Whoa, Nelly! No sooner than we hear that Sony is informing Japanese retailers that the 80GB PS3 model
won't be shipping any longer after August 8th, along comes this to stoke the raging rumor fires once more. In a one-two punch that just
can't be coincidental, Sony has also hacked $50 off of its
160GB PlayStation 3 bundle from Amazon. But really, it's the report from
RTLinfo that has us most excited. According to it, the Sony elite are informing European retailers of an impending €100 price slashing on the 80GB console, which will dovetail nicely into the sudden and not-at-all unexpected debut of the
PS3 Slim at the gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany. Reportedly, the willowy unit -- which shouldn't differ much in terms of specifications and features -- will be properly introduced to the world during Sony's pre-event press conference on August 18th. Obviously we've no way to confirm or deny just yet, but given
everything else that has
transpired over the
past few months, we'd say an official reveal is definitely due. What say you, rumormongers?
Read - Sony PS3 Slim to be revealed at gamescom [Thanks, Dominic]
Read - 160GB PS3 price cut [Via
GamesIndustry]
posted August 4th 2009 6:10AM
The per month average is meaningless. It's called "market saturation". After just shy of four years, if you wanted a 360, you probably have one. If you want to honestly compare sales, compare the 360s 32 month sales with the PS3's 32 month sales. I have no idea who wins that comparison, but if you're going to try to make a point, at least make one that's not based on flawed statistical reasoning.
Personally, I got a PS3 rather than be nickel and dimed to death with 360 accessories (besides that power brick...), but the game selection on the 360 is pretty tempting.
@John
The 32 month figures for each are almost exactly 23 million PS3s and 20 million 360s. The only thing that clouds the water slightly is that Xbox is doing much better in the US, but the PS3 is doing better everywhere else. FYI, at the same point in its life, the Wii was on about 52m units.
These figs are all according to VGChartz.com.
@john
I don't own either console, I am a PC gamer at heart. I was just trying to show that all the doom-sayers are off base with the talk of the PS3 eminent demise.
I intend to pick up a PS3 this fall for the living room of our house because my 14 year old son wants one so bad that he turned down a 360 last Christmas to hold out for the PS3 this year (I told him 360 now or wait till the games that he wants are closer to release on the PS3) because all his favorite games are on the Sony consoles (Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet and Clank, Final Fantasy, God of War, etc.) He has a PS2 and Xbox atm and the PS2 gets played almost exclusively, the xbox only comes out when his friends bring theirs over for Halo matches, which is pretty rare anymore.
I will buy one whether there is a slim or not, whether they cut the price any more or not, because i told him he could have one this christmas. But I do believe that they should drop it $50-100 and release the rumored new backwards compatibility features, plus discontinue the PS2 model. If they did so I truly believe that they would sell a lot more consoles than they do at present.
It's not about me being cheap and wanting the price down, I already have a BD player on our HDTV and in my desktop system in the den so the PS3 did not offer us any value there, we have three PS2 slims, an Xbox, three DS, four computers. I could buy four PS3's for the cost of my desktop system. Its just the fact that there is a definite price point in consumer electronics where you achieve a large up swing in sales, and I believe that the PS3 is over that point at the moment.
On the other hand, Sony may try to hold the price the same and make a nice profit on each sale going forward. As they are selling ok now, i think they have trailed of the last month or so mainly due to people holding out for either a new model or price-cut because of the rumors.
Dear Sony, I would gladly pay an additional $100 for a model that supported SACD playback and had full PS2 backward-compatibility.
Wait.. I thought Sony still had SACD playback support despite the lack of the EE.
All PS3s support SACD, but no PS3s now support PS2 games, unfortunately. On the bright side though, early adopters won't feel quite as burned when the PS3 slim comes out.
PS3s have not supported SACD playback since the 40GB model disappeared and even then it didn't support DSD out, it converted it to 192KHz 24-bit.
It was a very minor feature anyway, used by virtually no one. It can hardly justify any additional cost to the unit when less than 1 in 50,000 owners uses it. If it adds a single penny to the unit then that means that it's basically costing $500 per SACD user to add the feature to units. Sony could ship a standalone SACD player to every user who needs the feature for less than a penny a unit net.
That guy above me is right. And I second the OP.
Hey, Mr Blurrycam seems to have upped his ISO at last.
So I was going to go buy a PS3 next week... I assume hold off for a bit?
Fuck this Slim nonsense! I want a PS3 Super Phat. Bigger, Louder, Hotter and the same electricity draw as a small Polish village.
Why is everyone so affixed to this price cut business? Here is what will happen. Existing 80GB and 160GB PS3 will see significant price cuts now and leading up to the holiday. Obviously Sony wants to clear old inventory. At the same time they are not going to debut the new sleek PS3 slim at a reduced price. No way. And sure, the slim will cost Sony less to make, but guess what; they are in business to do business. The PSP Go will not debut at a discount, nor will the PS3 slim.
If you want your discount system you will have to buy an older generation PS3 (like the rest of us already have). I for one love the damn thing. High def. movies, amazing games geared towards the hardcore. But if you want the latest and greatest, the lower heat, lower power consumption, you are going to pay $400.
With regard to backwards compatibility. For some time, Sony has been working on a software (not hardware like the emotion chip) to enable backwards compatibility on all PS3’s. Time will tell if this actually happens, but keep you eye on future firmware/system updates.
how do you know all this?
