Sony cuts US PS3 price

By Games Industry.biz Published 9 July, 2007

Paves way for new 80GB model.

Sony America has announced a new 80GB version of the PlayStation 3 console to be released in North America in August, complete with a copy of MotorStorm for a retail price of USD 599, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.

The current 60GB model will retail for USD 499, effective immediately.

"As we move into the next phase of PS3, it's important that we continue to evaluate our product line, offering consumers the technology and features that meet their growing needs for new forms of media and the way in which it is delivered," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA.

"The introduction of the 80GB PS3, the new pricing for the current 60GB model, the availability of more than 100 new software titles this fiscal year and, finally, the expansion of services for PlayStation Network, will provide even more options for users and will help bring new consumers into the PS3 fold."

The price drop, denied last week by Sony, comes on the eve of the E3 Media & Business Summit. There was no immediate word of an 80GB model being released in Europe or Japan.

Sony also stated that between now the end of the fiscal year, the console will benefit from the release of 120 new first and third-party titles in the region.

There's plenty more where that came from over on GamesIndustry.biz.

Picture of Games.

About Games Industry.biz

Read more articles from Games by visiting the Games Industry.biz archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (88) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kenshin001 #1 5 years ago

    An extra 20GB for a hundred bucks. Can't see the point.

  • DrunKao #2 5 years ago

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=VmBCLtgoTR8
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=VmBCLtgoTR8
    [/link]

    SCEA corporate video: President & CEO Jack Tretton announces the availability of a new 80GB PS3, and a price drop for the 60GB PS3. More info can be found on the official Sony PlayStation blog blog.us.playstation.c om
    Edited by 2 at 09/07/07 @ 09:15

  • tobi #3 5 years ago

    how many £££ is that?

  • alpha-0ne #4 5 years ago

    Does that mean a £50 price drop in the uk?

  • Ihya #5 5 years ago

    Eurogamer, bring me news of a UK price drop at once!!!


    FLY MY PRETTIES FLY!!!!! MWA AHAHAHA!!!!

  • dog2_99 #6 5 years ago

    i see its £399 at WH Smiths anyways!

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #7 5 years ago

    Shouldn't this be headlined SONY KNOCK $100 OFF US PS3!!!

    like it is on the BBC?

    And shouldn't someone be on the phone right now to ask David Reeves when we'll get our price drop?

    Edit: That's the ticket.
    Edited by 1 at 10/07/07 @ 08:24

  • zuljin #8 5 years ago

    I'm guessing a drop to £399 + game in the UK then.

  • Hamflank #9 5 years ago

    Considering 400GB drives go for about 100 dollar these days, it does seem a bit absurd to ask 100 dollar for an extra 20GB.

    Still, the release of GTA IV and the price drop will surely boost the sales somewhat.

  • Arwin #10 5 years ago

    There's no real point in the 80GB SKU, other than provide a transition phase. 95% of consumers will never see the 80GB SKU in stores before all 60GB SKUs are cleared and the 80GB SKU has taken its place. By that time, the 80GB SKU will become 499 again, and who knows there will be a further drop around Christmas.

    The reason of the 80GB SKU is that the 80GB HDD will soon become cheaper to make than the 60GB HDD, so you basically want to get that into the PS3 and phase out the 60GB. The two SKU situation is basically just intended for transitional purposes. It is very clear already that retailers in the West aren't the least bit interested in carrying more than one SKU.

  • lemon #11 5 years ago

    Pricedrop is better than expected. The 80GB model is a bit pointless though.

  • 3william56 #12 5 years ago

    Sorry, what was that fron Sony Japan yesterday? Ahem. Worthy of Ninty, that denial. There's nothing like joined up PR, and that's nothing like joined up PR. There'll be seppuku all round in SCEJ.

    And they're not trying to cash in on MS's woes with the Red Ring of Death debacle, oh no sir. Best free advertising they've ever had.

    Extra 20gig, and free Motorstorm? Much better deal if you have the cash (and a lot better than the 360 core tardpack). Will be interesting what Bill and his minions do to counter this - if even Billy G's massive pockets can wear a 1.3 billion charge for the repairs *and* a price cut.

