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Sony to drop price of PS3 to $200?

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DVDBack23 @ Jun 11, 2010 03:51 | 20 comments

While they have since changed it, earlier in the day Sony posted in their new Sony Style 3D site that the PlayStation 3 is available "starting at $199.99."

When clicking through, there was no links to PS3s available at that price point, but Maxconsole agrees that the error is pretty large for such an important website.

Speculatively, Max says Sony could be preparing a new PS3 model, similar to the Xbox 360 Arcade, that will strip some features (like the larger HDD) and sell for $199.

The move could make sense for Sony, which is seeing strong momentum in console sales against rivals Microsoft and Nintendo but still sells their console for $100 more than the Arcade model and the Wii. That being said, it is hard to see how Sony could strip anything from the console except for lowering the HDD size, which would not save very much money for the company at all.

Check the pics here via the source (the site has since corrected the "error"):

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Comments

Comment by: biglo30 (Jun 11, 2010 06:05)

Wow major price drop.

Comment by: shaffaaf (Jun 11, 2010 06:50)

do it and i buy. i can buy a 120GB laptop HDD for practially nothing. then i can do away with my fat.

Comment by: Jake_C (Jun 11, 2010 08:33)

As soon as I can buy a ps3 with a few games for around £200, despite the hdd size I would honnestly consider buying one

Comment by: KillerBug (Jun 11, 2010 09:13)

"Speculatively, Max says Sony could be preparing a new PS3 model, similar to the Xbox 360 Arcade, that will strip some features (like the larger HDD) and sell for $199."

Did I miss something? When did they include a large HD? I thought the biggest they have is a tiny 250GB. I guess if they make it, it would be a great deal...put the $150 towards a 1tb drive and you have a system with 4x the space for less than the price of a 250GB ps3.

Comment by: shaffaaf (Jun 11, 2010 10:45)

note they said larger, not large.

but yeah, its not exactly big, esp for something thats meant to be a multimedia machine, but i guess most of the need for a big HDD is for playTV, recording the TV. otherwise msot PS3s will end up streaming from PCs.

Comment by: i1der (Jun 11, 2010 15:16)

some people just nag and nag, free still too much.... PS3 is already a bargain

*̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ *̡͌l̡

Comment by: Morreale (Jun 11, 2010 19:48)

I'll buy another one at that price :)

I have a 60GB, still at 3.15, never updating until a workaround is found. I wanna play online so bad though :(

Comment by: WierdName (Jun 11, 2010 21:23)

Hmm, how about dropping the cost of games...? At $60 a pop, my game collection has seen very minimal growth since I got it.

Doesnt expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected and therefore mean youre expecting the expected which was the unexpected until you expected it?
"Opinions are immunities to being told were wrong." - Relient K

Comment by: ian23 (Jun 11, 2010 23:16)

Unless something came out that I don't know about, they don't make a terabyte in a 2.5 inch size yet. Biggest is maybe 500 gigs so far.

Comment by: xnonsuchx (Jun 12, 2010 00:33)

It was a TYPO...the site is corrected now, reading "$299.99." However, a new PS3 Slim model (CECH-2501x) was just approved by the FCC and nobody knows what's different about it.

ian23 - WD has a 1TB 2.5" SATA HD...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136545

Comment by: jvwheel (Jun 12, 2010 03:16)

Originally posted by i1der:
some people just nag and nag, free still too much.... PS3 is already a bargain

Frankly it should be free; Sony has already proven they will steal it back any time they get the urge. One of those Voluntary updates that could turn your new console into a Pumpkin, or maybe just disable the Blu-Ray Player and force you to download all new games.....

Comment by: DVD_Dude (Jun 12, 2010 04:02)

Originally posted by Morreale:
I'll buy another one at that price :)

I have a 60GB, still at 3.15, never updating until a workaround is found. I wanna play online so bad though :(

What exactly do you mean by a workaround? I had difficulty updating my 60 GB PS3, but once I did a couple tricks, it works and can read BluRay movies and games.

Comment by: KillerBug (Jun 12, 2010 04:24)

Originally posted by ian23:
Unless something came out that I don't know about, they don't make a terabyte in a 2.5 inch size yet. Biggest is maybe 500 gigs so far.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136545
It is $170 here, but I got an external enclosure drive with this same drive inside for $140 at office depot.

Originally posted by DVD_Dude:
What exactly do you mean by a workaround? I had difficulty updating my 60 GB PS3, but once I did a couple tricks, it works and can read BluRay movies and games.

....But it can't play online or get games from the PSN...and it cannot play any of the newer games that require the new firmware. Morreale is waiting for someone to release a hacked firmware so he can update without loosing linux...and he is probably going to be waiting a very long time.

Comment by: 19877891 (Jun 12, 2010 11:26)

I would love to buy a PS3 at that price they still sell for around the $500 mark in Australia. The only way for me to get one cheaper is to buy it pre-owned.

And games for the X-Box and PS3 are at least $100 brand new for about the first 2 months of the release date here. Then they start to drop the price about $10 a month after that. The cheapest is about $25 for something like Viva Pinata.

Nintendo seem to notice the prices though and the games sell for about $80 and then like the PS3 and X-box they drop about $10 a month after the first 2 months.

And if I could buy a PS3 for $199.99 then i will only get the thick PS3 cause the consoles get worse when they go slim line.

Comment by: lubricant (Jun 14, 2010 01:38)

Originally posted by WierdName:
Hmm, how about dropping the cost of games...? At $60 a pop, my game collection has seen very minimal growth since I got it.

to the game industries credit, 50 dollars has been the price for video games since, what, like NES? buy the cool games that you wanna support new, buy the detritus used or way after release.

