Sony showed us a lot of things at this year's
E3 -- some
expected, some rather
less-so -- but they didn't show us the primary thing shareholders and fans were hoping for: a price cut. That most expensive of gaming consoles still retains its lead in the brutal MSRP wars, but a Sterne Agee analyst indicates that Sony is just biding its time. According to the always accurate "industry sources," the PS3 will receive a $100 drop sometime in the middle of August, just in time for the launch of Madden NFL 10. That would also coincide with back to school shopping, apparently a popular time for buying consoles by parents who want to give their kids every chance in the world to fail thanks to spending too much time robbing graves in Uncharted.
posted Jun 9th 2009 7:23AM
Electronic engineers clearly care about the environment.
I get most of my games/consoles just before holidays too. Like, right now. Ahem, Sony, I said, RIGHT NOW.
Seriously, at this point, where we have had dozens of price-cut rumors all being false. Its better not to believe any of this.
It'll come when it'll come. Simply that.
I would have thought something more on the lines of
"If you finish the school with a B average, I'll buy you a PS3 system and Madden" would work better.
Perhaps Sony hired some GM execs to make this decision????
0% financing? or instant rebate?
What? Sony wants $600 in taxes from me too now?
ha I bought my PS3 almost a year ago, on the same day that I moved into my dorm at school. I moved all my stuff in, then went right back out and hunted down a MGS Bundle before they were gone forever
PS3's go great in dorm rooms tho
My friend just walked into my cube and told me his MGD PS3 just died last night. Ouch.
too late imo sony. i already bought an xbox360 for the SUMMER, ya know, when I have time to play it.
Wait, I thought summer was when you did stuff outside. I'd buy a console in the fall, right before it gets rainy and cold so that I want to stay inside all day.
You ever see a white boy cook in the sun?! It aint pretty.
Well I got my first PS3 by winning it. So I guess I don't mind buying a second for my bedroom as well if the price-cuts is significant in Australia Land.
Tokyo Game Show. If they're gonna announce that it's gonna be at the Tokyo Game Show. It gives em enough time to get a price cut for the holiday season.
Spot on. I also suspect even more Wii colors at TGS to offset price cuts elsewhere.
How much does it cost now?
A THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS PLUS A HUNDRED EUROS and 10 yen.
...plus a night with levi's mom.
Oh good, another PS3 price cut rumour.
Can never have too many of them can you...
Based on the new PSPgo price, I'd wager that they don't drop the price on the new slim unit maby $50 max cut if any..
Based on the PSP Go! price, they'll probabably put a bigger hard drive in it and raise the price by $80.
Based on the PSP Go, they'll remove the Blu-Ray and jack the price up 50%.
does anyone else tune out when they hear the word "analyst" in video game/console articles?
That has to be the easiest job. Right below TV weather man. Just pull a random rumor out of your ass every week and say it won't happen for several months. By then everyone has forgotten your prediction.
If there is a price cut for the PS3, it will be maximum of $50. It will always be the most expensive console, unless one of the other two manufacturers release a major upgrade of their console.
You're right about it being the most expensive. The PS3 is overpowered, I really doubt that it will ever reach its full potential before the next generation of consoles. I also doubt that there are any major hardware updates coming to any of the current gen consoles, at least nothing that would change prices.
Microsoft doesn't need an update: the 360 is a solid piece of hardware, the RRoD issues are (for the most part) in the past, and their software updates have kept demands in check, and looks like Microsoft has their entry in for good in the long run. I suppose if anything, Microsoft might release an updated 360 with a built in wireless adapter, however I doubt that will happen until next gen either.
Beyond that, everyone knows the Wii is underpowered. Even Nintendo has pretty much acknowledged that the Wii is a system lacking in power, but everyone also knows that they won't release an update either. Here, the conflict is between the PS3 and the Xbox 360, the two consoles that hold the attention of the hard-core gaming market, the market that *cares* about power. The Wii frankly doesn't *need* an upgrade, because it would be released and wasted on people that, for the most part, wouldn't even notice. The Wii's target audience is an audience who isn't affected by these power issues, and look for the cheapest console.
