$499 PlayStation 3 Confirmed

Gamespot is reporting that the rumoured price drop from earlier this week is a reality. Starting on July 10th, the current 60GB model will sell for $499. Coming to US shores in August is the 80GB version only available in South Korea at the moment, which will retail for $599. They're bundling that unit with Motorstorm, so it's not just another 20 gigs for $100. "The price drop further indicates that, after a slow start, Sony is now aggressively trying to expand its customer base in the US. The move comes none too soon. According to the latest figures from industry-research firm the NPD Group, the PS3 only sold 82,000 units in the US in May, compared to the Xbox 360's 155,000 units and the Wii's 338,000 units." So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3, or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?

Comments

Blu-Ray

[Brad1138]

I want one for the Blu-Ray player. I have a 61" DLP set that is just screaming for Blu-Ray or HD DVD, Personally I like Blu-Ray. Currently stand alone Blu-Ray players are $650+ (from a quick Google search). From the reviews I have read it holds up fairly well against them. Plus an awesome gaming machine.

Re:Blu-Ray

[White Flame]

I've seen a few places like the Fry's Electronics store near me that had 2 identical Sony 1080p displays next to each other, playing the same HD movie, one in HD-DVD and the other in Blu-Ray, both stand-alone players. The HD-DVD version always had MUCH less compression noise and blockiness than the BR one. Then again I'm a real pixelophile and am far more offended about such things than the average person (I think that the visual quality of both suck dung and aren't worth the money; don't get me started on digital cable vs analog ;) ). I haven't seen BR movies on the PS3, but I suspect it'll have the same or worse quality than a standalone player.

Re:Blu-Ray

[FatherOfONe]

So you have a multi thousand dollar PC sitting there holding your ripped DVD's. I have a 24" LCD and I can tell a HUGE difference between 720P and 1080P. Now having said that, it appears that the PS3 isn't for you, nor is it for anyone who has a standard def tv at the moment. However, if you have a HDTV and a large library of PS2 games then this isn't a bad buy at all.

Now for your argument that Microsoft isn't trying to "jam" something down my throat with the 360... Well I don't want or need another freaking DVD player, so why did they include it? Wasn't CD good enough... It is for me :-) Some people don't have HDTV's so why are they trying to cram HD down EVERYONES throat? You see the argument can go both ways... Sony included Blu-Ray in the PS3 and basically killed any chance of HD-DVD becoming the standard, but the cost of it may cause Sony to come in 3rd place with regards to console sales. Then again, some development shops are starting to fill over a 9GB DVD and like the 50GB of extra space that the PS3 provides, so in the next 3 or four years when the Xbox 720 or Wii 2 or whatever needs to come out, people can still use and buy a PS3. It is a tactical decision and I honestly don't know if it is the correct one, but I am not about to fault a company for pushing new technology.

As far as your argument of a streaming server... How many content providers are up for you doing that? I don't see many jumping at putting their HD content on iTunes, and ripping a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disk is illegal so I imagine your HD content selection pretty much sucks now. Also, not that you care but you can use your PS3 to get that media off of your server and display it to your TV and then also stream it to your PSP over the internet if you wanted. Just to clarify, you can at this time download movies to your PSP OR have them streamed to your PSP. That to me is much cooler than say an iPod because I don't have to carry some 80GB ipod around with all the movies I "may" watch. I can keep them on a PS3 with some huge HD on it and then stream those to a PSP when I want to watch them. Granted, much like the iPod I could download them to the PSP and watch them locally, but I am not locked in to syncing. Again, not that you care but you could also take remote control of your PS3, download some new movies and then stream them to your PSP also.

