PS3 price cut will stick, says industry analyst
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jul 16th 2007 12:11PM
posted Jul 16th 2007 12:11PM
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Gotta love the $5000 stuck right in the middle of the pic.
Mike
LOL yea thats the price for the people who are disciplined and have 8 jobs ;-D .
I wonder why SONY didn't take this chance to add a 120GB drive or even a 200GB.
I am glad the stellar 60 GB PS3 is down in price - at that price point, already coming with a Wifi adapter and Blu Ray player, it is a better buy than the XBOX 360.
But still, the major problem plaguing whatever PS3 model is on the market is the LACK OF GAMES.
I never imagined after such a great PS1 and PS2 ownership experience that SONY would let game availability slip on the PS3.
Had PS3 launched with boatloads of games - or gotten multiple titles within months of its launch, it would sell well even at its high price point.
Yeah, seriously. What idiots planning the PS3 (Or XBOX even) thought that small hard drives are the way to go?
All this talk of the PS3 shocking people with its lack of games makes me realize alot of Playstation owners either joined gaming late in the PS2's life or are suffering from memory loss.
I picked up the PSX on launch, within a few days of also picking up a Saturn. The PSX had a small but nice lineup with Ridge Racer and a few others making it out that year. However, the PSX like the PS2 really didn't hit its stride until at least two years after launch.
Fast forward to the PS2 and the first year was awful. So awful in fact that I waited 6 months to pick one up. The PS2 easily took two years if not longer to really hit its stride. Brand name carried it well though and let it see off the Dreamcast and hold its own against the xbox.
So here we are with the PS3, almost out a year (over a year in Japan right ?) and a pretty mediocre game library. No surprise there. With the customary lack of developer support and complexity of the architecture, its taking developers longer to get their games performing as they would like. With the high price tag (a new dimension for Playstation) units to date haven't been moving enough to entice developers to release more games.
So this situation isn't unusual for Playstation, but the price is - lets see how this holiday season goes and whether $499 is the sweet spot that gets Playstations back in the race.
Me ? I'll get my PS3 once its $399 and endings its second year. History tells me thats the time to jump in. Until then my 360 is going to continue to kill my wallet (and spare time) with a heavily packed release schedule of likely AAA material through 2008 :)
because Sony doesnt really wants to add harddrive space to the PS3, they know its unneccesary. Think about it, if you want a bigger hard drive, you can change it yourself, they even tell you how to do it. The reason why they added a mere 20GB is to compensate the loss of the emotion engine, and to make it easier to tell the difference between a 60GB and a 80GB box.
Anyways the real reason why theyre adding a new SKU is because theyre adding the new rumble-ready controller into the 80GB box. Think about it, the TouchSense technology is ready, and they wont wait till next year to introduce the new controller.
Anyways, the cost of blu-ray diodes is getting cheaper every day... 80GB will be $499 as soon as 60GB are depleted.
I wonder why SONY didn't take this chance to add a 120GB drive or even a 200GB.
I am glad the stellar 60 GB PS3 is down in price - at that price point, already coming with a Wifi adapter and Blu Ray player, it is a better buy than the XBOX 360.
But still, the major problem plaguing whatever PS3 model is on the market is the LACK OF GAMES.
I never imagined after such a great PS1 and PS2 ownership experience that SONY would let game availability slip on the PS3.
Had PS3 launched with boatloads of games - or gotten multiple titles within months of its launch, it would sell well even at its high price point.
what you talking about, they are planning to add 120gb for the next price cut, and 200gb for the next next price cut
Actually I think the 80GB hard drive is considered more standard and there is a greater supply of them as opposed to the 60GB drive that is probably not manufactured anymore or in very limited quantities.
Meh the 60 gigabyte PS3 STILL costs $800 in the UK.
Because the UK goverment creams of 17.5%, and the EU want 10% because it's manufacturerd outside Europe.
Blame your goverment/EU, not Sony. If you do the maths, and exclude taxes. The EU PS3 is $40 cheaper than the US pre-tax price.
Still it's easy to be fooled by the media into thinking this, as virtually EVERY single article compares $599 with £425. But they are clueless idiots.
@Mak:
What about the US? does the $499 include local, state & federal sales taxes? Are you comparing oranges with oranges too?
