray drive. Sure they're gaming machines. But, they both play competing high definition content. And they both may affect the final outcome of this silly hd format war.

[erac3rx @ Jul 6th 2007 5:32PM]

The $100 price drop on the 60gb model *does* make a big difference, because the 60gb model includes built-in wifi, and all ps3s include BluRay and HDMI.

When you consider that a Premium 360 with the $100 wi-fi adapter added costs $499, and the 360 Elite-- with HDMI but still with no wifi-- is $479, this is a very big deal. You're paying only $100 more than 360, but you're getting both a $100 360 option (wifi) and a $200 HD movie playback option (the hd-dvd addon), as well as HDMI (essentially an $80 option, offered as a 360 elite), all included.

Additionally, with the 5 free bluray movies promotion going on from now through September, you're getting anywhere from 50-75 dollars of movie as well.

[Matthew @ Jul 6th 2007 5:16PM]

The price is too much for the abverage gamer. Only hardcore gamers will pay that kind of money to play. Once the price drops I bet they will sell and catch up to the wy but until then you will keep seeing these things on the shelves.

It's the same reason you see more Corolla's on the road over BMW 5 series. You can buy something that does something very similar just isn't quite as powerful and is half the price the typical everyday Joe will go for the Corolla and they will outsell them 3 to 1.

[daxi04 @ Jul 6th 2007 5:37PM]

guys guys, instead of buying the ps3 just head over to tig@rdirect and get the intel 2 core quad q6600 and XFX 680i mobo for $500. Ps3 will eventually have a price cut, so in the meantime, PC FTW!

[Mark @ Jul 6th 2007 10:21PM]

Of course they don't "have plans"!! They already decided and it's starting on the 12th! See, no plans! Planning is done. Perfectly true.

[Brian Hull @ Jul 7th 2007 2:30AM]

the $499 price point would put microsoft under some pressure as it is clearly a better value at that point then the 360 elite, and the extra $100 over a regular xbox premium isn't a bad price to pay for a bluray player either. Now if only the games didnt blow donkey nut they could actually sell the (almost) useless machine!

[Brandon @ Jul 7th 2007 9:16AM]

my target store has done its price changes for electronics a day early (monday, they dont do em on the weekend) and the ps3 has dropped to $499.

[Miles @ Jul 7th 2007 12:43PM]

PS3 can suck the big one.

It sucks.

[robtjr30 @ Jul 8th 2007 7:55AM]

The reason why there is no PS3 games is because Sony did not take the time to talk to their big developers so insted of most developers making PS3 games they are making mostly X-Box 360 games.
It is because Sony was stupid and let the X-Box 360
get out first. But if the X-Box 360 did come out after the PS3 launch they would be in the same boat.
But I bet the X-Box 360 would've came out with prices like the PS3.And the Nintendo Wii comeout with X-Box 360 prices.
It is time to drop the price of the PS3 to $399.
Sony has done made their money back either through their music & movie studios and their other electronics.