digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

PS3 Price Drop Confirmed

news.yahoo.com — Sony has cut the price of the PS3 from $515 to $410 making it almost the same price as the XBox 360.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 22, 2006

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate

Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.

104 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -2/+89it's only the cheap version that's dropped and only in Japan.
  • JFetch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+81In Japan only. Don't get that excited.
  • Silentshadow900, on 10/12/2007, -2/+51Yeah, whatever:

    "In the U.S., it will go on sale Nov. 17 at $499 for a 20 gigabyte hard drive version and at $599 for the 60 gigabyte version."
  • Ironman11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38This is Japan only at the moment... so letes just hope it moves to the US. If it does, I can see a domino effect happening, knockin the 360 down $50, which would then drop the Wii to $200. We can dream, can't we?
  • Ignignokt01, on 10/12/2007, -14/+42Sony did something business-smart? No way!

    Seriously though, they must lose like 800 dollars on each console sold now.
  • medialift, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28@wolkengrau: losing money on the hardware is how Sony and Microsoft have always done it... they aim to get their money back from software sales. Nintendo is in a different position, as their sole business is selling games consoles and games, so they're less able to subsidize the hardware - Sony and Microsoft have their fingers in many pies. Sometimes even profitable pies, though not so much recently for Sony.
  • RiemannLebesgue, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23. THIS IS JAPAN ONLY, so you may not want to reconsider that 360 or Wii purchase just yet.
  • Paroparo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19It really should be mentioned that this only applies to the cheaper version without all the goodies. Not to mention it's only in Japan. -_-
  • bluemist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Hmm... PS3 is region-free right?
  • acousticiris, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25Yes, however, each disc ships with a root kit. :-)
  • Ironman11, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Thats true Dodger. Thats why I said "Let's hope it moves to the US."
  • NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Indeed. This is a bid to shut out the 360 in Japan once and for all, nothing more. They probably justify this based on the fact that only doing this in Japan cuts out overseas shipping costs. The rest of us still have to fork over the big money to keep them from going under totally. The thing is, Microsoft has stated more than once in the past that for the 360, Japan is a must-succeed market, so I wonder if we'll see some 360 price drops.
  • giociampa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Why? there's nothing there that says the US price is coming down (or Europe... assuming it ever gets here...)
  • anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14So, let's summarise:

    Japan: Release date 11th Nov, now cheaper than anywhere else
    US: Release date 17th Nov, no price change.
    Europe: Release date March 2007, most expensive place to buy one.

    Consumers: Royally screwed.
  • Kola, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12All the goodies meaning: Wifi, Memory Stick Slots, and extra 40 gigs of hard drive space. You need to mention that part, also that seems to be worth an extra $100 the way I see it.
  • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Wait... Once they realize how much money they're losing, they're start selling them for LESS than half their manufacturing costs? I mean if you're losing 500 dollars or so on every unit sold already.... The solution to your problems probably isn't lowering the price of your product.
  • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13@EvertSA

    Yes, and I'm sure all those countries (in this case ONLY Japan) use the $, which typically represents USD, for their currency... Look at the description he wrote "Sony has cut the price of the PS3 from $515 to $410 making it almost the same price as the XBox 360." Now, it's almost the same price as the Xbox 360 in the US, sure, but as the article explains it's almost the same price as a 360 PLUS a 19800 yen (168 dollar equivelant) HD-DVD player in Japan.... And of course, that's ff the particular 360 vendor is even selling it at full price and for some reason not trying to get rid of it.

    I really can't see how you can say describing it as "Sony dropped the PS3 price to $410" is accurate unless other information is included as being accurate.... But since he got dugg down, that may just be me.
  • dodger2020, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16FTA
    "There are no plans to lower prices in the U.S. or other markets, Sony spokeswoman Nanako Kato said. In Japan, the game will hit stores on Nov. 11."
  • Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12It's simply a claim. Large corporations like Microsoft and Sony generally don't discuss detailed financial data for a particular product line, so it's always been speculation that they've lost money on the hardware and made it up in software. How much money Sony may be losing on the PS3 is anybody's guess.
  • jacobmp92, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Talk like a pirate day was 2 days ago.
  • theragu40, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13@medialift

    Losing money is how Sony and Microsoft have always done it, yes. And Sony only made money because of its complete market saturation, and Microsoft's Xbox division has yet to come out of the red. Doesn't sound like that great of a plan to me.

    Oh, and to the poster of this article...did you leave out "in Japan" just to get more Diggs? Thought so.
  • Kericr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16I don't hope it moves to the US. Let the PS3 shrivel up and die here. There are already too many things wrong with it. I've always hated Sony for forcing consumers to buy into their proprietary technology that they developed. Memory Sticks, mini disks, now Blue Ray. Oh, let's not forget that you STILL have to buy the output cable to get the highest quality definition for Blue Ray, Sony already took that out of the package.
  • wolkengrau, on 10/12/2007, -12/+21Well, I don't think you can call losing $800 on each console "smart".
    They'd lose 80 million US-Dollar each 100,000 consoles. That's anything but smart.