Lemme do the math for Australia, on the other hand.
Price: AU$1000.
Tax: 10% GST = $90, approx. No other taxes at retail point.
Shipping: From Japan/Taiwan, about the same as US (or maybe even cheaper).
Pre-tax price: AU$910 = US$793 (87 US cents per AU$ today).
Holy crap, instant US$293 profit from the little people down under!
If we measure it tax inclusive, assuming $499 is tax inclusive in the US, as that's far more sensible a measure because that's what you pay at the till, that's US$872 - or US$372 profit!
Lemme repeat for the thousandth time: Sony is screwing all non-NA/JP markets.
at amazon.com it is $499 after tax and shipping, plus you get 6!! free blu-ray disk and the $25 blu-ray remote for free.
tax and retail stores suck.
@ Justin You're lucky in the USA you can voluntarily file taxes on the stuff you buy online. In the UK you get taxed before the delivery man lets you have the product.
$.50?! LOL!!!!!!!!
If they had announced that the 80gb would eventually cost $500, then what would be the incentive to buy the 60gb? Common sense people. Personally, I don't anyone would be stupid enough to keep the $600 price point after the 60gb SKU is gone. That would be financial suicide.
Since the price cut, I've seen a lot less PS3's on the shelves in my neck of the woods (Atlanta).
-SJ
isnt that what they just did for the new psp? they announced it would be the same price as the old one.
Yes, this makes sense. It is obvious that the $599 bundle with an extra 20GB and motorstorm is a poor value proposition in light of the $499 SKU.
Remember when the difference between the $499 and $599 SKUs was a WIFI adapter, an SD card slot AND a 300% increase in hard disk space?
Now the extra $100 only gets you a 33% boost in hard disk space and some game that you may or may not want.
It makes sense that the 80GB version without game will soon replace the 60GB version with game. The real question will be what, if anything, will go for $599. Perhaps a version with rumble controller and a 120GB hard disk? Who knows.
To each his own but I bought a 60GB in March with 2 games for around $750US. I love it and have bought 2 game since and will have my 5th tomorrow with the launch of NCAA08 football. I don't feel bad about a price drop. I think it was worth every penny and still do. Haters aren't owners.
lol thats what they said back when the 20gb was cut lol
"already better than the xbox360"
umm... how can it be better when it has pretty much 1 maybe 2 games right now worth playing after almost a year?
Stop looking at "features" that you could give a crap over, and look at actual games that are out. What the "game console is actually" supposed to do... play GAMES!
Wireless woo hoo... how many people actually use wireless on their console? plug the damn thing in like everyone else with half a brain or no ... wait be like every customer i deal with that doesnt understand interference and other wireless issues that come around from wifi.
Sorry have be been timewarped to Novemeber already?
I find it hillarious how XBots keep on about the PS3 game selection, when the 360 had perhaps the worst launch selection of games in any console launch ever. It was about 11 months before anything decent arrived.
yes, many do use wifi on their console. Many people dont have a Ethernet port sitting next to their big tv in their living room. I would have internet on my xbox if it wasn't for wifi. some people have trouble with wifi but that doesn't make wifi a stupid it makes the person using it less intelligent about it.
ps. i love the term xbots lol :)
I do not understand the thing with wifi, I just don't. Sure its nice if I'm at starbucks or something, but for home use? Give me ethernet any day. Why? Well, first up there is signal crossover and noise from the roughly 30 bazillion people in my apartment building with it. Then there is the fact its proven to be as leaky as a bucket without a bottom, even with wep enabled. Or the fact that the wifi management tool in windows is useless. There are 200 hotspots in this hotel, why does windows only show me the first one it saw with a "Hotel" SSID.. which is on the other side of the building, instead of the one closest to me, or heck, show me ALL of them. Its even worse for linux. Only Apple seemed to get it right, out of the box. I make my living installing wifi for places that want it, and yes, its a nice piece of tech. But its by no means the nice robust mature thing everyone seems to think it is, at least from the average users experience. If you have the knowledge and equipment to set it up right, it can be very good. But alot still needs to be done to make it as good as everyone seems to think it is.
Oh, I use wireless exclusively for gaming and streaming movies and music from my PC. Works like a charm.