All in all, as far as prices go, I think that things will stand the way they are: PS3 will remain the most expensive, the 360 will stay in the middle, and the Wii will stay at the lowest price point. If anything, all three systems will slowly take cuts of the next X years, but I don't think the PS3 is ever going to become cheaper than Microsoft's offering. It seems to me that Sony put out a powerhouse that, unfortunately, probably won't ever realize its full potential, but does offer something the 360 doesn't with it's HD DVD Format player in the Blue Ray drive.
I think things are right where they should be. All three companies have created excellent pieces of hardware, all of which have their strengths, and if anything drastic happens with prices/hardware, I highly doubt it will be this generation.
blah blah, the wii's actually more expensive etc...
I for one remember that the analysts, in particular Pachter, were hailing March 09 as prime price drop time. When that didn't happen, E3 (June 09) was said to be the time. Now that that hasn't happened, it's become August. Frankly the analysts have by this time lost all credibility in their knowledge of when the price drop will happen.
You know it's more of an educated guess than knowledge.
With a multiplat game? I was expecting this price drop to come around with GT5, the highest selling PS and racing game. It could be $50 and $50 when GT5 launches.
GT5 still isn't out? talk about forever...
Seriously. They should rename it Gran Turismo 5 Forever.
I was a huge fan of the GT series and bought my original PS and the PS2 just to play those games. Switched to the 360 for this generation of consoles for Forza and haven't regretted it.. especially with these kinds of delays.
Though I will still probably end up picking up a cheap PS3 for a BluRay player one of these days.
GT5P launched with around 75 cars and 6 tracks. It's quite obvious GT5 will be A LOT bigger then any racing game in existence. They can afford to put this much development time into the game due to the fact that Sony is paying for it, GT5P sold over 3 million, and the GT series is just popular and is guaranteed sales over 2 million. I think the wait is worth it. I would buy a 360 and Forza to keep me busy until it comes out. When it drops I'm sure it'll blow everyone away. They aren't in a rush to put this game out because it's a high quality franchise. It'll be polished to death, more then Killzone 2 and MGS4.It'll be a real racing sim as well. Forza 3 looks more like a derby arcadish racing game for casuals.
I want a Wii before I go back to school... Bitches love that shit.
Guys like it too.
bitches love my wiiwii.
and if guys like that shit, there's some serious issues bro.
Yeah, buying a Wii will totally get you laid bro...
@ $299...they will own this holiday season. Couple that with a 8gb PSPgo at a lower price point.
When the hell is the full Gran Turismo 5 coming out?
22nd December, 2012
The PS3 has a 10 year plan, apparently so does GT5..
Hahaha, I got it. Also recognised the NIN setup. Nice
*I'm Australian by the way, we don't take kindly to z's around here.
lol Indifintie Implosion.
Now I'll never be able to play it
*high-5's jimmyink for also being Australian*
Yeah, I took that when I saw them this year at Soundwave in Syd :)
my first semester at college was peak H2 time and I was a drone resulting in a 1.86 gpa haha. After gaming rehab (not playing halo 2) and alot of prioritizing I was able to graduate over a 3.0.
wajones I also have the same question and was disappointed to to hear anything about it
Sony keeps pushing back their price cuts because the rumors about price cuts are hurting their current sales. Sony will cut the price just after everyone is convinced that the price won't drop, and they go buy a PS3 for $399.
$299..$300. I paid $599 for my PS3 in 2006. Sony should do this...release a PS3 with a SMALL HDD. hell a 16 GB flash disk and bring back BC for $299. WITH a 120GB HDD $349. WITH a 500 GB HDD $399.
They should release a PS3 with 50GB HDD, no BD Drive and only for PSN downloads instead put it a price of 199
@m3nphls you are a complete ding dong if you think that Sony is going to ditch the blu-ray player. On top of that, if they were going to make a PSN only PS3, then you think that a 50gb HDD is going to be enough space???? Hell, someone is going to have to download all 50gb of MGS4 and then delete it just to play another game. Plus, I don't think most ISP's would be too happy that Sony has decided to make a network only PS3 that requires 25gb+ sized games to be downloaded at a time!
Besides, one could argue that the blu-ray drive is the primary reason Sony has been able to sell 23 million PS3s so far!
