PS3 Price Drop Temporary

[PBR]

Ever since Sony announced it was dropping the price of the 60GB model by $100 to $499 earlier this week, there has been rampant speculation as to whether or not it would be a permanent price cut or a temporary one until supply of the model runs out. Today GamesIndustry.biz received confirmation from David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, that the 60GB model will not be continued in Europe. But what about North America?

Senior Public Relations Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, Patrick Seybold, has substantiated this news to IGN: the 60GB will not be continued in North America, either. In effect, this means the $100 price drop is only temporary.

"The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted," Seybold said. "We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated."

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/804/804902p1.html

[ymmv]

Just wait, once the 60GB stocks are gone, the 80GB will drop in price.

[resmonkey]

Originally Posted by ymmv

Just wait, once the 60GB stocks are gone, the 80GB will drop in price.

Exactly. The 80GB is *CHEAPER* to produce than the 60GB.

EDIT = It's cheaper because 80GB laptop HDDs are more common than 60GB HDDs, therefore cheaper to do more quantity.

[jermwhl]

Originally Posted by resmonkey

Exactly. The 80GB is *CHEAPER* to produce than the 60GB.

EDIT = It's cheaper because 80GB laptop HDDs are more common than 60GB HDDs, therefore cheaper to do more quantity.

Are the specs the same? Have they removed anything of drastic importance?

[ymmv]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

Are the specs the same? Have they removed anything of drastic importance?

The reason why its cheaper has nothing to do with the HD. They've removed the Emotion Engine chip from the new version. This means there's no hardware emulation of PS2 games anymore, the 80GB version relies on less reliable/compatible software emulation.

[BeachPirate1976]

I think I will still invest in the PS3 just to have it...in case of, well anything happens. All the reviews I've read here ahave been quite positive on it.

[The Don]

the 80 GB is essentially the same price as the 60....it just comes with more stuff....

when the 60 phases out and they stop the package deal for the 80...it'll be 499.....and then another price drop should follow....that's IF sony wants to take the next level in sales..

[BlurRay]

Originally Posted by resmonkey

Exactly. The 80GB is *CHEAPER* to produce than the 60GB.

EDIT = It's cheaper because 80GB laptop HDDs are more common than 60GB HDDs, therefore cheaper to do more quantity.

It's cheaper because they removed the PS2 chips. The 80GB version is backward compatible by emulation, just like the Europe 60GB versions. The US 60GB versions had the PS2 chip so it was 100% backward compatible. With the software backward compatibility it is only 88% compatible currently.

[JonasK]

Originally Posted by BlurRay

It's cheaper because they removed the PS2 chips. The 80GB version is backward compatible by emulation, just like the Europe 60GB versions. The US 60GB versions had the PS2 chip so it was 100% backward compatible. With the software backward compatibility it is only 88% compatible currently.

I've seen people claiming that 99% of the most recent PS2 games are compatible.

[BlurRay]

Originally Posted by JonasK

I've seen people claiming that 99% of the most recent PS2 games are compatible.

One of the intereviews I read some where with a SOny rep had mentioned 88%. 88% is alot if you consider how many titles there are. 99% seems ambitious, that would be surprising. One site had a list of the games that had problems with the emulation but I'm not sure offhand where it was.