    Price Wars FTW!

    I suspect that Sony is being very clever. Both (a) trying to drum up sales at the lower price point whilst also getting rid of the old 60gb model, or (b) seeing which is more important to customers - price or spec - before making another strategic move just before Xmas 07.

    Smart moves all round. Pity it took so long, but such is the life of an early adopter.
    Now just get those damn games out!

  • AusFreelancer #13 5 years ago

    Awesome news! Just the kick the PS3 needs, to make some serious ground. Now, only for the software.....

  • Beano #14 5 years ago

    The price drop makes sense and about time also. But the new $600 80GB SKU is a mistake IMO. They should have focused on a the price drop now and introduce the 80GB model later (late november) or a 120GB SKU in early 2008.
    Edited by 1 at 09/07/07 @ 09:28

  • redd #15 5 years ago

    Here in Europe, when the first xbox was launched (with Halo, PGR, DOA and Abe, not resistance and uh motorstorm), it faced a similar situation: price cut soon after launch. Early adopters got to choose 3 games published by MGS to get for free as some form of compensation (not enough but surely better than nothing).

    What will Sony do for the early adopters? My guess: nothing.
    Price drop this side of the atlantic? Dont see it happening. After all, they know we suck it up.

  • zuljin #16 5 years ago

    @3william56
    "Sorry, what was that fron Sony Japan yesterday? Ahem. Worthy of Ninty, that denial. There's nothing like joined up PR, and that's nothing like joined up PR. There'll be seppuku all round in SCEJ."

    Do you seriously not understand marketing at all? Most companies (and this applies to pretty much everything), will deny rumours about anything and everything until they're ready to announce it.

  • Totoriko #17 5 years ago

    ""As we move into the next phase of PS3,.."

    I think he means "Emergency back up plan"

  • Kafeen #18 5 years ago

    "An extra 20GB for a hundred bucks. Can't see the point."

    £50 extra for motorstorm + and extra 20GB isn't that bad.

    EU (or at least the UK) needs to get some loving though. :(

  • Fairlane #19 5 years ago

    @redd

    and a controller or was it 2 ?

  • chicknstu #20 5 years ago

    What's with this 'Deny then reveal' tactic with Sony at the moment?

    They deny a $100 price drop, then announce a $100 a week later!?!

    They 'Dont buy Exclusives', then immediately after they announce an 'exclusive deal with Quantiac Dream'



    I hope they Deny a UK price drop soon. I wouldn't hold out for those 120 games though (They haven't denied it yet)

  • X201 #21 5 years ago

    "FLY MY PRETTIES FLY!!1!! MWA AHAHAHA!1!!"

    Fixed
    ;)

  • Darren #22 5 years ago

    I fitted a 160 GB HDD to my PS3 when I bought it in March and it cost me just £65. An extra 20 GB plus a game that likely costs $10 to stick in the package for $100 more just doesn't seem like good value to me, for that it should have been a 120 GB HDD at least, then it would have matched the HDD included with the Xbox 360 Elite. :?

  • NthSimulachum #23 5 years ago

    I take it this is US only?

  • rashes #24 5 years ago

    the price disparity between the US and Europe is really getting out of hand. $500 in the US. In Ireland here, it's officially €629 Euro, which is $856... thats a difference of $356.
    I know the US price is ex-sales tax but it's still a ridiculous difference. THey need to move soon....

  • Darren #25 5 years ago

    Yes, it is US-only at the moment.

    The PS3 launched over six months ago in the US so I doubt we'll get this price cut until nearer Christmas. That said I think Sony will have to drop it by £100 not £50 here in Europe if they want sales to improve. It's a shame that Sony dropped the 20 GB HDD model really, it could have been very popular in Europe with the more value conscious gamers not bothered about downloading stuff, especially if it had been sold for £300-£325 or thereabouts.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #26 5 years ago

    @ Fairlane:
    It was a controller and two games; I know coz I got it. Altogether worth more than £100, which was the price drop.
    Wasn't a bad deal; I got Dead or Alive and Amped, which I wouldn't normally have bought, but I enjoyed them, especially Amped. That rocked.

