If this happens I totally agree. It is a big if.

I've never seen Sony so quick to change something. They must be feeling some heat from MS and Nintendo, not to mention Toshiba.

As others mentioned, they could be doing it to counter nintendo.

The DS has absolutely slaughtered the PSP in Japan, so they may be taking the Wii more seriously after they were overconfident with their handheld.

I don't understand why they are cutting the price at all. It's not like the PS3 isn't going to sell out everywhere ...

I would happily take that bet and your money. There will be people lined up around the block to give Sony as much money as they want for the PS3. It will be in such high demand you won't find it for months. They are not a charity. They know US gamers will bend over for it. Japan is just a smart counter to Wii, which isn't on the radar of someone in the US buying the PS3 (in an either-only situation).

That's only for the 60GB model.

MS is fair point, but the DS and PSP are pretty much even in US sales (PSP was ahead before DS lite came out).

Exactly. A US PS3 buyer is going to be wanting Resitance, the GTA games etc. that they enjoyed on the PS2.

In Japan, those games sell, but there were tons of RPGs and quirky japanese games etc. on the PS2 that helped make it so popular and will do the same for the PS3. Thus the PS3 is in a bit of a more direct competion in Japan, where in the US they are largely seperate markets.

They were never serious about delivering systems in the Spring. It's Sony, they just wanted to keep themselves in the headlines. Sony is notorious for promising and not delivering.

True. But I think they are extremely worried about the Wii and the impact it's going to have on the market with it's price point.

I'm all for a substantial price cut.

That said, I hope there's some adapters out for the thing pretty quick, Resistance could be fun but I #@$ing HATE playing FPS games on the Playstation pad, so damn akward and uncomfortable w/ the analogue locations.

This could backfire for Sony. One major retailer has the 60GB version for 72,000 yen, with this version at 50,000...that is a huge price difference for what, a bigger hard drive, wifi and memory card support?

With only 20% supposed to be the 20GB version, that is only 20,000 at launch with the lower price. They may find people holding off on the 60GB version to get a much cheaper 20GB version with nearly identical features. This is definately a much better value.

DS Lite has also outsold the PSP since its US release. Pretty wide margin. The PSP is pretty much out of gas worldwide, but it has faired better in the US.

Sony is worried about Japan though. You don't want your ass handed to you in your home country. They don't have to worry about MS, but they can't risk understimating the Wii.

I guess so... especially considering that none of the gamer sites/blogs have taken Sony to task over their lies. It seems to me that the console gaming industry itself is one big game for the purpose of creating and feeding the fanboys of various systems.

I'm too old and don't have the time or inclination to deal with that crap.

Isn't every industry?

Even though there's no guarantee that a price cut would occur in the US, it'd probably be REALLY smart on their part. It'll be exciting to see what happens with these companies with the all out war in November...

No. I can't think of another industry where outright lies are not only tolerated, but accepted. When was the last time a Toyota spokesman announced something that they knew was a lie at the time they said it?

Can you provide a link to that? Everything I've heard said open pricing on all models.

Answering the above and adding some analyst criticism of the move: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...=3864&Itemid=2

20,000. IIRC, only a fifth of the ps3s are supposed to be the cheaper version.

That is even funnier. What it would be like to be a fly on the wall in one of Sony's board meetings.

Probably wondering why they are dropping price at all. US sales are gonna eat this.

You have to think about this a bit in the long view too. What happens if Sony drops the price $100 in Febuary? You piss off a lot of people that paid full price, and leave other people thinking "hmm. Maybe I should wait for another price drop, it's dropping so fast".

You also might have people more willing to wait for stock to come in than at the $500 pricepoint. Less people that go "too expensive, I'll just get a Wii".

People waited out the Dreamcast for the PS2 like that, but would the Dreamcast have done better if the PS2 had been $400 coming out? Perhaps.

I agree that the first batch of PS3s will sell out. Common sense. I'm thinking more along the lines of the second and third batches where they try to appeal to Joe 6-pack and not the hardcore gamer. They need to get that price down at least $100 or they are screwed IMO, destined to go the way of the 3DO.

Also, like GreenMonkey said, dropping the price shortly after launch to appeal to J6P would be an even worse move because it would piss off those who bought at full price a couple months prior and, more importantly, it would be a market indicator of poor value (to have the price drop so quickly). Doing so prior to launch, however, would avoid these issues.

Why would Sony care about pissing off those who already bought a PS3 on launch day? They're the hardcore gamers and scalpers. The scalpers will have made their money, and the hardcore gamers are used to price drops after the fact.

What you've demonstrated here is a level of consumer and market understanding that I don't believe Sony actually possesses.