Sony moves PS2 production to China
 

Found this on Gamers.com

PS2 production moves to China


Gamers.com: News:

PS2 Production Goes To China

By: D. F. Smith March 14, 2003 10:25 AM PST
Sony plans to completely move production of PlayStation 2 consoles to China by next year, the company announced recently. At present, PS2 production is evenly split between plants in China and Japan, but lower labor costs prompted the move to further increase Sony's profit margin on sales of the console.
This marks a continuing trend towards game console production on the Asian mainland. Microsoft is gradually moving more and more production of Xbox consoles to China, and Nintendo's move to production in China last year has grown to the point where 70% of Gamecube consoles are manufactured there.

Several analysts propose that the lowered production costs stemming from the move to production in China are a precursor to a drop in the PS2's retail price sometime this year. Sony spokesmen indicated that the company expects to reduce costs by as much as 11% thanks to lower labor costs and other reductions in the cost of components. However, Sony is naturally tight-lipped regarding the question of retail price cuts.

As if there wasn't already a quality control problem. :)

This is what everyone is doing since China is in the WTO. Just look how many things are now "Made in China".

Maybe this is a sign of an upcoming price drop??