PS3 Price Drop - $499 (1 Viewer)

[Jerome Grate]

Saw this on yahoo this afternoon figured you guys would be interested.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070716/...playstation_dc

Quick note, looks like Sony is phasing out the cheaper model and the 599 model will be available only. Dropping the price to get into the game is good business sense, dropping the price to get rid of it and discontinue it hence leaving no choice but the more expensive model, well..., it's Sony, what do we expect.

 

[Cees Alons]

So it's merely a sellout?
Well, given the relatively large stock that still seems to be in the stores, it's no less a chance to get this thing cheap!


Cees




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I am format neutral - it's many studios, that's who are not.
And a few fanboys and followers.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Exactly, you'd think they would drop the price at around 300 then sell em out. Note the analyst thinks the price of th 80gig one will go down to 399. If that's true pricing the PS3 at around 300 will give them a good jump on this competition. But again we are dealing with Sony.

 

[Grant H]

http://www.homemediaretailing.com/ne...ticle_ID=10905

Confirmation of the phasing out of the 60 GB. I agree with the analyst that once the 60 GBs are gone the 80GB will sell for $499 sans Motorstorm (in time for Christmas). I wouldn't expect the drop to $400 til next year.

But until it happens people will doubtless attack Sony for being some kind of a trickster and say the cut is temporary and they will be "forced" to pay $600 for the 80 GB model.

 

[Cees Alons]

"Knowing" this, most of the potential buyers will wait now until they can get a PS3-80 at $500 and not bother to either buy the PS3-60 for that price, or a PS3-80 at $600.

Can't blame 'em.



Cees




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I am format neutral - it's many studios, that's who are not.
And a few fanboys and followers.

 

[Paul Arnette]

I don't know, Cees. I mean one of the drawbacks of the 80GB model is that it has less backwards compatibility with PS2 games. For the more gamer-inclinded, I still think that the $100 price-drop on the 60GB should be welcome news.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Please forgive my ignorance... What is different from the 60GB to the 80GB that would make it less compatible with PS2 games?

 

[Paul Arnette]

Jeff, no problem. I'm pretty new to the PS3 world myself, but if you liked to read more about the lack of the Emotion Engine in the 80GB and future PS3 releases read on:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160917

Basically, Sony is bringing down the cost of manufacturing the PS3 by removing hardware emulation for PS1 and PS2 games by focusing on a software solution. I think I recall reading backwards compatibility would fall from somewhere around 100% to 80% as a result.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Hmm I didn't know about that; that kind of sucks. My delima is that I'm leaning towards getting a PS3 as a Blu-ray player, and I really want to wait until the October BDjava specs are implemented to see if the unit is going to be compatible before I bite. But if they are selling off all the 60GB units, they might be gone by that time.

Of course if the 80GB unit is 100% compatible with Guitar Hero then I'm golden .

 

[James T]

But Pirates is a java disc and it works fine on the PS3? Unless your talking about something else.

I'm not too worried about the complaints for the software emulation. The 360 is software based and it's still pretty good. And I believe in Euroope, the 60 gig is software emulation already.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Yes, Jeff appears to be confusing support for BD-Java, which all BD players support, with Profile 1.1, which implements features like PiP, etc.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Yep. Something like that . I'm not too up on all the technical terms.

 

[Cees Alons]

That's true.
The PS3 was launched here without the emulation hardware (card) at all.
Sales are not fantastic here as well (partly perhaps because the price is even higher), but I didn't hear or read many complaints about the PS2 emulation. (This doesn't prove anything, but, well, it's some information. )


Cees

 

[Jari K]

I believe it now supports something like 80% of the PS2 games. In the end, people hardly play older games after they´ve finished them anyway (many sell/trade them), but I agree that US people got the better deal with PS3 and "PS2 support". I have US-model of PS3, but since most of my PS2 games are "PAL only", I´ll probably use my PS2 from time to time (I already have). I still don´t find this annoying, since in the end - "you can´t have it all".

 

[ppltd]

I absolutely agree with you on both counts. I know every time I have upgraded my gaming systems, I find I have little desire to go back and play the older systems games. I don't think I am unusual in that aspect. Additionally, the US PS3 gamer does indeed have the best buy for a PS3 on the market, at least while current supplies last.

 

[Dave Gilbert]

I can speak only for myself, but I picked up a PS3 after the price drop for two reasons: the Blu-ray player and backwards-compatibility. Right now there aren't really any good games for the PS3. I never got a PS2, so I'm playing PS2 games until the holiday season.

I'd rather have hardware compatibility than an extra 20GB on a hard drive that is fully upgradeable anyway.

 

[Audio28]

This is a awesome deal, but I saw somewhere that it's only effective for 1 month.

 

[Jari K]

Hear hear. Still, I have pretty much downloaded everything I can (also PS1 games and such) from both the US and Europe stores, and I have now around 20GB space left. Granted, I have plenty of photos (PS3 is simply great for watching photos) and some MP3s there, but still I´m a bit worried. It´s great that you can download some games demos on your harddrive and test them before buying.

 

[Earl Simpson]

Anyone get the free BR movies yet with this deal? Noticed that the form had no contact info other than snail mail.

 

[Dave Gilbert]

I expect it will be a while. The deal (at least here in Canada) stated 8-10 wks. for delivery.