PS2 Price drops? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Fennessy]

Has anyone else heard of this supposed upcoming price drop on the PS2? I heard it would drop to about $199 by the fall. If so, I can finally justify buying one.
Mike

 

[Joel Mack]

There's been a lot of speculation about that. Nothing has been said for sure by Sony (Of course. They don't want people putting off buying one, if it's going to be cheaper in a couple of months).
But, IMHO, a $100 price-drop is too much at once. My prediction is that PS2 will drop to $249.99 at Gamecube/XBox launch.
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"If we blow up, whatever's left of me is kickin' your butt."

 

[Camp]

Well, it dropped ~ $20 in Japan recently.
There is no way it'll drop to $199 this year. Sony is confident their software line-up will compete quite favorably to Xbox's offerings. They see Nintendo as a niche market that could emerge as a more serious threat. However, for this Christmas season, Sony knows their strong software will sell their system at $249 to $299.
-Camp

 

[James D S]

$249 does seem like a more enticing AND practical pricepoint Sony could meet by Christmas. Even then, though, I think Sony's reluctant to drop the price in the face of the XBox's debut. Admitting inferiority (even obvious technical inferiority) this early in the game could alienate many potential buyers. Besides, it looks as though Sony's software library may actually be picking up speed, finally. And despite Microsoft's quickness to promote the XBox's killer harware, it's the killer apps that sell systems.
We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Adam Nixon]

"And despite Microsoft's quickness to promote the XBox's killer harware, it's the killer apps that sell systems."
EXACTLY -- I know people (especially on this board) are excited about Xbox's HD and progressive scan capabilities, but there isn't much point if there aren't "ultimate" titles that take advantage of it. E3 went sour for Microsoft, they were clearly outshone by Nintendo and PS2's third generation titles. Plus, a higher price on a console that has yet to show a "must-have" title for launch is a recipe for disaster.
I'm absolutely impressed with the capabilities of the Xbox and would LOVE for this machine to succeed -- but I can't find a single game worth shelling out $299+ to play.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Keep in mind that the PS2 is not slumping in sales too much in america, thus there is no reason to lower the price. There is also supposed to be drivers released with the Sony DVD Remote for the PS2 that enable prog. scan, but they will never have HD. Also, a lot of X-Box games are, as Sega put it, "premiering" on the X-Box, but not exclusive. By the end of 2002 Dead or Alive 3, all the Sega games for X-Box, the Matrix games, and many other games could all end up on PS2 or GC. X-Box might be getting some games from the PS2 (like MGSX, SH2, and possibly FFXI (this has not been confirmed but the possibility has been left open by Square) ) but the PS2 still has some good games that either are out already or will be out by the time the X-Box is out. I agree that the X-Box will be powerful, but it doesn't matter if the games aren't stellar. A lot of people already shelled out $300 for the PS2, and aren't shelling out another $300 for the X-Box.

 

[Adam Nixon]

I completely agree, and believe that's why the Gamecube will succeed. They do have a younger audience, but more importantly, Nintendo's great titles cannot be found elsewhere.

 

[Dean Cooper]

this isn't meant as an insult but what titles are you talking about? I think the nintendo 64 was a major flop, why is everyone so blindly confident that this cutsy game cube targeted at the kiddies is going to take off when the last one didn't. Looking back to the PS2 launch, well quite frankly the games offered, if you could find a console to play on sucked monkey... Look a project ego, this is without a doubt going to be one hell of a stellar game, so what if its not going to be released at launch. I think you guys are going to be suprized on how well the x-box will do. To me the potential in the hardware is more important, hype is what sells units and sorry to say but MS has more money to hype than Nintendo, heck you can already see an X-box in a music video.
Dean

 

[Drew Dockery]

N64 made Nintendo millions. If that's a flop, I'd love to have one. Personally I hope they start to develop more mature games, but even N64 had a few that made it worth picking one up.
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I'm going off the rails on a crazy train!
Drew

 

[James D S]

N64, a flop? How are you defining flop, because you aren't using sales figures...
As far as videogames go, Mario, Zelda, and Metroid are gaming royalty and all are destined for exclusive play on the GameCube. If any of the new systems have a built in audience and fanbase, it's got to be Nintendo. Smart money would have to be on the GameCube.
Heck, at $199, I'd pick up one anyway.
Of course, I hope all have great games - It makes for more fun for all.

 

[Dean Cooper]

If you compare the success of N64 to either NES, SNES or Playstation, its a flop. Hey I'm not saying its terrible, all I'm saying is that in the battle between Sony and the big N, Sony won it and was the new kid in town which makes it a failure for Nintendo. They had the top spot and the name to keep it and just couldn't deliver. The reason why the playstation was so successful was that it wasn't targeted at the younger pre 16 crowd like Nintendo seemed to do and still is. The game cube looks like a great game machine and I will own one in the future but I just don't see it taking back the top spot Nintendo used to enjoy. I'm with you guys, I want all of the consoles to be really successful its only good for us the consumers.
Here is how I think things will turn out. Based on the past gaming history the first company out of the gate is always the first to die out. Sega has been a prime example of that with Saturn and the DC. So this means that Sony is at a disadvantage and HAS to have games like GT3 just to keep up once the game cube and x-box come out. I think developers will start to shift more towards the X-box because of the hardware specs and the fact that the xbox has most of the "accessories" built in to the unit. The market for your game looks much bigger when you can create a game and not worry about how many console owners have bought a needed piece of hardware for your game. Here is where the exclusive game argument losses strength, if you have the same game for all three systems what is the deciding factor on which one to play it on? The one that does the best job at displaying the game, which puts X-box in the winning position. I think the X-box will be the next "king" and I can't wait to reap the the fruits of having 3 major contenders in the ring.
Dean
[Edited last by Dean Cooper on July 19, 2001 at 08:01 PM]

 

[Jason Seaver]

Based on the past gaming history the first company out of the gate is always the first to die out. Sega has been a prime example of that with Saturn and the DC. So this means that Sony is at a disadvantage...

