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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A very reliable source has told us that on August 18th Sony plans to announce price cuts for "the PlayStation family of products". The PS3 is almost certain to be one of these, whereas the others remain a mystery. Perhaps PSP 3000? Maybe Sony is responding to criticism on PSP Go's price? Perhaps just other devices like controllers, PSEye, etc.? Time will tell. It just so happens that on the 18th, Sony is holding a 3 hour long press event at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany. They obviously have some big bombs to drop if they wanted 3 hours of our time, so that further lends credibility to this rumor. Just please bear in mind, until Sony says it themselves, this is being reported as a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt. We however trust this source completely, their info has proven to be true in the past.

Check back with PSInsider frequently, as we will be bringing you the latest on this rumor and more as we get closer to the conference.

http://psinsider.e-mpire.com/index....leid=1282&com_action=displaycomments#comments
 
The 20GB, 40GB and 60GB versions of the PS3 have been discontinued. According to this, it looks like the 80GB PLAYSTATION 3 is next.

This notice is apparently from retailer 7-Eleven (7-Eleven sells video games in Japan) and stats that pre-orders for the Black, White and Silver 80GB PS3 will cease on Sunday, August 9 at 10am.

The reason listed is "For the manufacturer".

The notice also notes that all in-store displays for the 80GB model are to be taken down. If this is true, then Japan would be left with only the 160GB PLAYSTATION... Or perhaps there is an upgrade in store...

504x_711notice.jpg
 
160 gigs only is a good idea if ya ask me cause 8 gigs aint really nothing anymore a few installs and it's gone.plus the 80 gigs are full of problems maybe the price drop is going to be on the 160 gigs.
 
We reported yesterday on rumors about price cuts to the PlayStation family of products, though the hints were very vague and left a lot of room for interpretation. Today we got a bit more clarification on exactly what those price cuts meant, plus something else that they wouldn't tell us about. Supposedly, the products in the PlayStation family that were mentioned to be getting a price reduction were the PS3 slim, as well as the PSP Go. It's possible that the PSP Go could have a version with less internal memory coming at a reduced rate, with the 16GB version still retailing for $250, or Sony may have changed their minds on the 16GB model's pricing, though that is unlikely.

After the last hints we got from our source about PlayStation family price cuts and "Something that hasn't been done before.", we tossed a few guesses at our source (PS3/HDTV Bundle? PSP Go Price Cut? PS3 Slim?). They replied with:

"N, Y, Y, (?)You'll see "

Four answers, all separated by commas. Three answering our questions, and a question mark possibly hinting at something else that is still unknown that they may announce on the 18th. Looks like Sony could be doing like they did at E3, keeping one or more of their best secrets close as well as showing some of the well rumored (How long have we been hearing about PS3 slim now?) secrets as well. While we have no idea what this unknown could be, Sony has secured a few patents recently for some exciting things, so that might be something for you to consider.

We will find out on the 18th! Until then, once again, this is not anything official. Treat it as nothing more than rumor.

http://psinsider.e-mpire.com/index.php?categoryid=17&m_articles_articleid=1283
 
GamesCom: Tretton - $299 price tag is the 'sweet spot'

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) chief Jack Tretton has described the PlayStation 3’s newly introduced $299 USD/£249 GBP price point as a ‘sweet spot’ among consumers, feeling the high end machine offers punters the best value on the market.

Speaking in a video statement on the U.S. PlayStation Blog, Tretton also observed how the PS3 reached the milestone short of its third year on the market, beating out its predecessors, which received hardware revisions in their third and fourth years on sale.

“We're extremely pleased that we've been able to meet production efficiencies that have allowed us to pass those savings onto consumers," said Tretton. "We're very pleased that short of its third birthday, the PlayStation 3 has achieved tremendous milestones which have allowed us to bring out this new form factor."

"We really think that USD 299 is the sweet spot when consumers think about all the features that exist in the PlayStation 3. There's just no better value on the market," he added.

In regards to the competition, the executive stated that Sony feels it is competing with any form of entertainment, and not simply rival consoles in the form of Wii and Xbox 360.

"When we talk about competition, I think we're really competing with any form of entertainment, not only hardware devices within the gaming space, but clearly multimedia devices, portable and console-based. And we're competing with entertainment in general - we're just competing for people's free time,” said Tretton.

"This device is less than three years old," he continued, “We're still in the infancy stage, especially for a company that consistently delivers ten year product life cycles.”

