IC_Freeze

lots of rumours that the PS2 will be going for $199 in US at start of new year

Deadpool

Who's reporting these rumors?

spankyj

Dang...beat me to it Freeze...
Here's the link.


http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...hreadid=659735

Aghama

Very questionable source: a guy "moonlighting" at Best Buy that was tipped off by another employee.

djones6746

As well as the PS2 is doing with hardware and software sales.....why would Sony even consider a price drop at this stage in the game? I would look for a price drop later in 2002.

shilly

I had it on good authority from an Sony Insider at their call center in Ft. Myers that the price is going to drop. I took a lot of crap on this last month when I stated this, but since this is not my thread....

I have heard the same thing - going to drop to $199.99. I really doubt that it would be during January due to all of the people buying these for Christmas from stores with 30-day price guarantees. There would be a whole boatload of people coming back to get their $100 price match. The retailers would not be happy since the $ would be coming out of their pocket, not Sony's. ( not making the Best Buys, Circuit City's, Sears, Fry's etc... very happy with Sony).

I would not expect this to happen until at least 30 days after Christmas or early February at the earliest. My friend did not have a date, but saw a memo stating the expected price drop and the pending introduction of an additional model with a hard drive and built in DVD support to follow some time later.

Steve "shilly" Schilffarth

WNYXican

I'm not questioning or debating anyone's sources, because that would be wasted time...but my gut instinct tells me that Sony wouldn't even think about dropping the price till maybe fall/winter next year around this time..the PS2 is still fairly new and very popular, even with GC and XBOX out a lot are still making the PS2 their weapon of choice...but then again my gut also tells me I'm hungry for a turkey club sandwhich...so if and when sony drops, we all win out yay :-]

Groucho

I'm sorry, but this rumor reeks of something a fanbody for another system came up with to slow PS2 sales. The PS2 is currently outselling the Xbox and GCN combined at the $299 price tag, despite being over a year old. There's no way Sony would be lowering the price now.

Cyberock

A $100 price drop seems crazy on Sony's part. I can't see any company slashing the price of a successful product by a third. Also, like said before the 30 day price match policy would kill companies since they bought the product at a higher price previously. I could see them taking off like $20 at a time but not a $100.

bbox

It already has DVD support....

Nefarious

Yeah I caught that too. Maybe it was to mean progressive scan dvd support?

Brian Shannon

Yes but according to the WalMart commercial "it plays BOTH DVD's and CD's"

Aghama

Not likely, even the Xbox doesn't have a progressive scan DVD player. What would Sony gain by including it?

Josh H

I doubt it will happen that soon, but I could understand why Sony would do it. The X-box is after the same target audience as the PS2, dropping the price to $199 would be a huge advantage for sony, especially given the current superiority of their game library as the result of having a year headstart. It also makes it the same price as the Gamecube, giving older gamers a more difficult choice. But I still would be surprised, but not shocked, if we saw a PS2 price drop, especially one of $100, before next summer/fall.

Cyberock

My best friend has a friend who's grandmother has a nephew who's third cousin has a wife who is having an affair with a Best Buy employee who knows a janitor at Sony who said that he saw a price drop on the PS2 in order to compete with the price drop on Gamecube to $99 and the XBOX to $199 and the free give aways of dreamcasts. Hmmm...now I can get some other rumors started....

IC_Freeze

Well let's consider some things,
first, do u guys really think Sony cares about anybody else but themselves? If they can screw the retailers to profit them, they would.

second, PS2 is not outselling XBOX and GC. The numbers reported from Sony is for the 4th quarter, which for them is from Oct1 to Dec 8. Xbox started Nov 14 or something like that, so PS2 sales figures included over a month more. A real comparison is the numbers sold from the same time period, ie Nov13-Dec8 for both XBOX and PS2. (and later dates for GC).

Groucho

Read this article:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...ales_dc_1.html

It focus on sales for the three systems on the week of December 1.

Gamecube: 65,000
Xbox: 182,000
PS2: 241,000

These are just sample numbers for one particular week. Overall, it's obvious that PS2 is the clear winner.

Michael T Hudson

That is the best post I have seen in a long, long time.

V-ism

The PS2 already has DVD support, but I think what they wanted to add to the new model is a built in remote receiver and included remote. That way you don't have to switch out a controller to use your DVD remote. I think they also want to make the DVD player work better.

Johnny Zhivago

Howsa bout a ? on this thread title since it's all speculation, so and so said this and I heard etc...

Outlaw

OMG!! she's having an affair with a Best Buy employee!!

*Calls up everyone he knows*......"hey.....did you know what...cyberock, his......"




P.S. The price isn't dropping, this "rumor" has been rumored for months and its not gonna happen soon. I think its more or less wishful thinking. Use the blue AMEX 30% off deal or get a dreamcast . (unfortunately I can't though)

mmconhea

They have't lowered the price on the PSone in over 2 years, what makes you think they will lower the market-dominating PS2 during the busiest time onf the year? This is lame speculating over it.

KnightLerxst

If the drop is true then it would be a very good move. I have been considering a PS2 or an Xbox. If I had to make my choice right now it would be Xbox because of its superior graphics, and hardrive.

But if PS2 ends up 100 bucks cheaper I would go with the PS2. With its current library it would be very attractive 100 bucks cheaper.

Cyberock

SHHHH!!!! That's how rumors get spread.

Just remember, you didn't hear it from me. It was from a friend of a....you get the picture.

kvrdave

Keep in mind I have none of them and don't care about any of them. One does need to keep in mind that you can't find an Xbox on shelves anywhere, and when you can it is part of a bundle. You can now pick up the PS2 at any retailer or even Costco. I will still reserve judgement on them all, but it would not suprise me if the Xbox would be outselling the PS2 if there was enough of them. The low numbers for the Gamecube shock me. I think the PS2 may also benefit from the lasck of Xboxes out there. "Jimmy wants an Xbox for Christmas, but there aren't any. The PS2 is the same price, let's get it instead."