blu-ray the spike..the ps3 the sledge hammer...!

[joeorc]

if this is true...hammer time:

Several posters at SlickDeals.net are reporting that the PS3 may have yet another price drop towards the end of the month. Many are rumoring that a $299 PS3 will be announced on January 28. SlickDeals.net is a website dedicated to providing consumers with the latest prices in electronics, breaking the news of both of the previous PS3 price drops and the 360 price drop a few weeks early, along with the CheapAssGamer forums.

Though it does seem early for this to occur, Sony did recently announce that the price of manufacturing of the PS3 did drop from $800 per unit at the launch to $400 currently. This is mainly due to the success of Blu Ray, especially with Warner Bros. going Blu Ray exclusive earlier this month. Now there are also rumors that Paramount found a loophole in their HD DVD exclusivity contract and will be going Blu Ray as well - leaving Universal and Dreamworks as the only remaining HD DVD studios.

Financially, the price cut makes sense, consoles have historically been sold at a loss until the tail end of their lifetime. The only consoles not sold at a loss are the Sega Saturn(sold at the price to manufacture) and the Nintendo Wii(sold at a $100 profit for Nintendo). Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony make most of its money off of game licensing, not the actual console. For every game released, they developer must pay $10,000 worth of licensing fees to Sony(its traditionally been $20,000 for all 3 companies, but this was another cut Sony made to encourage developers recently). They also make a bulk of their profit from peripherals, like memory cards and controllers.

Still, I personally think it may be a bit too early for another price cut.

http://exgn.wordpress.com/2008/01/21...er-price-drop/

[reiella]

Price cuts right after Christmas are typically a bad idea, they don't engender well to the consumer. 2Q or early 3Q though, would be a more likly time.

But I'm not in the know at all.

[koreyman]

with this being a break through year for the ps3 I dont see a price drop

[LynxFX]

Don't expect a price drop or new bundle (most likely) until at least E3. Most likely they'll just add a game or movie into the 80gig bundle, or switch it up. Probably around the holidays we'll see more aggresive pricing.

[sudbury78]

I'll throw up all over my computer if this is true as I just purchased and set up my 40GB from Besbuy today. I know they would price match and adjust within 30 days, but I would assume the new price and sku would not be the same with spidey3. I wonder if BB would adjust price if it was a 40GB without spidey or something different?

[air_max]

when i read about the production cost drop, it appeared that they were more talking about the production costs of the 40 gb version, citing the exclusion of the emotion engine which inhibits the 40 from being backwards compatible. they did also mention making capacitors smaller.

i just dont see a need for sony to drop the 80 gb version yet. its only priced at $50 more than the elite 360 and it comes with a motorstorm, which basically makes it even with the elite. i can see them switching up the packages around, that wouldnt bother me one bit since ill get 5 BD.

honestly, i think the key to sonys success isnt dropping the price, its getting the big name games; i feel like people are willing to pay $400-500 if the games are there. sony could keep the pricing until blu-ray players start dropping a lot; the ps3 is still one of the cheapest blu-ray players out there