Official Sony PS3 Price Cut announced - Megathread now $299!

Jan 29, 2009
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We have all seen the reports of Sony stating that there will be not be a price drop for the PlayStation 3 anytime soon, but do you believe this to be true?

I have a very good feeling that Sony will be announcing a price drop for the PlayStation 3 soon in the upcoming months. The reason why I say this is because many websites like Dell and Amazon have dropped the price of the system on their website as seen here. As you can see, Dell has the PS3 priced at $339.99 and just last week Amazon had it listed for a little over $350. I believe Sony might have a strategy behind this and is working with companies to determine how much they should drop the price of the PlayStation 3. Think about it, if Amazon has the PS3 listed at a little over $350 and there is not much of a sales spike, Sony would see that dropping the system $50 would not be effective. Now if Dell has the system at $339.99 and the sales jump drastically, Sony would realize that dropping the system more than $50 would be an effective way to sell more consoles.

The reason Sony is saying they do not plan for a price drop anytime soon is because of business. Think about it, if you are selling something for $399.99 and then announce that it will be much cheaper in a couple of months, would you expect many people to go out and buy your system knowing this? Of course not. Sony is trying to keep it all behind closed doors and keep from announcing it until the day of the price drop.

So I ask you again: Do you believe Sony when they say that they do not have plans for a price drop anytime soon?
 
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Well in all fairness, you got to look at Xbox's death ratio really, everytime they say they fixed one issue that caused people to be on their 8th Xbox another pops up and prompts people to go buy another xbox. Some of their sales numbers are inflated IMO they never take into consideration the amount of xbox that people buy becase their 2nd 3rd 4th or 5th xbox died. I am on my 8th xbox.
 
Well in all fairness, you got to look at Xbox's death ratio really, everytime they say they fixed one issue that caused people to be on their 8th Xbox another pops up and prompts people to go buy another xbox. Some of their sales numbers are inflated IMO they never take into consideration the amount of xbox that people buy becase their 2nd 3rd 4th or 5th xbox died. I am on my 8th xbox.

At the same time, they are still selling xbox's. You would think after 5 RROD's they would switch to the PS3.
 
I have about 32 xbox games, but I hardly play it because I am afraid that it will RROD or something, plus I can't play with anyone I don't have Xbox live and won't pay for it either.
 
No, this is not a joke. While Sony denies all the rumors about a possible drop in price of its consoles, the speculations in question appear to confirm.

Indeed, we learned today from a reliable source (which we thank the passage) that the price of the Playstation 3 will drop. The price is still unknown, but we may assume that it will suffer the same decline as the two previous times, ie a decrease of € 100.

Other good news, the PSP should follow the path of the black monolith, since the portable console from Sony will see its price rise from € 189 to € 169, probably at the same time as the PS3. Finally, finally, our source confirms the coming of a PSP2 before the end of the year, which coincided with speculation that cross the site.

We unfortunately do not know when to take effect these changes in prices, but it may be that this coincides with the E3, which runs from 2 to 4 June.

Of course, we still take this information with tongs, until Sony makes an official announcement. But remember what we said John Keller: "gonna be a huge E3"

Source: translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ps3gen.fr%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D5122%26Itemid%3D1&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=&swap=1
 
THQ’s Brian Farrell has just described PS3 as a “challenging” format, saying he doesn’t expect the machine’s retail cost to drop at E3 in june.

“We’re not expecting a [PS3] price cut at E3, but we do expect one later in the year,” said the CEO.

“That’s just our guess… [and] not based on any knowledge from Sony.”

Farrell was speaking in THQ’s Q4 and year-end earnings call, which is ongoing.

THQ announced losses of over $430 million for the year ending March today.
 
Rumors starting suggest this is the case

It seems that Sony may have already decided that they will not slash the price of the PlayStation 3 despite desperate pleas from multiple software developers. Our sources say that the decision has been made that Sony will wait till closer to the holiday season before another re-evaluation of a possible price cut while the company works on another revision of the console to reduce cost.

The news will not sit well with many developers who have sunk a lot of money into the development of titles for the PS3 only to receive mediocre sales at best in most cases. Many developers as well as retailers believe that the leading problems with the PS3 is the cost of the console itself, which leads many buyers to select the Xbox 360 if they are serious gamers or the Nintendo Wii if they wish to opt for a family oriented system.

Many developers have realigned their development strategy to direct more titles and effort toward the Wii as well as the Xbox 360 which both have a sizable lead over the PlayStation 3 in sales. It is also thought that the focus of E3 will be the introduction of the new PSP, and it has also been decided that perhaps a price cut on the PS3 might only take away from the launch of the new PSP.
 
Analyst: $100 PS3 Price Cut By Summer's End
by Leigh Alexander
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May 14, 2009

Analyst: $100 PS3 Price Cut By Summer's End
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Sony's planning for a 30 percent boost in PlayStation 3 sales for its fiscal 2010 -- and that could mean the company's planning for a price cut soon, says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.

Sebastian says Sony could reduce the console's $399 price "likely at some point between the E3 industry conference in June and the end of the summer, as Sony is able to reduce PS3 production costs."

The amount by which Sony would price down the console is still in debate, but Sebastian joins other analysts, retailers like GameStop and publishers in suggesting that it must be a $100 reduction to "provide the PS3 with a needed shot in the arm." The analyst also says the "sweet spot" for console sales is below $300, so any less than a $100 price cut "would likely be perceived negatively by the market."