Comment by: IguanaC64 (Jun 14, 2010 20:36)

Yeah...except I understood game costs back then. Those cartridge blanks cost $15 from Nintendo. Then you had to pay for the memory that was on the cart. I remember Super Street Fighter on the SNES costing $72 which was crazy expensive back in the day. Looking back on it though, it was a 32 megabit cart (4 megabytes of memory). Buying 4 megs of memory for my 286 at the time cost $105.

Now we have CDs/DVDs which cost pennies to make and the prices aren't much cheaper to buy (if at all)...Street Fighter was something of an anomaly when it came out. I don't think many SNES carts were 32 megabit.

Comment by: ps2person (Jun 18, 2010 08:05)

Originally posted by WierdName:
Hmm, how about dropping the cost of games...? At $60 a pop, my game collection has seen very minimal growth since I got it.

Word

Comment by: KillerBug (Jun 18, 2010 09:51)

Originally posted by IguanaC64:
Yeah...except I understood game costs back then. Those cartridge blanks cost $15 from Nintendo. Then you had to pay for the memory that was on the cart. I remember Super Street Fighter on the SNES costing $72 which was crazy expensive back in the day. Looking back on it though, it was a 32 megabit cart (4 megabytes of memory). Buying 4 megs of memory for my 286 at the time cost $105.

Now we have CDs/DVDs which cost pennies to make and the prices aren't much cheaper to buy (if at all)...Street Fighter was something of an anomaly when it came out. I don't think many SNES carts were 32 megabit.

Agreed completely; when a game disk, manual, and case cost less than $5 to make and ship to the store, it is hard to find justification for a $60 pricetag. It is even harder to justify when right next to the $60 game rack there is another rack filled with $10-$20 games. I won't buy a game until it is below $30...and it better be a very good game for me to pay more than $20.

Unfortunately, this is how the industry works; they exploit a limited number of people for a huge profit each...then they drop the price once no one is interested anymore, and a few people like me buy it cheap before the store removes it from the shelves. Ultimately, they loose a small fortune...as they could make a whole lot more by selling it with a smaller markup, but to a lot more people. They could even cut the middle man on many of the sales by offering the games for sale at a low price through PSN or XboX live. Oh, and imagine what it would do to piracy!

As for Ausi games, I wouldn't buy an Ausi game even if it was cheaper. The fascists in the government have a hard-on for games, and they tend to ruin them, or at least delay release terribly. There are plenty of sites that will let you buy from companies like Amazon, ship to an address in the USA, and then re-ship to Australia (or just about anywhere). It will cost more than buying in the states, but it will cost less than buying in Australia...and you will get new games a year before any of your friends.

Comment by: xboxdvl2 (Jun 18, 2010 11:16)

Originally posted by KillerBug:

Originally posted by IguanaC64:
Yeah...except I understood game costs back then. Those cartridge blanks cost $15 from Nintendo. Then you had to pay for the memory that was on the cart. I remember Super Street Fighter on the SNES costing $72 which was crazy expensive back in the day. Looking back on it though, it was a 32 megabit cart (4 megabytes of memory). Buying 4 megs of memory for my 286 at the time cost $105.

Now we have CDs/DVDs which cost pennies to make and the prices aren't much cheaper to buy (if at all)...Street Fighter was something of an anomaly when it came out. I don't think many SNES carts were 32 megabit.
Agreed completely; when a game disk, manual, and case cost less than $5 to make and ship to the store, it is hard to find justification for a $60 pricetag. It is even harder to justify when right next to the $60 game rack there is another rack filled with $10-$20 games. I won't buy a game until it is below $30...and it better be a very good game for me to pay more than $20.

Unfortunately, this is how the industry works; they exploit a limited number of people for a huge profit each...then they drop the price once no one is interested anymore, and a few people like me buy it cheap before the store removes it from the shelves. Ultimately, they loose a small fortune...as they could make a whole lot more by selling it with a smaller markup, but to a lot more people. They could even cut the middle man on many of the sales by offering the games for sale at a low price through PSN or XboX live. Oh, and imagine what it would do to piracy!

As for Ausi games, I wouldn't buy an Ausi game even if it was cheaper. The fascists in the government have a hard-on for games, and they tend to ruin them, or at least delay release terribly. There are plenty of sites that will let you buy from companies like Amazon, ship to an address in the USA, and then re-ship to Australia (or just about anywhere). It will cost more than buying in the states, but it will cost less than buying in Australia...and you will get new games a year before any of your friends.

Im not sure if american ps3 games will work on an australian ps3???I'm pretty sure pc games work on any pc but not sure on ps3.

Quote:

Yeah...except I understood game costs back then. Those cartridge blanks cost $15 from Nintendo. Then you had to pay for the memory that was on the cart. I remember Super Street Fighter on the SNES costing $72 which was crazy expensive back in the day. Looking back on it though, it was a 32 megabit cart (4 megabytes of memory). Buying 4 megs of memory for my 286 at the time cost $105.

Now we have CDs/DVDs which cost pennies to make and the prices aren't much cheaper to buy (if at all)...Street Fighter was something of an anomaly when it came out. I don't think many SNES carts were 32 megabit.

i remember chrono trigger and final fantasy 3 on the snes they were the best.

PS2 with 12 games.
pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

Comment by: WierdName (Jun 18, 2010 20:24)

I would buy more games but with the $60 price tag, I rarely get new games. Quite frankly, for $60 they should be near perfect, which they usually aren't. One of my biggest complaints is the peer-to-peer structure for online multiplayer. The only game I have played so far that competently handled lag was the MAG beta. Unfortunately, I opted for getting Battlefield Bad Company 2. It's been fine for awhile but it does get laggy at points and almost unbearable when you can't hit someone because they jump all over. I like to snipe at points and when you're shooting at someone 2 bases away, jumping around makes something possible become near impossible. But I digress.