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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."
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.