You seem to know it's going to be below $400? Does that put you in the fucking retard category?

Do you have a link where Sony says it's going to be under $400?

Wait a minute. You're telling people to "stop speculating at a price," and that anyone who does is "a fucking retard." Did I follow that right?

But then you go on to write that "anyone who speculates that Sony would release a console for more than $400 is either a) just now getting into the videogaming scene and has no idea what a PS1, PS2, or PSP is or b) a fucking troll looking for attention."

Aren't you speculating? Afterall, you're assuming that Sony will not sell a console for more than $400 based on judgments that seem just as precarious as those of the others posters. And doesn't that make you a "fucking retard" also?

Just a thought.

Edit: Gallant Pig beat me to it.

josh - if you ask nicely I could see if the Admins can get you a special custom member title that says "Fucking Retard Edition". Let me know, thx.

To push the PS3 to cheaper than the Xbox360 next year would bankrupt Sony faster than it would Microsoft. You betcha that you will see at least a $50 pricedrop for the PS3 release.

Sony is biting even more money than Microsoft thanks to the expensive Blu-ray drive and expensive Cell processor. Reasonable estimates show at least $100 higher price for Sony to manufacture it. For them to be biting $200-$300 a console would destroy their finances...imagine selling millions of them at -$100 to -$200. Unless they had a lot of loans floating around (or their TV/electronics business drastically turns around this year).

My money is on a $399-$499 launch. It would be insane to go any higher (and I think Sony and Microsoft are insane at $400 now).

That's pretty ridiculous. There's been more then a few analysts who have speculated that the PS3 price could be more then $400, many who wouldn't fit either of your criteria.

If speculation like this bothers you so much, you're in the wrong thread. Especially since you just called a lot of people here either a "fucking retard" or a "fucking troll" indirectly.

For the record, I think it will be 399.

Just a few random thoughts that maybe should factor into the discussion:

Sony has a lot more at stake than MS. For them, the success of the PS3 and Blu-ray is absolutley vital to their future profitability. Their game division is one of their most consistently profitable and maintaining the Playstation line's market leadership is probably something they will do at all costs.

For Microsoft, their primary goal this generation is profitability. It's all well and good to establish a solid position in game consoles to tap into a growing market and diversify their income, but it's all rather pointless if they can't actually earn a profit.

Sony's history shows no indication that they'll make a 3DO or Sega error by releasing an overpriced console. They hype the technology and they let pricing speculation run rampant on the high side because then everyone is pleasantly surprised when they actually launch at a reasonable price and its seen as a great value. They did this with both the PS2 and the PSP.

Sony has strategic advantages over MS in terms of their cost structure. They co-own the technology for both Blu-ray and the Cell chips, so they're not paying royalties on them, just manufacturing costs. Sony fabs their own chips and manufactures their own consoles. They can do that because at their core, they're basically a manufacturing company (with a pretty decent marketing dept). MS is a software company. They can and have designed their own chips (in conjunction with IBM and ATI), but they're still paying royalties for the core technology and they have to rely on companies like TSMC and Flextronics to actually make the product.

For shame Gallent Pig. For shame.

I enjoy the fact that people are reading my post, but I ask you to first gain some understanding of the English language before you do. You will notice that I said anyone who claims to know the price is a fucking retard. I then go on to say that anyone who speculates that the price is higher than $400 is a fucking troll.

There is a difference between knowing and speculating. If you can't comprehend that, please visit www.dictionary.com and learn.

Like I said previously, Gallent Pig, the only official comment by Sony was from what I posted on page one saying that the PS3 would probably be between $300 and $400. You can also look at the history of Sony, where the PS2 was rumored by analyst to be $700 and ended up - not surprisingly - $300, taking a rumored $150 hit on each console sold. Or you could look at the PSP which was being sold for the equivalent of $200 in Japan - a rumored loss of $120 per unit sold.

This is not new. This has been going on for many years with Sony. And if you can't comprehend that then yes, you are either a fucking retard, or a fucking troll.

gallant i'll take that if they let me have an avatar too. i'll be the proud fucking retard edition of dvd talk!

i dont see sony going low on price, if they do ms can always match them or go 50 dollars lower to put the #1 in their face. i'm betting 400 or better probably 500 and still no hard drive or online service.

Perhaps your point about understanding the English language would have been more effective if you had spelled Gallant correctly.

Proper name.

I find this amusing....Why don't people wait. All this bitching for nothing. I can see it costing $400+ though...HD DVD is not cheap....yet

As in the proper name, Gallant Pig?

As in proper names are not part of the English language, regardless of where they are derived from. Or did you not know that?

This sure has taken an ugly turn... I can't imagine a PS3 thread degenerating like this.

Well, we all thought the PSP would be $600 or more and they dropped it on us at a pretty good price considering the hardware (I'll reserve my comments on the damn "value" packaging though) so I wouldn't count my chickens just yet. If it means pissing on Microsoft's fire, I think Sony will gladly take the monetary hit.

The sad part (the TRULY sad part, I might add) is that it's over the price of the console. NOT the games, NOT the system.. the price.