That's pretty sloppy reasoning.
Even if we assumed that the "the first company out of the gate is always the first to die out" thing was true, it doesn't necessarily mean the first causes the second. Also, there's not much of a sample size - just four or five generations of gaming consoles.
Besides, it's patently untrue. The Atari VCS/2600 outlived Intellivision to an insane degree, although I suppose it could be argued that Magnavox's Odyssey came out first. I'm pretty sure ColecoVision outlasted the Atari 5200; if not it's only because Coleco, in a suicidal fit that's almost Tramiel-esque, put their money on the Adam. Even if you dismiss the Golden Age as not relevent, the NES outlived the Sega Master System and Atari 7800; Genesis outlived the TurboGrafx-16, if not the SNES; the Game Boy and its descendants survived challenges from Atari, Sega, NEC, and Tiger. What seemed to kill Sega wasn't necessarily first, but releasing systems before the market was ready for a new one (see also Atari Jaguar and and 3D0).

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Nintendo and Sony beat Microsoft in many ways.
First, PS2 has a library of games that is already in existance, not to mention the library of PS2 games (I know that some PS2 games have been considered sucky, but some are good). Second, the PS2 is keeping its promises and releasing some stellar games. MGS2, SH2, GT3, and many others (some PS2 exclusive, some not) are coming out by the end of the year, not to mention the online capabilities that the PS2 will have. Third, you don't need the accessories for the PS2, and some people don't want them. Why should Microsoft feel obligated to add them to a console if people don't want them? I would rather pay $35 for a memory card than an extra $100 for a built-in modem and hard drive. Fourth, the PS2 looks cool and isn't as huge as the X-Box. The controllers for PS2 are well designed and aren't cluttered or huge. The X-Box also has slots for memory cards in the controllers, a big problem that hurt Sega because the controllers are then too heavy.
The GameCube can win over many of those arguments against the PS2, besides the fact that the GC is guaranteed to have great games (sales records don't make the games any better or worse, just more/less successful), is smaller than both consoles, is cheaper than both, plus it gives you the barebones of the system without adding clutter that you might not want to pay for. Want a memory card? Go buy one. Want a DVD function? Go buy a DVD player (or wait for the Panasonic GC). Also, the GC controller is supposed to be well designed.
The X-Box doesn't have enough exclusive games to warrant buying it. Games from other consoles that end up on the X-Box will be available on other consoles around the same time or before they are available on X-Box. Also, all of the Sega games (Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, etc.) could end up on PS2 or GC, thus making it pointless to buy them on X-Box if you already have a PS2.
Overall, I think that the PS2 or GameCube will win. Why? Because the PS2 is a PS/DVD/CD/PS2 console and has a large library of great PS1 games and will have great PS2 games. Nintendo has learned from their mistakes, and a lack of developers was the big N's problem. Since they have fixed that with the GC, combined with the compact size, excellent hardware, and guaranteed hit titles, Nintendo could end up in the top spot. If the X-Box hadn't ruined its reputation by doctoring photos or showing games that are hardly playable, it might still have a chance. Sony and Nintendo know what they are doing, and developers like that.

 

[Dean Cooper]

Touché Jason, in my effort to be brief I became inaccurate and sloppy. Hey it’s been a long time since the Atari and Colecovision days and there’s always an exception to a very general statement like that. I agree with you that some consoles were released before the market was ready for them. Handhelds are a different category in my opinion. Sony’s disadvantage is different, its that the hardware is a year old already and developers are getting closer to what the full potential of that hardware is. Its only a disadvantage though, I’m not saying that this is going to be the factor that takes the PS2 out of the race, but it is some thing that Sony is going to have to deal with.
Online gaming will have a big influence in the future as well, which both Sony and Microsoft have experience in and Nintendo has not. For this I think X-box has an advantage because it already has a HD which will be in my opinion a necessity with online gaming. Adding a HD to your PS2 is going to cost you maybe and extra aprox 120 bucks on top of the original price you paid for the console. Then you have to buy the high speed Ethernet connection on top of that! By the time you get setup you could of bought a Gamecube, well a bare bones one anyway.
Morgan only time will tell haw many X-box games actually do get ported over to PS2 and Gamecube, and I agree with you that its going to make a big difference in the success or failure of the new console. MS is large enough to influence decisions like that and I wouldn’t put it past them. As far as exclusive games…well it is still 4 months before the release of the X-box and all of the big games you listed for the PS2 have only just come out or are coming out soon, after a year. Heck MS didn’t even have the final hardware consoles at E3 so there is a lot of factors that can change from now and Nov 8th.
This is turning into a great thread guys, I’m glad I popped in here.
Dean