    At the same time Nintendo gains money by every single console sold.
  • inkubux, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11But why only in Japan... Dammit
  • zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Why is this marked innacurate? I'm buying mine in Japan so it appears accurate to me.
  • Sirocco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Sounds like someone is scared of the Wii, at least in Japan.
  • GaryWinston, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12I'm not sure that the PS3 will be region free.
    Given Sony's love affair with DRMs, I highly doubt it.
  • Snakedal337, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Give it a year, after sony is done crapping itself over the amount of cash they'll be losing in the US, cuts will follow.
  • acousticiris, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10...actually, I think it's more like a giant sucking sound. Somewhere between manufacturing and actual sale, someone (perhaps color blind) must have missed the rather large red numbers sitting in the "Profits/(Loss)" column. Or, perhaps the parenthesis distracted them.

    Perhaps it's just me, but even assuming they pull this in the states, at $410 for the base unit...why do I want this? Oh yeah, the games look a little more realistic. I've had enough reality for today, I'd like to have some fun now.
  • au071, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9That won't do anything to the U.S. market though, too bad.
  • dirt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Dropping the price before it is even released? Sony is panicking.
  • zaid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7an extra 200 dollars now, since the price drop makes a pretty big jump from the lower end SKU to the higher end SKU.
  • Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Actually, Sony claims that they've always made a profit on their consoles:

    http://www.actsofgord.com/Proclamations/chapter02.html

    Sony has the chip R&D labs to research this stuff, and they have their own foundries to manufacture the electronics, so they save a ton of money having everything in-house. They are also able to repurpose a lot of that technology into other electronics that they sell.

    Microsoft is in the red because they are playing catch-up in the console wars, and they have the financial war chest to duke it out for an extended period of time.
  • nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8ALL VERSIONS HAVE HDMI NOW. Even the lower-end version for the US.
  • Zedtech, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I think they're starting to feel the pressure from the other competitors (the whole upcoming Wii Release?).

    It seems these companies believe (and with good reason) that whoever owns the japanese gaming market will end up being the most successful of the three consoles.

    Too bad Sony is still following their "screw everyone but ourselves" techniques.
  • juneof44, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I live in Japan. I read Digg. This article is accurate as far as I'm concerned.

    Seeing DOLLARS IN AN ENGLISH NEWS STORY MAKES SENSE. I haven't held a dollar in my hand in some time but I still think of things in dollars and cents the same as I think in feet and miles. And when I address an American audience, I use those measurements. If you'd like to have the figures in Yen, please let AP know. But that doesn't make this article inaccurate, it makes you an anal nitpick.
  • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Other than languages displayed on default, I was under the impression that they were the same thing?.... Part of that region free deal....
  • EvertSA, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11Inaccurate because its not in USA? There are some other countries out there you know.
  • acurism, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Why is this marked inaccurate!

    It is a fact and the low end model will now be coming with HDMI!
  • crussell96, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Apparently the 20gb version will have hdmi now according to news.com

    http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-6118346.html?part=rss&tag=6118346&subj=news
  • Klitzy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I got excited for nothing...
  • Morphinity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Wow, they will be losing money on this console if it doesn't sell. I could run Sony better...
  • Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@ Jeffery

    Actually if you knew anything about HDMI then you would have already known that the true difference between HDMI and Component is very small. Component is able to handle the signal quite nicely. The problem I have is the whole broadcast flag thing that sony was pulling a George Bush on and saying that they (the entertainment industry) can choose when or when not to enable the broadcast flag based on the fact that they wanted to push the law so early and fast that if they turned it on now only a small % of people would be able to handle it. Not to mention that the rumor is now that they are not going to even worry about the broadcast flag for about 7 years makes it fine to use component on your PS3. It will only be new movies 7 years from now that you would not be able to see HD content with however by that time we will all be purchasing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players from Wal-Mart for $40 so who cares!
  • HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The cheaper version has everything the high-end 360 has.

    Wireless controllers. 20GB HD.

    It even has rechargeable controllers, something that MS charges $20 extra for.

    This makes the cheap PS3 very cost-competitive to 360 in Japan. Although before Xmas, very few low-end PS3s will be produced. Most will be the more expensive model. And people will buy it because it's the only model available.
  • Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5And, my post gets screwed up... Anyway, as I was attempting to say, they should never have released the first technology they had a hand in developing and put it in a console to begin with! Those see-dees of theirs have obviously cost us nothing but grief!
  • Jeffrey903, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Sony could drop the price to $100 in Japan. It doesn't matter if they don't have any consoles left for Japan after they can only make like 200,000 and they all go to the US.

    But seriously, I hope they make this price cut in the US. Even more, I want to have the HDMI port on the cheap one. It doesn't make sense to have a 1080p Blu-Ray player if it doesn't use HDMI.
  • dep01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Would be a brilliant marketing ploy... Just completely lie about the starting price "Oh yeah, it'll be $600" and then at the last minute, "Did we say $600!? how about $399!?"

    I've seen infomercials use this technique.
  • joaob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Lose money on the console, make money on software and licensing.

    Isn't that how it's always worked?
  • HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@cerebral:
    The true difference between HDMI and component is that virtually no TVs accept 1080p over component.

    1080p is worthless to over 99.9% of HDTV owners (even those that own 1080P capable TVs) if it only comes over component, becuase their TV can't accept it.

    So the low-end PS3 having HDMI is a big deal.

    Also, the broadcast flag and the image constraint token are not the same thing.

    The broadcast flag is an FCC/broadcast thing. The image constraint token is a recorded media thing. HDCP is not used in any broadcast signal, and even the broadcast flag rules (now struck down) didn't mandate it.
  • protogenxl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2British analysts see it as the price of hubris.

    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2370536,00.html
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 104 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...

© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.