I love my PS3 to death, but let these ridiculous rumors die. Sony isn't in a position financially to cater to everyone's requests for a cheaper PS3. Its like someone saying that Honda should make a 2010 S2000 with 400hp, weigh only 2000lbs and only cost $20K. Obviously Sony has to keep costs down of the system, so they won't drop the price $100 and add back in BC. Honestly, I have a 80gb with backwards compatibility and I rarely use it. It does give me the peace of mind, but there are too many great PS3 games right now that keep me occupied.
@rickjamess04
that's exactly what i'm saying in my comment a little bit further down. People who have their Xbox360 breaking on them and gladly go and buy a second or third one could've easily spend the money on a PS3 which is more reliable.
@m3nphls Ah--thanks for the clarification. Sorry about that. Hahaha.
But a separate point I wanted to make was that August seems like a fairly reasonable time for a price drop considering that the last price drop occurred in August...
you DO Realize that those HDDs cost nothing right???
If we can get a $500GB HDD for under $90 how much do you think Sony pays for them???
not to mention that the 20GB PS3's were worse in terms of space than the 20GB 360s....why?? because the PS3 has games that FORCE Installs...3 games and you are done...dont even think about DLC or Demos....
What I'm saying is the HDD is NOT what is keeping the PS3 cost where it is....
no, parents are going to buy their kids a ps3 because they want the kids to think they love them when really they are buying it because it will keep them from playing too many games.
People complaining about price cuts as an excuse to not buy a PS3 does not deserve to own one. I bought my 60GB at $599 and still don't regret it. Just look at the value and how stable the console is.....compared to the Xbox360 and how many people have gone through 2, 3 or even more Xbox360's and they just go out and buy one instead of going through the warranty....
In that picture, the PS3 does look like the biggest crap ever...
Who wants a PS3 for college anyway. That $600 could buy a lot of beer... I mean books.
Yes but it's easier to get your parents to buy you a PS3 instead of beer. (Unless you have the coolest/most-criminally-negligent parents in the world.)
Obviously the solution is to get your parents to buy you a PS3, sell it, then buy your own damn beer (and fake ID).
Anyone else offended by the grave robbing comments? Uncharted is about more than grave robbing... it's about action, adventure, exploration ...and shooting lots and lots of dudes. Get it straight!
games are for idiots and virgins
From what I hear all the douche-bags at Gamestop saying (customers, not employees), it's Madden "oh-ten."
How old are those textbooks???
How is $399 more expensive than an Xbox360 again?
for $299 you get an Xbox360 with a 60 gig Hard Drive...add wifi for $100 more....add another $50 for online gaming for one year. Wow so for $449 you get a Xbox260 with less hard drive space and no Blu Ray. Most my friends pay for online gaming and also bought the WiFi adapter.
Add up the accumilative dollars of a few years of online gaming and you can see the price difference between consoles.
Also the headset for the 360 is $60. You can use any $20 bluetooth headset with the PS3.
The PS3 is the Cheaper console - to expect a larger price drop is ridiculous. Why not rag on Microsoft a little harder about those overpriced peripherals and EXPENSIVE online gaming.
Yes, but it's also the console that has better EXCLUSIVE games. There's just a tiny amount more, enough to offset the PS3's initial price point.
The two consoles are so close to each other in capabilities it's crazy. Sony just decided to come off as an arrogant, elitist prick at the start. Microsoft came off as a humbled giant begging for business. Is it any wonder why Sony is behind?
Above all else, this generation just proves how much Sony screwed up its marketing. It was a marketing war from the start, not a console war. Even today, not many people realize that...
stop with that....most people dont play gaming over Wifi and if they do chances are they have issues from time to time...
I tried it for a day and it worked fine for 4 hours then I started getting DNS connect errors from hell
Arguing the exclusive games is only based on opinion, and I'm sure that many would disagree with you.
While I believe that the PS3 is the better VALUE, it's not the CHEAPEST console. Yes, if you add Wifi, XBL Gold subscription, etc. then the 360 costs more. You may be able to do pretty much everything the PS3 is capable of right out of the box, but you pay for those "extras" even if you don't intend to use them.
