PS2 going to $99??!!
 

Saw the story on a few news sites this morning. Anyone else heard about this. I know there are some people on this board who work in retail so maybe they have a better read on the situation. Hard to believe the PS2 would be $99 with the PS1 at $49. This would be great for Christmas sales though.

If this is true, gotta go buy more stock in ERTS!

-eek- They want to kill Nintendo :(

"Friend of a friend" story.

I seriously doubt it.

This is great, great news!

Ok, maybe not for Nintendo, but for the few good friends I have who do not yet own the system. With Christmas just around the corner, this'll make the ultimate gift! :up:

We'll see but don't get your hopes up for a $79 price drop.

I'd wait for offical confirmation from Sony before getting giddy, but thats me.

I'd believe it. Back in the day on this forum, people posted deals from sales circulars a week or two before they were available. As such I believe that people have access to this info and leak it (even if it is second hand info). Anyone working at EB or Gamestop hear about this?

Then X-box would have to follow suit and I may actually get one, plus it would be a lot cheaper/faster then waiting for Sony to come up with one...

I highly doubt it.

The holidays last year had all these rumors - but they never came around until the next year.

Even though I do believe it'd be a crippling final blow to the Xbox - it's too much of a financial ir-responsibility to tackle.

Oh My goddess SONY going Destroy Nintendo out of Console Business if the NEW is Comfirm by SONY but it's impossible :)

I am going Pickup (2) PS2 if SONY have it for $99.99

riiiiiight. and just a few weeks ago we had "confirmed" reports of EB's and Gamestop's having advertisement signs saying that the PS2 and X-Box will lower to $150 and Gamecube to $99. Could be true, but I'd wait until some more info comes out less it ends up like the last price drop that was supposed to happen, maybe someone here who works retail can find out?

This is insane! So X-Box will surely have to follow suit or they won't move any systems during this holiday season. With all these price drops I guess we are that much closer to the next-next-next gen console wars.

Sony just spend millions on a new plant to manufacture PS2 chips smaller. I don't see a price drop any time soon.

Jtnguyen12 seems to have the inside scoop and advance word on anything Target-releated...so, any word from your sources?

Jeremy

Back in the day? It's still done on DVD Bargains :P

They still do it before the circulars are released publicly? I thought there was a legal issue with doing that now.

Only time retailers get excited about that is when Black Friday ads are leaked.

The nintendo price drop rumor started as a friend of mine or this gamer site....

Who knows. I just got a cube at the 99. If the ps2 drops to 99 I'm going to trade it in. Nothing against the cube, but I'd rather have monkey island and gta then metroid and viewtiful joe.

Not that I don't like those games.

I see this happening only when the PSX is released.

As much as I would love for this news to be true, I think any website that spells it 'gamez' should have a couple credibility points deducted.
I dont see why Sony would do this, at least yet--aren't they pretty much kicking tail? But maybe they want to get the 7 people in the world [myself included] who don't yet have a ps2, to get one.

absolutely. the info is there 2 weeks before and they're accurate - dvds, cd, games, etc.

i do remember a flap of the legality of it, but i never found out what the resolution of that was.

--
as for this, if it's true, man... i don't care what some people say; this is definitely the best of times for gamers. between cheap consoles and greatest hits games (on all the consoles), gamers are not left wanting.

:lol::up:

Actually, the smaller chip is much cheaper to produce, so I think you couod say they cancel each other out.

FS

I really doubt SONY, who has the highest market share, would drop to $99. First off, they would be losing more money on hardware then Nintendo. Second, the new systems (Cube 2, Xbox 2, PS3...) won't even be coming out for 2 years at the earliest. Third, even if Sony does a price drop, it would be to $150...NOT $99.

That pretty much sums it up. If they drop to $99, then that is a sign of desperation. People will still buy PS2 for $179 like hotcakes during the holidays. $149 is way more likely.

I work at the retail in question and haven't seen any promo's at all.

ITS TRUE!!!!!
ITS TRUE!!!!