"If you look at how far PlayStation 3 has come in terms of features, in terms of the great games that have been offered and to understand that's being done at half the original price with a 120GB harddrive being built in, with a new slimmer lighter form factor..."

"It's staggering to think how far this has come in less than three years - and to envision how far it will go before this system is over and done with."
 
PS3s Selling Out Already

Rumors had been flying around the net about a PS3 price drop for a week until Sony finally ended all speculation by announcing the PS3 slim and the new price of $299. This price has now taken effect and I decided to do some running around town to see how the price has affected sales so far. Click Read More to see the results I have received so far.

I first headed to my local Best Buy to see if any of the 80gb PS3s ($299) were in stock. I went to the location of the PS3 systems to find this.


I then asked an employee if they had any PS3 systems in stock and he immediately said that they had flown off of the shelves this morning, but he checked inventory anyway. He found that there were none of the 80gb PS3s left, but there were still three of the 160gb PS3s.


I then decided to hit my local Target in the same shopping center and they told me that they had four of the 160gb PS3s in stock but none of the 80gb PS3s. Lastly, I ran into my local GameStop and they had only one 160gb PS3 and none of the 80gb PS3s.

I know that these are only three locations, but the city in which these stores are located is not very populated. So far it seems the $299 truly was the magical price point for the PlayStation 3, but will this keep up? That is the big question. PS3 slim launches to all of North America and Europe September 1st and Japan September 3rd, so we should all see how effective this price drop will be once the stock of PS3 systems start to pick up again with the PS3 slim.

source: thegameraccess.com/ps3/ps3s-selling-out-already
 
Knowing that you'll have to have the matte black slim PS3 if you don't get a fat shiney "old school" PS3 is moving those system's off the shelves...

It's like when they did the first price drop and said they would discontinue the BC on the 60gb... What do you think people did? Myself included, we went out and bought the damn thing before they disappeared forever!



I just can't justify spending $300 for a matte black PS3.. really looks.. toyish
 
FFXIII producer applauds 'good timing' of PS3 price cut

Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase has joined the ranks of numerous industry folk to heap praise on Sony’s recent decision to lower the price of PlayStation 3 in the U.S. and Europe, describing the move as ‘really good timing’ for the Japanese software giant.

The Final Fantasy XIII producer told VG247, “We’re taking it as really good news, actually, because we’re planning to release Final Fantasy XIII this winter in Japan and next spring for both European and North American territories,” said Kitase.

“Now that the hardware is becoming even more accessible for players, it’s really good timing for us.”

PS3 dropped to $299 USD/EUR 299 following a price cut announcement at GamesCom last week. In addition, the newly unveiled PS3 Slim is also set to retail for the same price when it hits stores in early September.
 
I'm completely undecided on which ps3 to buy: the "fatty" or the "slim". I've been waiting for the price drop for a long time to pick up another ps3. The only issue I have with the "fatty" is it's only 80 GB, otherwise I like the "fatty" look over the "slim" look but it's growing on me the more I see it.
 
I'm completely undecided on which ps3 to buy: the "fatty" or the "slim". I've been waiting for the price drop for a long time to pick up another ps3. The only issue I have with the "fatty" is it's only 80 GB, otherwise I like the "fatty" look over the "slim" look but it's growing on me the more I see it.

go with the slim. 80 gb will only get you so far until youll have to update it. im prolly looking at lasting until the end of this year before i have to upgrade the HD and i have the 80.

not that 120 is huge but it should last you a good amount longer.
 
I'm completely undecided on which ps3 to buy: the "fatty" or the "slim". I've been waiting for the price drop for a long time to pick up another ps3. The only issue I have with the "fatty" is it's only 80 GB, otherwise I like the "fatty" look over the "slim" look but it's growing on me the more I see it.

well the biggest thing is sound. The slim is capable of getting better sound than the fatty EVER WILL based on hardware.

You can update the HDD in both to be the same, you can adjust the image and color to make them the same, but the fatty will NEVER be able to produce sound like the slim based on the new components the slim is shipped with.


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The slim supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream output to your receiver. The HDMI chip on previous generations of the PS3 didn't support bitstream output of the new(ish) high def codecs like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. As such, the PS3 had to decode it internally before sending it over to your receiver via LPCM. A process that could garble the lossless audio depending on your setup. Even though the vast majority of people will never notice the difference (or even care), PS3 Slim owners can still kick back in smug satisfaction each time the TrueHD or DTS-HD MA indicators light-up on their receivers.
 
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