You are basically the only one in this thread that has name-called and basically claims to know what is going on FOR SURE. Meanwhile, your source is an old quote by the CEO trying to drum up early promotion for a new product in which he used the words "could be" between $300-$400.
Yes, we do know they will sell them at a loss. But those losses are never more than $200 a system (and usually far, far less). A $499 price tag with all the fixin's is well within reason. Sounds like somebody doesn't have the money if it goes well over $300, and they react angrily when told it could be a very pricey piece of equipment. Calm down, my man.

Like I said, the only thing we know for sure is that it won't be more than $400. We come to this conclusion by looking at what has been said by Sony (the quote from the CEO) and historically what Sony has done (ie the PS2 and PSP).

All we have heard is how expensive these Sony products are going to be, and then, not surprisingly, it comes out the same price as everyone else. The first rumors on the PS2 was that because of the "expensive" DVD drive, it would cost users $700 or more - spelling doom for Sony over a much cheaper, and already out DreamCast system. Or even more recently, we hear how the PSP will be $400, and why would any spend more money on a Portable than a console and how it fail. History has shown us that all these price speculations have been 100% wrong, so why do people continue to follow them?

So in this thread, we are see the same thing. "The PS3 is going to be $500 because of the expensive Blu-Ray drive". Sounds awfully familiar to the PS2 and the DVD drive, and look what happened there.

I'm actually more disappointed in the Mods allowing this kind of worthless speculation which only invites people to post negatively and mindlessly.

I do find it funny, that when the question came up about the cost of the 360, everyone said, "$300" because of a statement Mr. Gates said so long ago. But when someone asks about the price of the PS3, no one takes Stringer seriously? Seems like a double-standard to me.

Josh, that's your own speculation and you're free to draw your own conclusions on the pricing of the PS3, just like anyone else. You come to the conclusion that it won't be more then $400 based on those tidbits, however it doesn't mean that everyone else has to agree with you. I'm not sure why you have to insist so adamently that others are wrong.

I don't see any reason why the Mods wouldn't allow such a thread, as I haven't seen any negative posts until someone started lashing out and calling people trolls and retards.

IBTL!

The real question is... at what point does the price become prohibitively high so that even those of us who are insane early-adopters won't get it, no matter what the hype. Of course, this is coming from someone who thought 400 bucks for the Xbox360 was too expensive, and yet still got roped by the hype.

I think, even with a 360 price drop, 400 would be a great pricepoint, as the road has already been paved by the 360 and the price won't seem as insane. 500 is pushing it, but doable... they need to have a great launch lineup, though. Any more than that, and forget about it, I don't need it that badly (*). I had a hard enough time convincing the wife to get the 360... (the conversation pretty much went like this: Well, no, it doesn't play all of the Xbox games I invested money into, and I can't even move the saves off of my old Xbox, so we have to keep the old system around. And I have to buy new $50 controllers since the old controllers won't work. And new games. And it'll probably be a few months before there's a really great game out there that makes the system worth purchasing. And on my non-HDTV, it probably won't look that much better. But it's new and it's going to be hard to get!)

Wait... why am I spending 500 bucks on this year's launch again?


(*) Of course, I reserve the right to change my opinion as it gets closer to launch and we find out there's a (surprise!) shortage, making the PS3 the hot item of Xmas 2006

You just said it AGAIN. We certainly don't know that for sure. It could end up being true (which is great), but we have no idea. And if you use "historical" standards then the price will never rise. Do you expect the ps5 (in like year 2018) to also be certainly $300 or so? I sure don't.
The real bottom line is that any of these systems are a far better deal than what we paid for an Atari in the 1970s, a Nintendo in the 1980s or the ps1 for $299 at launch that many of us had to play it upside down just to get it to work. The prices have to go up, because the time value of money keeps figuring in. Also, the dollar has been CRAP for the last number of years (thanks to the Bush administration, but that is another topic for another forum with even more volatile arguments). Those dollars are worth far less on the international market now than they were years ago. $500 for the ps3 and you still won't be able to find one anywhere the day after launch and possibly they still lose money on each and every system.

Spend that money on an HDTV. That purchase should come before any xbox 360 purchase or ps3 purchase. $1000 these days gets you a sweet HDTV (which would have been $4000 a few years ago, when many on this forum were diving in). Eat your meal before you order dessert.

I don't think that logic should apply to everyone. Some people would rather spend the money to enjoy new games, rather than get a better resolution TV first.

And I think both are valid viewpoints. Just depends on how much video quality matters to the individual.

Yes, but one can use the TV to do more than just play games. Like all those hours spent watching tv or dvds.

True, but some people just don't care much about video quality, and would rather spend their expendable income on games and dvds rather than saving up for an HDTV.

Just a matter of personal preference.

I'm in no hurry to get an HDTV as it's tough to fit a decent size one in an apartment and they're a pain to move. Combined with not caring much about video quality, I'll wait until I'm done with my Ph D, own a house and have plenty of space for a nice big HDTV. As honestly I want to go up to a big screen or projector more than I care about the resolution.

But others really care about video quality and having an HDTV is extremely important to them for them to enjoy games, dvds or TV.

So it just depends which camp you're in and isn't a case to generalize that everyone should save up for an HDTV before buying a 360 or PS3.