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Both Sides of the PS3 Price Cut Rumor
So here's the deal: Kotaku has a flier for an upcoming Circuit City deal on the PlayStation 3, putting the price at $499. There's some confusion about whether this is just a sale from Circuit City, or an actual price drop from Sony. Next Generation has Sony saying 'no', indicating that this isn't a sign of an across-the-board price cut. Meanwhile, GameDaily says 'yes', with sources in the retail industry indicating this is the price adjustment we've heard coming for a while now. "As it turns out, a merchandising manager (who wished to remain anonymous) at one of the world's biggest retailers has confirmed to GameDaily BIZ that the price drop is indeed retail-wide and it's scheduled to take place on July 12, although the first wave of ads to promote the PS3's new price won't kick in until Sunday, July 15. Many analysts have speculated that Sony would drop the price on the expensive console this year, and some even predicted that it could happen this summer. It's starting to look like they were right. We're sure to find out much more next week when Sony holds its press conference at E3." Luckily we won't have to wait long to see what's the real story here.
Still way more than I will pay for bare bones console.
Sadly, I could probably double the performance of my PC for that price.
I really might consider buying at that price, if only for the BluRay. Hell, I paid $1000 for my DVD player!!! I think I can pay $500 for a BluRay player and a console in one.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
I bought a Wii and a DS:Lite on a whim, but $500 is simply too much. I'll consider it when it is around $300.
This and the 5 free blu-ray discs promotion will be happening simultaneously. If they promote both aggressively, I can imagine sales jumping quite a bit.
Then again, Sony will probably just release an ad with a monkey in a diaper and not mention anything relevant at all.
Now Nintendo will only be beating them 5 to 1 instead of 6 to 1.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
Figures, I just bought one a week ago. My sacrifice is for the good of the people.
//TODO: Insert catchy phrase
while I don't think it needs to be THAT cheap to be a success they already had a $500 price point that they ditched. IMO the extra 40GB of hard drive space (for a hard drive that you can swap out yourself with an off the shelf part) and built in WiFi wasn't really worth the extra $100 they were charging for the premium unit anyway.
If there was anyone with $500 in their pocket who wanted a PS3 they probably would have bought the 20GB model when it was still available, I'm pretty sure you can still find them lingering around stores today too.
If they want to be competitive they have to match the 360's price point... unfortunately I think if anything this price drop will cause Microsoft to follow suit, they've been hinting at a price drop for quite some time as well.
Collector's Edition
I sued to work electronics retail (best buy.. ughh), anyway- there is NO markup on game consoles, places like best buy and circuit city make their money by selling games, services, and accessories for the consoles. I highly doubt circuit city is willing to take a >$100 hit on each ps3.
I bought the Wii for $250, and I thought that was a pretty good price. For the PS3, if they got the 60 GB version down around $400, I'd probably seriously consider buying one. Anything higher than that just isn't going to happen though.
Hmm, I haven't had a console since the NES, but when I bought my Wii with Sports and Trauma Center, I basically got a Gamecube, and a limited NES, SNES, TG16 and I have my Wii now. A friend loaned me Prince of Persia, Metriod Prime, and two Zelda disks, and I got a whole lot of gaming for under $400. I'm big on budget gaming, but there is a whole lot of value in having a Nintendo right now. I'll probably continue to focus on Gamecube gaming for a while and add some VC games before I pick up new Wii games next year.
To get an Xbox 360 that is feature competitive (elite or not), you're going to be paying within $50 of the price of the current PS3. And even then, the Xbox 360 is far less cross-platform friendly, using nonstandard technology for its media streaming and peripherals. And you'll need to spend extra money for a HD-DVD box (if that's your thing). If you're considering buying a traditional game console, the PS3 is very competitive to the XBox 360 (especially so given the troubling reliability issues with the 360, I myself am on my third which refuses to play Gears of War!)
In comparison to the Wii, I advise you go for the Wii first unless you have a big PS2 game selection, in which case the PS3 will probably be a better value. The Wii and PS3 are both game systems, but the Wii is the interesting bargain product and the PS3 is the luxury product. This is not a representation of Wii dominance, it's a representation of supply/demand economics and how they interact with MSRPs. For many people, the Wii is a lever to get gaming into homes that aren't otherwise receptive to it. That's awesome, it's the tide that raises all the boats, and no one can deny the Wii is an interesting an innovative console. I like it, I waited overnight for mine, I endorse it.
But right now, the Wii isn't much more atttractive a platform than the PS3, if you get fair about the comparison. It's only got three really great titles (WiiPlay, Zelda and Paper Mario) and a release schedule that's nearly as lackluster as the PS3's. It's got a lot of development difficulty (instead of wrangling the cell, you're designing for a completely new and somewhat alien control system that requires a lot of realtime analysis of multiple data streams).
I totally understand waiting on buying a PS3. The platform only has a few really great titles right now (Motorstorm and recently the revised Ninja Gaiden Sigma), so it's entirely reasonable to wait. But to say that this $100 price drop doesn't make it competitive is just absurd and it's hater-aide. Don't buy into the anti-hype surrounding the platform.
Disclosure: I own all 3 consoles, a high def television. I am a supporter of Blu-ray as a recordable data standard. My Wii has stayed quiet since I beat Paper Mario, my Xbox 360 (2rd replacement) has just shown hardware defects and I'm told to send it in again. I do not work or take money from any video game company or Sony. I run both mac and linux boxes in my home, so an open media streaming capability is important to me.
Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
With the exception of the Cell processor and a different selection of "fairly good online content", I already own something that does all of these things. And unless you're also using your PS3 to post on Slashdot, so do you.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
Update your firmware to 1.80 or higher. PS3 didn't ship with upconverting working, but it was released in the update a few weeks ago.
1970s: Arcades got cocky, and Atari is kicking their ass for losing sight of the consumer's demands.
1980s: Atari got cocky, and Nintendo is kicking their ass for losing sight of the consumer's demands.
1990s: Nintendo got cocky, and Sony is kicking their ass for losing sight of the consumer's demands.
2000s: Sony got cocky, and Microsoft is kicking their ass for losing sight of the consumer's demands.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.