  • Dr.Gash #27 5 years ago

    A drop to 399 is great... if it happens. Its still only a penny shy of 400 pounds, though. FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS.

  • Vandrius #28 5 years ago

    Mleh...

    Picked mine up from Singapore. PS3 60GB + Resistance + HD Cable for the equivelent of £300.

    This price-drop still doesn't even bring it close to that kind of value.

    My advice: Go live in South-East Asia :-)

  • 3william56 #29 5 years ago

    @zuljin: It was a joke mate. Wakey wakey. But even with marketing considerations, a denial a day or so before an announcement is plain dumb - silence is the smart option.

    Interestingly though SCEJ were actually correct, so no Nintynonsense there. There will be no price drop - in Japan - because as we've moaned about before, it was already much cheaper there. Probably Korea too.

    Details: [link url=http ://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/802/802291p1.html
    ]http://au .ps3.ign.com/articles/802/80229...[/link]

    Can the days of Sony marketing f**kups be over? Say it ain't so!

  • Beano #30 5 years ago

    Darren: "Yes, it is US-only at the moment. "

    Yes... If they don't announce a pricecut for Europe and Japan, that will be a huge mistake.

  • zuljin #31 5 years ago

    @3william56
    In which case you need to work on your sarcasm a bit :)

  • GamesConnoisseur #32 5 years ago

    Agreed that European would benefit from having a more value pack such as 20GB and PS3 would sell proportionally more than it does now. However I think Sony made the right move to phase out 20GB SKU as I only have 6 or so PS3 games and several downloadable contents, demo etc. My 60 GB hard drive's free space is already now at 29 GB! So that basically meant if I got 20 GB hard drive SKU, it would have been already full and half!

    Though 20 GB extra is likewise very pointless, should match 120 GB as set by 360 Elite, SCEE best annouce something soon, otherwise the USA price cut just aggravate already sore feelings here.

  • Hughes. #33 5 years ago

    MS cut the price of the XBox after 6 weeks, not 8 months. Early adopters know what they're paying a premium to be the first to have the tech.

    Sony need to get the price down below £350 in the UK, if they want to build some momentum though, but I doubt we'll see it before November.

    As for the denials, who would admit to a coming price cut before it happened? It's the fastest way to stop anyone buying your product.

  • Lucien21 #34 5 years ago

    If the UK price drop was to be the same percentage as the US they would have to dop the price to £355.

  • Moz #35 5 years ago

    So that makes the PS3 (60Gb, WiFi, Blu-ray) for $60 LESS then the X360 Elite [obsidian pack from EB] (120Gb, NO Wifi, NO HDDVD, Extra Controller)





  • Fuser #36 5 years ago

    No no no no - no price cut here.

    Oh wait.

    Yes there is.


    Idiots.

  • Fab4 #37 5 years ago

    In other related news, a Sony official has issued a press statement saying "Screw You, Europe".

  • Kenshin001 #38 5 years ago

    I'm wondering if Sony got hint of some miserable NPD figures.

  • Tyronne #39 5 years ago

    I want to get one but I am not willing to pay the stupid price for a ps3.

    When they get to about £250 quid, then I might get one, til then...nope.

  • Moz #40 5 years ago

    I really don't understand people who wait around for a price cut, the way I see it I might have paid £100 more then I would a year from now but that £100 has given me a years extra worth of PS3/X360. That's about £8 a month!!!

    I there aren't any games you want at the mo then that's a different matter, but waiting a 6months to a year just to pay less doesn't make economical sence!

  • TheJanitor #41 5 years ago

    to the people calling the 100$ more for the extra 20 GB absurd, did you even know what comes with it? get informed before spewing bs

  • dudefella #42 5 years ago

    *sigh*

    Europe is always a bit behind on this, but trust me fellas, we're gonna see this price drop too, don't get your panties in a bunch. Are you in that much of a hurry to buy a PS3? Didn't think so.

  • Psychotext #43 5 years ago

    @TheJanitor: Yeah, you get $50 worth of game + $10 worth of extra hard drive. Great value for $100.