I can't believe this nonsense is still making news headlines. There is plenty of great PS3 news from E3, and crappy sites like this are focusing on is it/isn't it a price cut.
You can walk down a store TODAY and buy a console for $100 less than the sem item costed last week. Of course it's a freakin price cut. Are you lot stupid or something? Will it be the same situation in 3 months time? Unlikely, the 80GB will almost certainly the norm by then and back to 1 $499 SKU in time for Xmas.
Things change, configurations change, my Plasma TV I bought 6 months ago is not $400 cheaper, am I bothered, of course not, that's how it goes.
Some people need to get a freakin life..
it could be $199, no good games, no care.
regarding the 'small harddrives' decision. Thats simple. Sell them a 20gb, then we can sell them a $20 upgrade for $120 later and make $100 per unit! Its called marketing.
I can't recall any console system, EVER, having a price increase immediately after price cut. Thats why its making news, that and the fact that after the imensely successful PS2, PS3 is basically a flop so far.
They didn't flip-flop at all.
You idiot journalists were just too stupid to realize that once the $499 60GB PS3s are gone they'd be replaced by a $499 80GB version. You're the ones who decided that after the 60GBs were sold the only PS3 available would be for $599, not Sony.
Next time, more news, less gossip. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmkay?
Actually it is SCEE's president who brought all this confusion about by trying to justify why there was no price drop in europe. Here's a quote from eurogamer:
"
When asked about possible criticisms over whether SCEE should have given consumers the option to pay a lower price, as SCEA has done, he replied:
"Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game. All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July."
"
I don't care about "price cuts". I care about a decreased price of entry. If you were to give me 10 games with that PS3, it wouldn't matter because I'd still need to come up with $500 to buy the darn thing (not that they'd ever be so generous). I don't care about value as much as I care about cost. I wish Sony would realize that.
I dont know why you're comment is highly ranked. The logic behind it really doesn't make sense. Many people desire the PS3 not just because its a continuation of the Sony PS lineage, but because its a very well built, and great performing machine. Price and performance ALWAYS go hand in hand, they have to. Lets put this in terms of cars; it would be like shopping for a Porsche Boxster, and not being quite satisfied w/ the performance...but then complaining that the Porsche 911 Turbo was too expensive. Of course it is expensive, look at the performance difference. There's no way that you'd ever see a 911 going for a boxter price...same reason it'd never really make sense for a PS3 to be going for the same price as a 360 premium (just a little more expensive than the elite, but it really ends up being a better deal when considering the included blu ray capability, wireless connectivity etc).
If companies ever started doing this, it just wouldn't make sense
Just who are all these industry analysts that keep popping up with these so called scoops and have they ever been right about anything.
Are these the same people who said there would be a 360 price drop. Do these people actually get paid to pull things out of their asses. How do I get that job.
I really don't get why people say PS3 is a flop. I don't own any nextgen console yet but comparing the two on their display units in stores I always get the feeling the PS3 games are smoother. That is why I'm waiting to buy the PS3. Xbox360 games feel more PC like while PS3 and Wii games feel console like. Maybe its just me.
$ted.danson?
NO!
I think the $499 deal will stay... Sony would be burnt at the stake if the price went back up.
If they can reduce the cost of components while moving to an 80gig drive, the $100 drop is easier to justify since they will move more units at $499. MotorStorm as a pack-in makes sense because sales have peaked for the title and bigger name titles are hitting the streets over the next few months (i.e. Madden, LAIR, etc).
Justin -
Where on Amazon can you get a free Blu-Ray remote and 6 discs? As far as I can tell, the 5-disc offer is the only one around, and nowhere do they throw in the remote as part of the $499 price.
Where is the confusion on this issue?
Sony has been very clear that the 60gb PS3 is discontinued and that the 80gb PS3 will be $600.
The only thing they've flip-flopped on is how long the supplies will last.
20 GB in exchange for the emotion engine? Um...
not to be a stickler about this, but I think you meant "tiny" grain of salt rather than "massive," because the latter suggests that it is somewhat significant. yeah.
What if the 60gbs really aren't be produced any more and they sell out before the 80gb model launches? WHAT THEN SONY? Will you launch the 80gb at a lower price point? ~$520 would be my guess.