ITS TRUE!!!!


this means xbox will drop too! thats good news considering i need to buy 2 xboxes for my lil bros this xmas!

cube will prob drop to $75

and this also means the new versions of these systems are upon us...psx and the enhanced xbox

EDIT: link fixed...sorry deb ;)

:johnwoo: Young Vito. I clicked on the link... :p

Oh it wasn't a joke, it was a real link... you just forgot to put the link address where it went so that the page you go to is insert.link.here or something like that :)

Holy snap, does this apply to the online enabled model too? I'm picking one up if that's the case.

The link doesn't confirm anything. It's still a rumor, and I still think it's doubtful.

If it does happen, it's good, but I'm not holding my breath.

please note that despite what Young Vito wrote about "IT'S TRUE!!!", the article that he linked to clearly states that this is still an unconfirmed rumor

I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet.

The fact that IGN posed the question (Sony to Drop PS2 to $99?) based on the same unsubstantiated rumors posted here earlier doesn't lend it any more credibility. In fact, IGN questions the validity of the rumors and doubts that SCEA would take such a drastic measure.

While we can all hope it is true (and Xbox follows suit...I already own a PS2 :D) it's still a "friend-of-a-friend's" information.

Where in that article does it state that Sony has comfirmed this price drop?

That IGN article states exactly what the first post linked to in this thread.

Also no one has heard of this price drop at other stores. Like the IGN article stated why would Sony single out just Target for the price drop?

Now, I'm not saying it won't happen, just that it doesn't make sense for Sony to drop from 179.99 to 99.99 that quickly when they sell well at 179.99.

If it does happen though I feel sorry for Microsoft heh. They are already losing money on each Xbox sold and having to drop to 99.99 isn't gonna sit well with investors. Yes, Microsoft said they were in it for the long haul but still. ;)

A few points:

- How does anyone know what the cost of these system's is to manufacture? People always quote that "they are already making a loss" and "they are losing so much money on each system sold". Is this your preception or do you have some insider info? What do the semiconductors cost to FAB? I have no idea.

- We had a talk from a financial analyst the other day who said "When you have dominant market share, at some point you have to be willing to turn the key" Meaning that at some point you have to exert massive pressure on the market and force your competitors' hand. If this price drop is true, and I don't know if it is, it's Sony's way of saying "Show me what you got?"

- If all 3 consoles were at $99, software companies would have a field day this Christmas and the "Big Three" would all be making mad bank on licensing fees.

From the Puget Sound Business Journal: (09/22/2003)
Complete article...

That's the only reason I could see Sony dropping price. All the financial reports have shown the X-box division at MS taking huge losses. Forcing them to drop would just increase this. MS has said their willing to lose whatever to gain market share, but in the long run, they can only lose so much before investors start to bitch.

The Franchise, the "losses" are based on a couple of things. Sony and MS from time to time devulge their costs. For instance, at launch MS said the X-box was costing (if I remember correctly) $325/unit to produce.

Also, sometimes you fine articles with analysts estimating how much they cost to make by adding up the cost of the components, shipping etc.

Even if your skeptical of that, once you factor in the millions spent to research and design the system and the marketing through out the life span fo the console (take these and divide total cost by total units sold and add it to each units cost) it's clear that every console loses money.

Not to mention that Nintendo and others have stated repeatedly that they take losses on hardware, and that the games are where they make their profit, as they sell them for $50 a pop, and they cost much less than that to produce and market.

Some of these are old articles last one is from June this year it looks like.<s> Also Microsoft has never said how much it cost to manufacture the Xbox</s>*I was mistaken apparently* just analysts and others, but it's pretty much accepted as fact they are losing money on each one sold.

http://www.manufacturing.net/pur/ind...cleid=CA237778

http://www.circuitree.com/CDA/Articl...,91482,00.html

http://www.xboxvillage.com/shownews.asp?id_=7761

http://www.xboxsolution.com/article154.html June '03

Hey everybody, spread this rumor. I overheard a homeless guy on the street that xbox will be $99 before Christmas. Beat that.

Yep. It's pretty much accepted for all the consoles in every generation.

It's not just the cost to manufacture the system (and likely this alone is more than what they sell fore) but also, as I said above, all the total R&D and Marketing costs divided by total consoles sold over the consoles life span that makes up the total cost to the manufacturer.

Usually console makers eventually start making money on each hardware unit sold(within it's generation) though and some are predicting that might not happen at all with the Xbox.

:lol: Target :lol: Jtnguyen12

good times.