  • YourMessageHere #44 5 years ago

    Isn't the point that you get more for the same money, or you can have what you'd get now for less money? The price is not going up, it's going down. Unless I've completely misremembered US pricing; IIRC the 60gb version was $599 up until now.

    @ zuljin

    "Do you seriously not understand marketing at all? Most companies (and this applies to pretty much everything), will deny rumours about anything and everything until they're ready to announce it."

    Are you saying this is in any way understandable behaviour? Does it make any sense to you to do this? Isn't this exactly the sort of "fuck you public, you don't matter" behaviour that tends to induce rabid Sony-hating? They don't have to behave like this. How can it possibly harm them to say "yes, we have a price cut planned, details are forthcoming at E3" or whatever?

  • kangarootoo #45 5 years ago

    Somehow I suspect it would ALWAYS cost too much for some angry adolescents.

  • kangarootoo #46 5 years ago

    @YourMessageHere

    "Are you saying this is in any way understandable behaviour? Does it make any sense to you to do this? Isn't this exactly the sort of "fuck you public, you don't matter" behaviour that tends to induce rabid Sony-hating?"

    Its perfectly understandable once people grasp the concept that companies are in business to make profit, and that not undermining their profits by announcing things at the wrong time is not a good idea from a business point of view.

    "How can it possibly harm them to say "yes, we have a price cut planned, details are forthcoming at E3" or whatever?"

    Because people would then stop buying consoles at the current price and wait for the price cut, eating into current profits as a result. So there is your hram right there.


    Truth is, customers are a line on a balance sheet. Every big company is the same. Thats just life, and it always has been, its nothing to get all riled about for any significant period of time.


    Truth is, "rabid Sony-hating" as you describe that results from things like this is not the fault of the company in question. Its the fault of rabid gamers unable to grasp the reality of the world they live in. You don't see shoppers at Tescos or Audi getting so irate about the concept of profits.

    A large portion of gamers still seem to live in this fantasy land where they believe their own gaming joy should be the number one driving ambition of every company involved in the industry. In no other part of life do we see such detachment from the facts of life. I recall the OUTRAGE of some gamers on discovering that Nintendo was making profit on each Wii console sold. That was frankly bloody mental and I still shudder when I think that these people will get the vote when they grow up.

  • redd #47 5 years ago

    @Britesparc:

    Thanks for clearing that! My memory failed me there.

  • Psychotext #48 5 years ago

    Oh, and just to clarify something... you can get a 60gb 2.5" drive for £30 and a 80gb 2.5" drive for £34 now.

  • Dizzy #49 5 years ago

    >that's a really sweet deal.

    Err??? Well I guess you *can* always use them as frisbees.

  • vaudrj #50 5 years ago

    Although the price is one side of the playstation problem I think lack of software is the big issue here.

    I love gadgets and have a space reserved for the PS 3 however currently no reason to have one.

    I remember having the same problem with PS2 when that first came out, will waits till most AAA titles are out.

  • dsmx #51 5 years ago

    Until sony drop the price to below £300 I'm not getting a ps3 simple as that.

  • Dizzy #52 5 years ago

    BTW 80GB PS3 WILL NOT Have The Emotion Engine

    Bend over!

    >I'd trade them in and knock the PS3 price down even more.

    Smart... better than watching them :)
    Edited by 1 at 09/07/07 @ 16:06

  • Syrok #53 5 years ago

    It doesn't look like you really need the emotion engine to me.
    How many of you, who already bought a PS3, plays his PS2 games on it?
    If you play alot of PS2 games and don't like how they are displayed, or bugged they are: What have you done with your PS2?

  • JediMasterMalik #54 5 years ago

    The software emulation is good enough as it is.

  • manic_mouse #55 5 years ago

    "Considering 400GB drives go for about 100 dollar these days, it does seem a bit absurd to ask 100 dollar for an extra 20GB"

    It's unfair comparing 3.5" drives and 2.5" drives, it's apples and oranges. You can't even get a 400Gb 2.5" drive.

