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PS3 Price Drop Won't Happen Anytime Soon
1up is reporting on comments from SCEA's Jack Tretton, who responded to the question "Will we see the PS3's price drop?" with the point blank answer of not anytime soon. Mr. Tretton responded with what has now become the Sony party line: it cost a lot to develop, and gamers are getting a lot of machine for their money. Therefore, the high price is justified if you consider what is being offered. From the article: "By way of comparison, the PS2 dropped a hundred bucks in price during the first 550 days of its lifespan -- from $299 to $199 USD. Tretton's words would seem to suggest that the PS3's price point may take significantly longer than a mere year and a half to reach the same threshold. Given that scenario, one would really hope that Sony has some kind of ace-in-the-hole for keeping our collective attention (and purchasing enthusiasm) squarely focused on the PS3."
I believe they are talking about Sony dropping the price. Retailers will always adjust the price based on market demand, in this case I guess they couldn't sell any PS3's the the cost to them from Sony hasn't dropped. That's what TFA seems to be about.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
And WiFi is included with the PS3...
Only on the $600 model
I'd check out the prices for the original 802.11g adapters for the Xbox 1... They work with the 360, are cheap on eBay, but don't have 802.11a (which I don't use myself, so it's no big deal to me).
Owning both I feel some of your points are a bit mistaken.
1. This is highly subjective. I prefer the ps3 controller (though I do miss rumble).
2. No question about it. XBox live is superior to the free PS3 offering. Now had MS offered a free, feature-stripped service like the Sony has, I would have taken that instead of paying $50.
3. Eh... the majority of console owners will never do anything but play games, so this isn't really a selling point to most people.
4. The 20 gig PS3 is the console which is comparable to the 360 premium, not the 60 gig. The only advantage the XBox has there is the inclusion of the component cables. If you're willing to go online, you can get HDMI for $10. So depending on your network setup, this is a wash. Me? I required wifi in my console so I would have made out the same had I purchased the 20 gig (I got the 60).
5. Smaller yes, but I think the PS3 looks nicer. Plus nothing is more annoying that a 360 with a disc in the drive. It's grating at 10 feet.
Now if I had to choose just one console? The 360. Without a doubt. But that's only NOW. In a year when Sony has built up a decent library of games like the 360 has, things may be different.
And I'm completely ignoring the Wii since that's competing on a different level than these two (planning on picking one up next month).
Actually, $600 back when the Neo-Geo debuted (1990? 1991?) would be comparable to around $900 in today's dollars. So when you think about it, the PS3 is almost 33% cheaper than the Neo-Geo was, at launch. Or something like that.
I didn't buy a Neo-Geo.
I haven't bought a PS3...yet.
/full disclosure
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Not that surprising really... Unless you live near stores that stockpile, it's not all that uncommon to walk into a Target/BestBuy/CircuitCity late in the afternoon and see a couple on the shelves.
I was noticing a few days ago that most of the above retail auctions on eBay for the Wii were going to Canadian bidders. It's hard to say now though, since eBay changed to not revealing the high bidder's user name. It's pretty clear that ones displayed as willing to ship to Canada are selling for more though.
From asking around, even in these Slashdot threads, it seems that if you live more than a half hour outside of a city in the US, you can get a Wii without any trouble now. THey've shipped so many of them, it's really not surprising that supply would be catching up with demand finally.
At EBStop just ask for the controller. They can't leave it just lying out since it's, you know, wireless. It would be stolen within hours.
I bought one for $250 at CompUSA yesterday. No bundling, no warranty, no scalping, no waiting in line. I just walked up to the desk and asked if they had a Wii in stock. They had seven.
However, this was after I couldn't find one at Best Buy, Circuit City, or Costco.
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