People think it should be cheaper because the 360 can do the largely same thing for a lot less money (baring blu-ray, but standalone players are getting cheaper now, and soon the PS3's Blu-ray playback will be as relevant as the PS2's DVD playback was (ie. not very))
As for Sony working on software to enable backwards compatibility, it would be ironic if the ended up reverse engineering an emulator.
exactly!
cheap ass fucks I swear...
It's the name of the game, always has been. The newest gadgetry is expensive and flawed. You want cheap? have to go old.
PERIOD
Stop acting like console are not electronics
It'll be a $100 cheaper, because it needs to be. Sony knows they need a price cut.
The older generation units are most certainly no longer in production and 80GBs are a bit scarce now. They'll get marked down, but because they are on clearance, not because they are the value SKU to Sony. Sony can't afford to sell the old model for $100 less, because it costs so much more than the slim to make.
Finally someone is talking sense. A Sony rep was commenting on why the PSP Go would cost more than the PSP that had a UMD Drive in it and his words were pretty much. "Consumers expect to pay a premium on new hardware." There most likely won't be a price cut on the PS3 Slim IF it comes out soon like everyone is guessing. People have been touting a $100 price drop soon since the beginning of last year. I guess if you just say it enough you will be proven right eventually is the theory people have been going on?
that doesn't look kirf-tastic at all
no no its just the new ESD
SKU overload?
I wanted a PS3, I really did. Everything about the machine and the GUI screams high end, but sifting through them trying to find the one that plays ps2 games proper is hell.
no its not... get a 60GB has the Emotion Engine in it.
it really is that simple
In effect, there isn't one that that plays PS2 games proper anymore, there hasn't been for 2 years now. So don't worry yourself over it.
Chinese clone.
I looked at the picture and the first thing that came to my mind was "PS3Fit"
I hope that they they get around to giving it opengl with the redesign...
Any word if the PS3 slim will be able to bitstream DTS HD-MA and Dolby True-HD codecs? It would not really sound any different than the current PS3 sending the signal via LPCM but it would be cool to see the codec light up on the front panel of my Onkyo 805.
I'm sure cost reduction is the major thrust of the slim. If it added features like this it would be very unusual.
To be honest, I don't think you'll ever see the PS3 do streaming out of HD-MA or TrueHD because it makes audio processing (mixing, sound effects) in the unit much more difficult. For exampe, if you use the 1.5x play mode on the Blu-ray player, it has to get the audio down to PCM before it can process it. So if you are using DD 5.1 streaming out, you lose the DD. But if you are using multichannel PCM streaming out, you keep your surround sound. Any other in-PS3 audio processing has the same issues.
PCM out streaming just makes sense for so many reasons.
That's uglier than the phat!
I'm sure i can confidently test the commenting system with this post that no one is going to read.
I don't care if it gets any smaller (actually, that WOULD be nice...). What I really want, is for them to include a freaking $0.02 IR SENSOR, so I can control it with a regular universal remote, like everything else in my entertainment center.
The idea of needing to buy an additional part, like that new Logitec one, is flat-out ridiculous.
Think there will be any minor 'improvements' made to the slim or the regular unit?
I don't understand people that are not sure if the photo is real or not!!
Of coarse it is, it matches the video we've seen exactly and also matches the leaked photo of the packaging.
That IS the unit, it WILL NOT have card readers, WILL have two usb slots and WILL NOT have any improvments over existing models except for being cheaper to produce and therefore cheaper to buy and, in my opinion it looks better than the existing one and I can't wait to get one! :)
Oh yeah and it'll be 120gb. I bet my nan on it! :)
So when is the pricecut on the normal model? after the 18th??
If it comes out cheaper, it'll make no sense if you look at the PSP Go which is cheaper to make than the PSP but costs more to buy.....
Sony hasn't shipped any PS3's in several weeks to my store. We were told not to expect any new units until the new SKU hits.
Brian f: What store is that?
@ why not the ls2ls7? does your dedicated A/V unit process the HD codecs you want the ps3 to do? I believe it does. Thing is that with PCM Bitstream you will not see your light with any unit I could find. If you select either of these formats on the disc your 805 will recieve the proper signal. From what i've read at highdef forum it will be processed by the 805 correctly. You just won't see your light.
If the PSP Go is any indication, if there is a PS3 Slim, the price will go up.....
Speaking from a business side and after reading all the comments, yes the PS3 slim will be more expensive.
If rumours about production costs are correct then the current 80gb and 40gb have been cheaper to produce since the 45nm move, so they can afford to drop the price on those to get rid of them all and make a loss because they have been for so long anyway and its still not as big of a loss as they were first making. But, they now have a new model, which is even cheaper to produce, but because its shiny and new and consumers pay more for newer products in the electrical world it will be more expensive, but, their profit margin on this new machine, hardware alone will be immense and therefore offset the loss of the price drop on the old models.
I myself already own a 40gb PS3 but I am getting a Slim fer sho, i'm gettin that fer sho.
Why? Because its shiny and new!!!
But will also mean i can stop monopolising the only Blu-Ray player in the house and move it downstairs for everyone else to use while i keep the shiny new one in my room.
What About the heat inside the console? Im hoping this machine doesnt convert into stove.