  • ronuds #56 5 years ago

    Does anyone think this makes the Elite look more attractive? For an extra $80 you get 100gig more and an HDMI port. That's a lot more than just $100 for 20 gig. Makes the 80gb ps3 look like even more of a ripoff.

    Sony seems in the same boat now as they were in the beginning with $500 and $600 models again. I'm not understanding their thinking too much. Like with the xbox and original ps3 specs., everyone's going to want the best model - so what's the point of this?

  • Scimarad #57 5 years ago

    I really don't see that this makes the Elite look any more attractive. The real news is the price drop - I don't think anyone could give a crap about the 80gig drive considering you can put your own drive in there.
    Edited by 1 at 09/07/07 @ 18:38

  • ronuds #58 5 years ago

    I don't know how you can say "nobody cares about the 80gb model" with a straight face. People will always want the best - even if it's for nothing more than showing off to their friends.

  • SeesThroughAll #59 5 years ago

    Because people know maths?

  • ronuds #60 5 years ago

    Well, at least Sony is now screwing over the US as well by removing full BC from the 80gb model.

  • ronuds #61 5 years ago

    I don't own a ps3 yet, but have been holding out for one... after a price drop, of course. Reintroducing a $500 model isn't really going to bring me out of the woodwork though.

    I guess having some integrity these days in business is asking too much (re: not full BC despite inital claims)?

  • YourMessageHere #62 5 years ago

    "Are you saying this is in any way understandable behaviour? Does it make any sense to you to do this? Isn't this exactly the sort of "fuck you public, you don't matter" behaviour that tends to induce rabid Sony-hating?"

    Its perfectly understandable once people grasp the concept that companies are in business to make profit, and that not undermining their profits by announcing things at the wrong time is not a good idea from a business point of view.

    >> I should perhaps make clear: My objection is nothing to do with relative prices, and entirely to do with this: EG reports "No plans to cut PS3 price" on Friday, and "Sony cuts US PS3 price" on Monday.
    Someone at Sony went to all the trouble of issuing a full-blown press release on the friday, then another one saying the opposite on the Monday. What is it about the intervening weekend makes it suddenly The Right Time? It's still not quite E3 yet. How saying something one day and just one weekend later saying completely the opposite is good for business is beyond me. It makes customers distrust you.



    "How can it possibly harm them to say "yes, we have a price cut planned, details are forthcoming at E3" or whatever?"

    Because people would then stop buying consoles at the current price and wait for the price cut, eating into current profits as a result. So there is your hram right there.

    >> The difference in revenue on sales of a console that's not apparently selling well over three days, one of which is commonly a retail holiday, cannot common-sensically be said to be significant to a company of Sony's size, especially given that they sell at a loss anyway.
    If I were vaguely considering buying a PS3, I'd be a lot better disposed toward Sony/more likely to buy if I heard them say "Yes, price cut coming, not giving details until The Right Time in three days" than If they say "No, no price cuts, what are you, stupid?" one day and then "Yes, price cuts, of course!" three days later. But that's me; I react very badly to being treated like a fool.



    Truth is, customers are a line on a balance sheet. Every big company is the same. Thats just life, and it always has been, its nothing to get all riled about for any significant period of time.
    Truth is, "rabid Sony-hating" as you describe that results from things like this is not the fault of the company in question. Its the fault of rabid gamers unable to grasp the reality of the world they live in. You don't see shoppers at Tescos or Audi getting so irate about the concept of profits.

    >> I can't speak for anyone else; I'm not riled at all by profits, the more money the game industry gets, the better games are likely to get in the long run, fact. My problem, as stated, stems from the decision to deny the price cut on the Friday and announce it on the Monday. The problem therefore is not the fault of the company overall, only its reliance on PR methods designed to treat people as lines on balance sheets, without memory, experience or emotion which all inform their buying choices. It's only because I understand that the people who design and build Sony equipment are not the same as the people who are supposed to tell us about them that I don't hate Sony as a whole.
    This is incredibly patronising behaviour by whoever decided to issue these announcements and I really don't see how I or any other gamer should be held to be at fault because they expect to be given information that actually means something. This sort of thing is after all where all the amorphous "Sony PROMISED us this" and "Sony LIED to us about that" stuff comes from.



