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 Digg.com Facebook Google Bookmarks N4G Gamerblips del.icio.us Reddit Slashdot.org StumbleUpon its an odd time but it works. Gives people time to save up thier coffers for christmas. just announce the damn price already! They did announce the price. It's going down to 299.99 :P They did announce the price. "2-9-9" in USD and in euros. "29,999 Yen in Japan". That's the info straight from the Sony fellow's announcement live.
I agree with the EA bossman that Sony's timing on this occassion is all but impeccable. It puts the PS3 back in the console pricing wars with a lot of high end features that were hard to justify previously at the higher prices for people who primarily wanted to play games. Now those same people can get that tech at a price very close to the Xbox 360 Elite barring further price cuts by MS. Sony's announcement comes too late for me; I purchased an Xbox at the beginning of summer and I have no regrets. Despite finally getting the pricing right for the PS3 I have little need (nor time for that matter,) for yet another console between my Xbox 360 and my gaming PC. and there is Sonys problem right there folks. Anyone with a Jasper set 360 probably won't be interested.
I could also see MS giving the elite a further price drop and phasing out all other models in responce. If they dropped the price of the elite down to that of the pro/ £169.99 Sony would be right back where they started. THe price cut is good news for all parties, hopefully it will encourage M$ to drop the Elite price, and scrap the arcade version of the xbox.
I am more interested in game prices coming down....dont think it will happen, but im not paying £45 for COD:MW2.... @Wheresmymonkey
MS are just about to increase the price of the Arcade to £159.99, there's no way the Elite will only be a tenner more. The price cut was expected but I think adding a 120gb HD as well makes it a good deal.
Also I checked the official PS3 website this morning and they have Playstation Network Cards in £20 and £50 denominations advirtised. The Elite will be around £200 i reckon, £250 for the PS3 is a good move, for what you're getting, and compared to the prices of the 360 Elite and Wii, I say it's well reasonable, I plan to pick one up myself sometime soon. I agree that if MS drops the price of the Xbox 360 Elite further they seem likely to regain the advantage once more. I would probably keep the Arcade and give it a smaller price drop. For the more casual gamers it's nice to have a cheap gaming option that can play games straight out of the box with few complications. If some of those casual gamers then decide they want more they can buy upgrades to the Arcade; this is what MS's policy has been for a while now regarding the Xbox 360 brand and it's been a very successful tactic for them since customers like having choices. Unlikely. Elite is expensive to make all thank to ridiculously overpriced 120gb HDD. Less than £200 and MS'll lose profit. people arent just looking for out-and-out lowest price - thats the reason there is 2 or 3 different 360 models.
people will see the low price of the ps3, see its extra features and weigh it up.
its low enough now for people to seriously consider it. only the hardcore bought it at £425.
£250 is well within the reach of your average punter. It is often a mistake to confuse the sales price of an item with the actual cost of production of said item. I don't know how much the 120GB HDD for the Xbox 360 costs MS but a significant mark-up wouldn't surprise me. That's what businesses do. The PS3, for all it's features was already great value for money.
It was just too expensive for a games console and that's why the 360 has sold well. 299 is just too much for a good majority of purchasers.
Now that the price has dropped will people be rushing out for a PS3?
Probably not in the numbers required by sony to claw back it's market share from ms and nintendo.
Now if Sony are able to drop the price again to 199 within the next 6 months and we see more stunning exclusive we'll really have a dogfight to see.
Sony could also support third party developers better so we avoid the lazy ps3 port of multiformat games. I also said if you'd read my post correctly that i could see MS phasing out the other 360 models other than the elite. There would be no Arcade model just the elite at £169.99
@ wildhook. The 360 uses the same type of hard drive as the PS3 just in a plastic shell.
They are overpriced. becasue the markup on them must be pretty damn big.`
considering the arcade is possible selling for profit at the current price of £130. it wouldn't be too hard for them to slash the price of the elite and still make profit. It's all very confusing at the moment - but, we were talking about this yesterday.
We figured that there's a possibility that the Arcade (as we know it) would be phased out - then the Pro would drop in price slightly and the Elite would drop to nearer the Pros' current price.
That way, all 360's would come with a hard-drive and the Elite would have a stronger price point to compete with the PS3. Therefore, all this talk about the Arcade price jump is actually the Pro price drop - it's just that the name Arcade would be used.
:) Microsoft buy their 120gb HD's for less than $20. They're reworked drives that don't have the capacity for larger units. I'm not sure how much it costs them to put them in a case but it wouldn't be that much. Agreed. Exactly. They're expensive because MS chose to put a crazy price point on them.
Considering you can get 320GB drives for about £45 or something including VAT and retailers margins, MS must be getting them for next to nothing.