"In addition to a $100 price reduction, which would put the PS3 in easier reach of a mass market audience, we note that Sony has a healthy lineup of upcoming first-party video games planned over the next year, including inFAMOUS, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 and Gran Turismo 5," says Sebastian.

And a PS3 price cut would be a positive for publishers, which may be why execs at companies like THQ and Activision have urged reductions.
Price cut would also be positive on the margin for software publishers and GameStop, given lackluster sell-through thus far of the PS3 and the potential for price cuts to generate additional consumer interest in the platform and PS3 software.

"For Sony PlayStation, we believe the next 12 months are critical to regain market share, particularly with Nintendo losing some momentum near- term, and with Microsoft likely introducing a new gesture-based user interface," adds Sebastian.

Source:gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23626
 
the games divison still isnt makeing any kinda profit they drop the price and they lose more money.

That's not how u look at it. All consoles are sold at a loss. If they drop it $100 what's the increase in quantity demanded going to be? Is it enough of a demand that Software Sales will subdue the cost?
 
well the wii sells for 250 and production cost is 150 bucks.but then again nintendo makes there money of of software and ms ans sony make there money off of there console sales.at least that's what patcher said.
 
well the wii sells for 250 and production cost is 150 bucks.but then again nintendo makes there money of of software and ms ans sony make there money off of there console sales.at least that's what patcher said.

The wii is a ps2 with a little better processor... And they make TONS of money on those damn remotes/nunchuks..
 
Yeah but a lot of money is coming in from consoles the production costs are so much lower. They make $$ everytime they sell a Wii whereas Sony and M$ not as much.

If companies always did this, we wouldnt get new hardware models until the old ones are old, nothing would be pushed... The point of a console was to be bigger and better. Nintendo struggling decided to test the PS2 familys and release a PS2 with motion controls.. and sell at a profit in case it bombed...

They haven't pushed the videogame industry further, they are actually holding it back.
 
Most gamers, journalists and analysts would love to see Sony announce a PlayStation 3 price cut at E3, and according to CNBC, they've already dropped hints that it will happen...

First of all, Sony did confirm with its recent fiscal numbers that they hit their goal of selling 10 million PS3 units in the fiscal year 2008 (it happened, contrary to how crazy some thought that prediction was a year ago). Furthermore, they've raised their 2009 PS3 sales goal to 13 million, which is a 30% increase, and...well, the analysts jumped all over that, because that kind of increase would be indicative of a price cut. Sony CEO Nobuyuki Oneda said they don't have any announcements to make "at this time," but added that if they release their pricing strategies, it "affects our inventory level." So an analyst asked flat-out how Sony expects to hit that higher 2009 number and Oneda replied, "Well, I think you have to guess what will be our pricing strategy." It's hardly a confirmation of any kind, but it's worthwhile to note that Sony has a point; they're already sacrificing PS3 sales over the next few weeks while everyone waits for E3 to see if the price cut announcement drops. They're in a tough spot but we figure everything starts to roll if the price drop comes at E3...

Oh, and you may notice the comment in that CNBC article- "That, combined with an underwhelming software lineup, has resulted in slow sales." ...it's so good to see that the mainstream media still thinks it's 2007 in the gaming industry. Really. Absolutely fantastic. A definite boost for legitimacy. 'rolling eyes'
 
PS3 price drop goes live for both SKUs

The international online mega-retailer Amazon.com has officially axed the price of the PS3. Alright, now before you get your panties in a bunch and start hurling rotten tomatoes, it's only a $10 price cut. Still, $10 is better than nothing right? The 160GB has also been marked down $20, to $479.

The price cut is also seems tohave taken place worldwide as well, with both Amazon Japan and Amazon UK dropping the price of their respective PS3 packages too. And with all the commotion caused by by the PS3 Slim speculation, now seems like a very peculiar time to lower the price...

www.ps3center.net/news/2988/80gb-ps3-price-drop-goes-live/
 
US retailer GameStop is expecting price cuts for the PlayStation 3 and Wii in the third quarter of its financial year.

Speaking during a conference call to investors, CEO Daniel DeMatteo said that the company's forecast of 33.5 million hardware unit sales factors in price cuts on current hardware from Sony and Nintendo.

"That assumes that there will be price cuts on the PS3 and potentially one on the Wii," offered DeMatteo, although he admitted that "it’s hard to tell if we actually need a price cut on the Wii to get to our numbers. There are some price cuts built into that assumption, but not until the third quarter."

DeMatteo said the price of hardware was too high in the current economic market, and format-holders will need to reduce the RRP of consoles in order to meet their current sales forecasts.

"The hardware price points, given this economic environment are potentially too high, and if the platform holders are going to make the numbers that they forecasted for the year, those prices would have to change.

"Also, if you think about it, these hardware prices have stayed up longer in this cycle than in any other time before, and in a very dire economic environment, those two things seem to be mutually exclusive.

"Put all those things together, I think that there will have to be price cuts in order to get the hardware moving to where it needs to be," he added.

During the same call, David Carlson, CFO for the retailer also pinned dates on some upcoming release, suggesting Take-Two's BioShock 2 and Namco's Tekken 6 will be released in October, and Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed will be in stores for November.