    A large portion of gamers still seem to live in this fantasy land where they believe their own gaming joy should be the number one driving ambition of every company involved in the industry. In no other part of life do we see such detachment from the facts of life. I recall the OUTRAGE of some gamers on discovering that Nintendo was making profit on each Wii console sold. That was frankly bloody mental and I still shudder when I think that these people will get the vote when they grow up.

    >> QFT.

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #63 5 years ago

    Sorry Sony, I suspect the MS bomb is about to drop on you.
    Best of luck at E3!
    Edited by 1 at 10/07/07 @ 08:02

  • effinwooly #64 5 years ago

    and where is the UK price drop eh ! twats

  • old_skool #65 5 years ago

    Well, I said in June that we'll be seeing a price cut this month. Guess I was right once again. Microsoft will be forced to cut the price of the 360, possibly as soon as a week. With all the hardware failures and extended warranties, by how much can they cut?

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #66 5 years ago

    @old skool
    Whatever is takes I would imagine

  • ronuds #67 5 years ago

    @ Cthulu

    I understand and agree with what you're saying (the games I want playable, most likely are so). MY point being that I don't like being lied to I guess.

    I know, I know "all companies do it" but that doesn't mean I have to like or agree with it any more - now does it? And I think Sony is the worst culprit of the big 3 in this instance. I want to have at least an iota of trust from a company I'm buying an expensive product from. If it were $10 then who cares, but for $600 I better damn well know what the hell's in the box.

    I don't like the way Sony toys with people and their money so freely. "It's in there... oh wait, we took it away... nope it's in there again... nah, changed our minds." Well, that's my money you're fooling with!
    Edited by 2 at 09/07/07 @ 20:43

  • old_skool #68 5 years ago

    Reducing the price may not be enough to convince people to buy a 360. Most people are likely to wait for a revised hardware design.

  • ronuds #69 5 years ago

    From what I hear, old skool, that could be sooner rather than later.

  • SuperMario #70 5 years ago

    So i reckon a £380 PS3 for UK?

  • redd #71 5 years ago

    @old skool:
    most people are uneducated at games or the games industry, and dont have a clue about hardware revisions. What makes a difference to those people (the major joe consumer): price.

    Edited by 1 at 09/07/07 @ 21:43

  • old_skool #72 5 years ago

    @redd

    I would have to disagree since the 360 reliability issues have already made the mainstream media headlines. Once the redesign makes headlines again coupled with a price reduction at the same time, then a huge uptake in 360 sales will occur. A price cut now will only cause a spike for 2 weeks or so and then flatline again.

  • Mercatoria #73 5 years ago

    I'm going to Yank land in November I'll pick one up then. Going to buy some dollars while the pound is high.

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #74 5 years ago

    @old skool
    You talk as if 360’s aren’t selling?
    It is looking likely that the 360 and Wii will have a good 3rd and 4th quarter.
    Further more I believe Halo 3 and GTA will make a bigger noise than any hardware problems.
    Whether you like MS or not, right now the 360 has too many good games to ignore.

  • ShiroBen #75 5 years ago

    So, now the price disparity between a (crippled) PS3 bought in New Zealand and one bought in the US is over $400 US. By my calculations, Kiwis are paying almost $600 NZ too much for new PS3s--you could almost buy TWO PS3s in the US for the price they expect us to pay here. I could import a US PS3, have it sent first class mail, buy a stepdown transformer for it, get half a dozen games along with it (if there were half a dozen games I wanted for the PS3) and STILL not touch the NZ price just for the basic console. It's all just a little bit ridiculous.

    Thank goodness for the DS, anyway.

  • jodonnell #76 5 years ago

    I don't understand how this is a price cut? At launch, there was a $499 and $599 SKU. Then there was only the $599 SKU. Now there is a $499 SKU with a new $599 SKU forthcoming. Seems our price floor hasn't moved? I'd say this is more of a feature upgrade than a real price cut.