Eventually 120GB drives will probably get more expensive as nobody bothers with drives that small anymore! Although a 20GB drive was a joke in 2006, let alone 6GB of it being mysteriously 'used' by something or other. Let me get this straight... PS3 related story, yet somehow xbots are in here trying to plug the 360? What?! Are you that scared or console-phobic of the PS3!!! Give it a rest already. The 360 is already at it's bargain-cheap-as-chips price point - no denying that. But with so lacking of quality exclusive games coming out on it, a damning 54% failure ratio and 'invisible costly bolt-ons/annual gaming subscriptions', no way to truly watch HD on current technology and noisy as hell - you can see why the ordinary consumer really wants a 360! Now the prices of the PS3 and 360 are roughly equal it's up to the consumer to decide. Personally, quality, lastability and value for money always sway me - so PS3 all the way. Next magic figure for ps3... £229. And on the subject of price point. I would get a 360 elite if it was under £50. Why? Well I figured that after a year's warranty in which the 360 has a 54% chance of dying, that to keep it working for 3 more years would cost me £2580. £200 for repairs (P&p), 3 years of gaming xbox live subscription (£75), £200 for replacing broken furniture after all the fustrations of buggy-unreliable crap, £2000 stress-related councilling bills, £99 for a bluray player to watch HD movies, and £5 for the charcoal to throw the 360 into afterwards. Gotta recoup some of the financial losses somehow! Disagree anyone? Nobody's plugging anything.
The prices of the consoles and how they compare to each other are massively relevant.
Yes the PS3 is well priced to really hit the 360's sales. However the argument of no games coming up for the 360 is nearly as tired as the 'no decent games for PS3' argument. Ha ha excellent.
Although you forgot the £7.99 for the pair of earphones to plug directly into your TV so you avoid the vacuum sound when the damn thing is swithced on Cykosis, dont be so narrow minded. a console is made or broken by its games and at the moment, there are more reasons (quality games)for the 360. i dont care what console does the best, i just care about getting my hands on great games. i own both a 360 n PS3 n personally ive played more quality games on the 360. besides that the dude above is correct, comapring prices of both consoles is extremley relevant to the article Well I've spent £270 on my 360 when it was first released. And bar a couple of extra joypads and a £27 12 month Live supscription I've paid nothing more. I've owned the console for, ooooh, 3 and a half years now?
It's a great console as is the PS3 (just without as many games that appeal to me, personally), sorry you can't seem to understand that- but over the past few days it seems pretty obvious that PS3 fanboys can't see reason.
Must be only a handful of PS3 owners who actually use the console for gaming instead of... well... sex. Unfortunate.
Oh what the hell! Down with teh Microshaft! Down with Ninten-do-do! They is shitz, innit? Sony 4eva!
etc etc @Petrolhead: Lazy ps3 ports of mutiformat games? Urrrm you can't use that statement no more, mutilformat games are basically identical to the 360 version's barring a few Really wanted the slim but its Ugly as hell im gonna have to stick to original models LOL yes because doiong it last Christmas would have been such a mistake! :roll: Im a student, I work part time in a pub, give me a month, i'll have enough to buy 2 ps3 slims. Get over yourselves, you can't afford it? get a ****ing job! Um...and I presume your student loan pays for your rent, food, etc, right?
Never had more disposable income than when I was studying.
I could buy four PS3 Slims this month yet I need to get my car MOT'd, pay the council tax, car loan, etc. Cadmanr mate. How come you don't diss the xbots making a racket on a PS3 topic? Hmm... me thinks you smell like a xbot. I did jest about the 360 and why not. No harm in bringing up truths - oh unless you are an avid supporter of crappy products and happy to see friends/family waste their hard earned cash. (ahem 3-5hitty). Only kidding Cadmanr - I love you really. No seriouly the 360 is really reliable and has amazing exclusives man - will get one when they are down to £50 or given away free! In the meantime am happy sticking to playing mates 360 (once it comes back from Frankfurt... something to do with RROD?). where did you get these figures from, the only difference in the cost is the hdd between units and since hdds cost massive companies pennies to buy, their profits arn't going to drop overnight.
the retail price is expensive for a xbox 360 hdd, but it dosnt cost anymore than 20 quid for ms to buy them an attach them to the units. Wazomba563.
Multiformat games ARE getting better, they just are limited to the capabilities of the 360.
The PS3 is capable of more, as we have seen in Killzone 2 etc, developers just don't use the extra horsepower of the PS3.
Hopefully an expanded PS3 user base will pursuade more developers to concentrate on PS3 versions of multiformat games and stripping them down to suit the 360.
And before a rabid 360 fanboy flames me, I own a 60gb(250gb)PS3 and premium 360 (since 3/06, rrod killed the 1st one, second 360 since 7/06) and use both regularly. | 
