Topic: PS3 price drop incomming?

[idolminds]

Looks that way. According to a couple sites and forums, some Targets have started selling PS3s for $499. This price isn't supposed to go into effect until the 12th....E3. So Sony is probably announcing a price drop.

Hopefully they get some games out there. I haven't really heard much buzz about any current PS3 game, which is kind of odd. Maybe I'm not paying attention, but usually you hear something even if you aren't looking specifically for it.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Hopefully they get some games out there. I haven't really heard much buzz about any current PS3 game, which is kind of odd. Maybe I'm not paying attention, but usually you hear something even if you aren't looking specifically for it.

The Darkness and Ninja Gaiden Sigma both got great reviews, especially Sigma.   Lair is also coming out July 31st.

[sirean_syan]

The Darkness and Ninja Gaiden are hardly exclusives.

I also have my doubts about Lair. The game makes good screenshots, but in motion it left something to be desired in terms of animation. With Factor 5, I've felt it's always been like that. Before it wasn't a big issue because they've always been dealing with solid spacecraft, but with dragons and people running around, stilted animation it going to hurt big time. Maybe I saw an old video, but what I saw left me pretty disappointed.

It's too rich for me currently. I guess the biggest thing still holding me back is wanting a nice TV for it. I know I can use my monitor, but I'm used to console games on a larger screen still. I don't want anything huge, but a nice 30"ish screen would be perfect for me. What really needs to happen is someone needs to make a nice deal that packs a PS3 or a Xbox360 with a good HDTV for a good price. Buy the two in one go=instant win.

[Quemaqua]

That would indeed be awesome.  We still don't have a widescreen TV or monitor, so... that's sort of starting to hurt now with the way things are going.  I'd really like to pick up a widescreen monitor at some point in the near future, since that's what I use for my 360.  I really should have just bitten the bullet and gotten one when I built the new system, but... meh.  I was already spending so much money.  But Julia actually wants a widescreen TV even more than I do at this point, which is sort of funny, so it shouldn't be too hard to justify the expense at some Christmastime or other.  I think we'll stick that one in the gameroom at that point, then probably retire Julia's TV and put my nicer one in the living room.  Though hers is slightly larger, so we might not.  Hard to say.

But yeah, a PS3 price drop would be nice, but like everyone has said... there just isn't really anything that one needs it for yet.  God of War 3 will be a big one, most likely, anything from Team Ico... and I'm sure cool exclusives will be popping up, but so far there really has been next to nothing.  All the really, really good games for it (and even most of the mediocre ones) have also appeared on other systems.  With the potential of stuff like MGS4 hitting the 360 as well... what's the point?  Right now, I'd say the only advantage the thing has over the 360 is the fact that the 360 hardware fucking sucks, and the PS3 is probably a hell of a lot more reliable in the long run.  All things considered, that's a pretty distinct advantage.  Now they just need to hurry up and get a few decent exclusives to happen.  The rest will follow.

[idolminds]

Confirmed. 60GB model drops $100. Don't worry, Sony still wants to keep that more expensive model. So they have created a new SKU! 80GB HDD and a Motorstorm pack-in for $599.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Awesome, looks like I might be picking up the $499 model sometime this year, maybe when I get some extra money in August/September.

[Quemaqua]

Tell me, where does one find this "extra money" you speak of?  I would like to become more familiar with this mysterious entity.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Tell me, where does one find this "extra money" you speak of?  I would like to become more familiar with this mysterious entity.

I've got a bonus from work coming and I'm doing an easy medical study that pays $500.  I actually had the money for a PS3 in March (from a $1200 bonus) but I ended up using it for a decent car and moving expenses instead.

[scottws]

The PS3 needed something.  I had been looking for a Wii for months without success, but everywhere I went there was just a stack of PS3s.

[sirean_syan]

Wait a minute.

This is the part that gets me.

The larger-capacity system will go on sale in August for $599, and will have all the functionality of the 60GB model except backwards compatibility hardware. Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton confirmed to GameSpot that the 80GB PS3 will instead use software emulation to play PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation games.

So the more expensive model is actually less fuctional than the original release. That's beyond lame. How much you want to bet they're going to phase this out of future 60gig models too? I don't want to buy a PS3 now, but I don't want one without the full backwards compatibility in the future. Isn't also kinda stupid to be breaking apart the hardware base this early in the game? The system's less than a year old and they're already doing more than silent fixes to it? I guess Sony really just did throw all the backwards compatibility promises out the window.

[idolminds]

The euro PS3s have already had the backwards compatibility hardware removed, so its not that much of a surprise.

[sirean_syan]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Still, it's something that bugs me. Even if it isn't important to most people, it was a feature that was very important to me. I've told the story of how I bought a PS2 because my PSone died. I was hoping that one day it'd be the same for the PS3... who knows. Maybe the emulation will be up to snuff by then.

[Quemaqua]

The emulation of PS games on the PSP is pretty amazing and fairly reliable, though it definitely isn't yet up to snuff.  Are the software systems for the PS3 any better than that, or are they the same?

That's important to me too, because the PS3 for me is likely going to get purchased more as a PS1/PS2 replacement than an actual PS3.

[idolminds]

So...its not really a price drop.

How concerned are you about possible criticisms that you should have given European consumers what SCEA has given US consumers, i.e. the option to pay a lower price?

Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game. All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July.

So once the 60GB is gone, that will be the end of the 60GB then?

In America, yes.

So the "price drop" is to clear out the 60GB model because it is being discontinued. Way to go, Sony!

[sirean_syan]

Then it really is a way to cut their bottom line. There's no way that 20gigs more is costing them a $100 and the loss of the hardware emulation is probably a decent chunk of hardware in there.

That sucks. They've already changed editions a few times. Maybe in a few years they'll put out something with a mini-PS2 in there.