E3: PS3 price cut temporary?

[Txbroadcaster]

Could the welcomed $100 price cut for Sony's PlayStation 3 be temporary? Reported comments from multiple Sony execs in online publications Gamesindustry.biz and Joystiq.com indicate so. The current PlayStation 3 model, which is equipped with a 60 GB hard drive, certainly has received a price cut to $499 and is available at that price right now - but Sony's recent statements indicate that model is no longer in production.

If that's accurate, once those sell out, which could take as little as 1-3 months, the only PlayStation 3 model that's available will be the just-announced premium version. Going on sale in August and equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and racing game Motorstorm, it'll set purchasers back $599. Barring further price cuts, holiday shoppers would potentially still be faced with a $600 PS3, although they'd be getting more for their money.

============================================

Wow

[piratebg]

I just got done reading this. I couldn't help but laugh. :D

[charlesrixey]

not really sure how this is going to help playstation compete with the xbox, which just announced permanent price cuts


the way the industry has always worked is by putting out the new hardware, and then as technology increases and compression becomes possible, they find ways to drastically cut the production costs, which leads to several sets of price cuts before the item is finally no longer produced, as the next model comes out.

Playstation may be adding some cool hardware upgrades, but keeping the system consistently priced in the 600 dollar range could be a very costly move when the end result (sales) probably won't change too much due to a 20GB increase in the hard drive.