The old "the wifi costs $100" myth again. 1) Anybody on this forum likely has more than one internet ready device near their tv. Why would you want each individual device fighting for bandwidth and interfering with each other? 2) For $30, you can get a wireless router that will kick the crap out of the POS builtin Wifi on the PS3 and work with ALL your internet devices. 3) The crap G wifi in the PS3 can't stream HD. 4) Most real gamers don't use wireless because of the lag and random drops, unless it is a high performance N-router that can prioritize traffic. Me, I just strung cat5 until i got a MoCA box. No lag and no random drops because the neighbors turned on their microwave. 5) If you include the $100 for the 360 self-contained adapter (again, you could use any $30 wireless router iinstead), then I can say the PS3 has hidden costs as well. What about having to spend $60 extra on an IR adapter if I want to use a real universal remote to turn on my PS3 and control it for movies? Sure it's not necessary (just like wifi isn't necessary on the 360), but I don't feel like spending extra for Sony's proprietary (and crummy) bluetooth remote and have to juggle it with my real remote which can control everything else in the known universe. I don't use wifi, but I do use a Harmony remote, so on the PS3 I would have to spend that extra money while on the 360 I was good to go. 6) How about spending $400 on a PS3 and they don't even give an HD cable but a crappy composite cable instead? Bet Blu-rays will look real nice over that. Since you apparently only buy official, console-branded items- that an extra $50 for the Sony PS3 HDMI cable. Or you could splurge and spend $150 for the official PS3 Monster HDMI cable. Ridiculous, right? But I'm just going by your rules
I didn't see your ridiculous headset comment. 1) The 360 comes with a headset, so there's $20 I save right there. 2) Why do I need a wireless headset, when I can plug into the wireless controller? The official wired headset is $20 but Sony's OFFICIAL (which you only seem to buy) headset is $50. If your argument is that the PS3 can use any BT headset (it can't, the selection is very limited) then I have to point out that the 360 can use almost any cell phone wired headset (those are like $3) because the jack is standard.
Jeez! Just do it already!!!!!!
yea not out yet.....didnt you hear, its suppose to have 10million cars and 50million tracks..and it updates it self every day! Because we all have that much time to put towards a game.
i just want the ps3
perfect timing sony. I like how you think
What's sad is that this would make you less likely to fail. WoW is much more likely to cause kids to fail. At least the weak ones :P
Fun fact:
PS3 costs $500 and comes with a built in blueray drive and has no charge for online pay.
As per the console's 10 year life span, PS owners roughly pay $4 a month for a PS3.
Xbox360 costs $200, doesn't have a blueray and comes with a yearly online fee of $60.
So in 10 years the total cost of the console is $200+$600=$800.
=$7 per month.
And then come the problems like RROD, disc scratching and hundreds of others.
Compare $7 a month and $4 a month. Which one's cheaper? Which is the better investment? You decide.
I just traded in my PS2 at GameStop to get $100 off of a $400 80GB PS3 for my birthday! I had asked for an early present at the end of May and I got one. Finally, today I heard about a price drop in August, the month of my birthday. God, I hate SONY. They should tell about price drops earlier than 2 months' notice. But at least I didn't buy it using my money, just my PS2 and 3 games for it.
2011: Understanding Gran Turismo release dates is like understanding the Da Vinci Code; it's all about the Fibonacci sequence.
GT1 - 1997
GT2 - 1999 (2yrs later)
GT3 - 2001 (2yrs later)
GT4 - 2005 (2+2= 4yrs later)
GT5 - 2011 (4+2= 6yrs later)
So, on the bright side, our wait is more than half over...
The only reason that the 360 sales are so high, is that people are buying 2 or 3 because their other ones keep breaking, And because the people are dumb, because they only bought a system with a one year warranty and most don't even register, Microsoft won't replace it for them. So they either have to have their crap 360 paid to be fix (plus shipping) or they can try their luck with a brand new system.
But hey, one thing that amazes me is the loyalty of the fan for microsoft. You think that if a company sold you a peice of crap and told you that you had to pay for them to fix it or buy a new one, they would stick with them and help their profits. Those are loyal fans or (in my opinion) just really DUMB!!!
I don't know, I really like my PS3 that has a lifetime warranty, a company that actually cared enough to take a blow in sales and push the release date back to make sure that their fans enjoyed a well working, mind blowing machine, that you don't have to buy 2 or 3 of (just to be safe) and not screwing their costumers over.
Maybe I am the one who's dumb because I think that Sony is a more fan oriented company that actually cares about the fans, instead of saying its the fans fault that the disc's are ruined in the console and that refusing to admit that there is a problem with the console for over a year.