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CNN On The $500 PS3
Chris Morris reports in CNN's Game Over column that analysts have pegged the price point for the PS3 at $500. Despite the high price, you're getting a lot of tech for your buck. From the article: "The strongest argument behind the $499 price point is the PS3's inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive. This bleeding edge technology will give Sony significant bragging rights, but it comes at a cost. Pioneer last week at the Consumer Electronics Show unveiled a standalone Blu-Ray player for $1,800. Obviously, Pioneer's earning some profit there - and Sony will almost certainly subsidize the cost of the drives, but you're still looking at an expensive bit of hardware. The PS3 will also feature other pricey items, such as a hard drive, the Cell processor and a new graphics chip from nVidia."
The entire article is nothing but speculations about the price. The article even says they have no idea what the price will be and that it is all just guesswork; especially since Sony made no other comment than "...it's all just speculation".
Why is this considered front page news for Slashdot?
Despite the high price, you're getting a lot of tech for your buck.
I dont want a lot of tech for $500, I just want something that plays games that is affordable. Of course I am getting a Revolution, but I also want something that will play Metal Gear Solid 4 and some other sony-exclusive titles -and that will have to be a PS3. Make a machine that plays games and leave all the media extender dual 1080p output bullshit to the people who want it.
Exactly.
A huge deal was made about how much less the PS2 cost than a standalone DVD player, since at the time the pricing was announced DVD players cost $1000+, but before release day came, DVD player prices were down in the $100-$120 price range (I paid $120 for a Toshiba DVD player 2 months before the PS2 release) because the PS2 anouncement took the premium value away from the standalone players. Those player manufacturers certainly weren't taking a loss on the players at the lower price point, and they didn't get 90% more efficient at building them in a matter of weeks either...
The biggest expense in producing BluRay players is all the electronics to generate an HD signal, and all that stuff is in next-gen consoles anyway. There will be a moderate increase in the cost of the optics and the price of the patent licenses (which sony doesn't have to pay to itself), but other than that it costs essentially the same amount to build a BluRay reader as DVD reader. The manufacturers just want everybody to think it costs so much so they can make a ton of profit selling to early adopters. Sony has played the PR game so well that ever these stupid analysts believe the cost is high, and the analysts that are smart enough to see through it don't get publicity because they aren't saying anything controversial. Publishing a story like that wouldn't generate any ad revenue.
As far as video clarity goes Blu Ray & HD-DVD are going to fail unless they force studios to stop making DVD's. Read any of the CES coverage and you'll find 1080p plasmas running a Blu Ray/HD movie and the same set running a regular DVD on an upconverting dvd player.
Every one of them says the difference is hardly noticeable, slight bit of extra sharpness to the picture for the HD one. This is NOT the jump from VHS to DVD.
Other than for data storage these two formats are about 7-10 years ahead of when they'd really be needed.
Why they felt the need to try and push another new format on top of DVD is beyond me. Sounds like a pissing match that got out of hand. Where was the guy standing up in the meeting asking "Wait why are we spending time and tons of money on this right at this moment?"
-- taking over the world, we are.
Why do the ball-in-a-cup fanboys have to post this same advertising drivel every time there's an article about video games? Nobody's buying your product anyway. And stick-in-a-hoop has much more processing power and you know it.
You know, as I sit here and realize that we are all yammering on about how a $500 price point is too high, it strikes me that hundreds, if not thousands of Xbox360's changed hands on Ebay for well over $500 not a month ago. The non-core version is still selling for more than $500 in a few auctions.
We all know that the PS3 will blow the doors off the 360 (and some of us saw this @ CES), so where's the problem with the $500?
The simple truth is that if it hits at $500, and you want it, you'll buy it. And if there is a shortage, and you still want it, you'll pay $1000 for it on Ebay.