Ok, enough for video crap. You may or may not care about that. The game lineup for the PS3 is poor, but there are some great games out. Motorstorm and Resistance fall of Man are two very good titles. The downloadable games Calling all Cars and Super Star dust and very good for under $10. Home looks to be a great way to interact with users online and if done correctly it will be (in my opinion) the best online experience of any of the new consoles. Little Big Planet looks to be a great game that may be out this fall. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (also on 360 but not as well done), appears to be a very good game, and Oblivion (also on multiple platforms but well done on PS3 with very low loading times... nice to have a HD in every system). Obviously future games like MGS4 and FF will be system sellers but those are not out yet and probably won't be out this year. In short there are quite a few very good games and some are on other consoles (primarily the 360). What I have found out is that the games developed for the 360 first and then ported to the PS3 look bad (not Wii bad), but bad, however games developed for the PS3 first look fantastic and play very well. I will also add that playing PS2 and PS1 games works very well. Seeing that the PS2 is still selling like mad, and developers are not going away from it, that is another nice option for "kids" games.

So I just laid out some very good games and there are quite a few more. Sony had and has some major issues but they are addressing them somewhat quickly. Would I love a PS3 for $200? Yes! But at the expense of quality (less than 1% of PS3 consoles are defective as opposed to another m

Waiting for Metal Gear

[rolfwind]

It's the only game I need that's only for PS3. I might even wait until they port it though. $500 for one game is too expensive.

Also going to wait to see what Wii games are out this Christmas. With the immense popularity, I expect Wii will get a surge of games - but knowing that games take time to make, I wonder when it will happen. Perhaps Fall of '08.

Why should it?

[falcon5768]

It wouldnt make me bite when it was this much for the 20 gig... why should the 60 dropping 100 buck matter, its till more costly than a 360 which atm has more games.

And honestly looking at FFXIII despite being a huge FF fanboy doesnt make me bite at all, not for 500 dollars. As for the other PS3 killer apps right now, more than a few are actually out or coming out on the 360, which I already own.

Im sure a bunch of people are going to jump on me with bluray this, and HDMI that, but quite frankly Sony really think about what made their PS2 a huge seller. They though it was the diehards, and built a system perfect for them. What they forgot was the casuals, of which the 100 dollar PS2 became a big seller not the 300 dollar original pricetag version.

Crappy poll

[suv4x4]

"So, is this it? Will this price drop make you buy a PS3, or are you still holding off for the big games this fall?"

That's it? Where's the third option, "neither of the above". I want my third option, god damn it!!

Let's see, what does $499 PS3 change. XBOX360 is $399, Wii is $250.
For your extra money, you get poor list of games, $65 a pop, and Blu-Pending-Disaster support, at around $45 a pop.

I'm about as excited about all of this, as I would be if Epson released $50 cheaper printers. It's about the ink, people!

Another reason for the 80Gb bump

[DrXym]

As posted on the PS3 blog - "In short, we're introducing a new PS3 model with a 80GB hard drive which will include a free copy of MotorStorm, all for the retail price of $599. This 80GB package will be available starting in August, just a few short weeks from today. The larger hard drive will give players more of an opportunity to take advantage of all the downloadable games and trailers on the PLAYSTATION Network, including the content from our forthcoming download service which will include videos, movies and other entertainment content."

In other words expect a full video / music download service and possibly IPTV to be announced at E3. It's been a long time coming seeing as it was such an obvious and natural feature for the PS3 to have.

Basic rule of capitalism

[realinvalidname]

"Stuff is worth what people will pay for it."

Clearly, the PS3 isn't worth $600 to very many people. I'll be surprised if it's worth $500 either. Despite all the technology they've crammed in there, the games library has almost zero appeal. Boring, joyless games plus Blu-Ray does not equal $500.

With the Wii outselling PS3 6-to-1 in Japan, there's little reason to think third-party software makers will turn this around.

probably won't help...

[Churla]

I'm not waiting for a specific price point, I'm just not enamoured with the product. They have generated no "need to own that" within me for it. And therein lies the failure.

If there was just one really revolutionary , fun game for it then I might be swayed. The problem is for me to believe that I would want to play said game somewhere, maybe at a friends house, in order to seal the deal and get me to buy one. And to this point besides one gadget and gaming accumulator where I work I don't know a single person I socialize with who owns one of these things.

Where is this generations Katamari?