    Wait! Due to inflation, $499 of right-now money is worth less in real terms than $499 of last-year's money. Technically, price cuts for everything!

  • Scimarad #77 5 years ago

    That really is a totally insane argument. The price of the current PS3 (60gig) is coming down - How can that be anything but a price cut seen when through non 360-tinted eyes.

    By that reasoning the price of the 360 is going UP with introduction of the Elite!

    Oh, and Monkey-Wizard-Ken? If MS did obliterate the competition I don't think you'd enjoy what happens to the games industry...

  • kangarootoo #78 5 years ago

    @YourMessageHere

    The two announcements were seperate beasts. One was essentially a denial of rumour. The other was an official announcement. So the date of the latter was planned, the date of the former was not.

    Whether it is patronising or not, I tend not to worry. Its just information. People are far too thin skinned in gaming. No one was trying to make a fool of me or you, they were just "doing business". I see it for what it is, nothing more.

    What does QFT mean btw?


    "I'd say this is more of a feature upgrade than a real price cut."

    /rolls eyes

  • kangarootoo #79 5 years ago

    Ah, I now know what QFT means. Good old internet :)

  • kangarootoo #80 5 years ago

    @ronuds

    "I don't like the way Sony toys with people and their money so freely. "It's in there... oh wait, we took it away... nope it's in there again... nah, changed our minds." Well, that's my money you're fooling with!"

    Do you go shopping with your eyes shut or something? If you haven't actually bought something, your money isn't even involved is it. And if you DO buy something without checking the specs, whose bloody fault is that? Take some responsibility in life ffs.

    Gaaahhh!!! Gamers drive me nuts sometimes ;)

  • zuljin #81 5 years ago

    @Kanga
    Methinks you're in the wrong industry...

    :)

  • kangarootoo #82 5 years ago

    I think that sometimes too, but then I realise its just the crazy people that shout crazy stuff loudly, and the sane majority are just quietly minding their business :)

  • jodonnell #83 5 years ago

    "How can that be anything but a price cut seen when through non 360-tinted eyes."

    The price floor for the PS3 is unchanged since launch, that's why. The barrier to entry for the PS3 was, at launch, $499. Presently it is again $499, after a brief period when it was $599. You're getting more product for your $499, but you still cannot purchase a new PS3 model for less than $499.

    "By that reasoning the price of the 360 is going UP with introduction of the Elite!"

    No, by this reasoning, the 360 price would have effectively gone up if the low-end unit was canceled (which is, actually, what happened with the PS3.) So the PS3 unit price went up, then down. Relative to where they started, however, they are at effectively the same place. Until a sub-$499 PS3 is offered, I would not see it as a price cut (but rather, as I stated before, a feature-upgrade granting the consumer better value for the same cost.)

  • YourMessageHere #84 5 years ago

    The two announcements were seperate beasts. One was essentially a denial of rumour. The other was an official announcement. So the date of the latter was planned, the date of the former was not.

    Whether it is patronising or not, I tend not to worry. Its just information. People are far too thin skinned in gaming. No one was trying to make a fool of me or you, they were just "doing business". I see it for what it is, nothing more.

    >> It's not even that they were trying to make a fool of anyone, it's that they failed to try not to make fools of themselves. They acted before thinking. The timing of these things means (to the average consumer) either that their left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, or that they have a really dim view of their customers, or both. You may see it as "just business" but that simply highlights the fact that this sort of ridiculous, shortsighted behaviour has become commonplace in "business", to the detriment of common sense everywhere.

    My flatmate posits that possibly the "no price cuts" announcement was originally intended for the Japanese market and that fact somehow got lost, chinese whispers style. This, if true, makes considerably more sense.

    Personally, I meant it as Quite Fucking True =)

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #85 5 years ago

    What about europe?

  • spongebob #86 5 years ago

    Tell me now why I shouldn't import PS3 from the States. What are the caveats of owning a US console?

  • Duke_Red #87 5 years ago

    That is not fair, we want a price cut!!!

  • mingster #88 5 years ago

    Lol you all got shafted no price cut for Europe...
    Plus not really a price cut in the first place...
    Suckerzz..