Isn't Sony already losing a lot of money on each unit produced? I doubt they would want to take an even bigger loss. Also, a price drop too soon after launch could be read by the public as big trouble in Sony Land.

Xbox 1 dropped $100 after six months and it didn't seem to hurt it at all.

Xbox was the new kid on the block and not the 100 million+ selling behemoth that the PS2 was. They had nothing to lose by dropping the price and everything to gain. Not quite the same for Sony this gen.

Looking on the wikipedia price history for the Xbox and PS2 , it shows that the Xbox dropped $100 the day after the PS2 dropped $100. MS most likely did not want to drop the price so soon, but Sony forced them to do so to remain competitive.

Ah.. good points, both of ya.

Just a sidenote history lesson...

It's amazing that 5 years later Sony's reaction to MS' Xbox price drop still confuses. Relying on Wikipedia leads to the wrong conclusion.

MS planned their price drop and did all the things to prepare for it... i.e., let it be known in the industry ahead of time... so that MS-generated signs for all retailers would be in place, Sunday ads would be accurate, etc.

Sony, the day before MS' widely-rumored drop was going to officially be confirmed/go into effect, preemptively dropped by the same amount, making it look like they were the ones in charge, with MS playing catch up on the matter.

Then weeks later, Sony's POS materials finally arrived to replace the generic, store-created ones, the up-to-date Sunday ads finally reached news readers, and so on.

Now we know. And knowing's half the battle... GO JOE!

Now the PS3 is $100 farther away from a purchase. Not that it had any games for me anyway. Hello PS3, in 2009 or so. Bad move.

I liked the 20GB model. I don't need lots of HDD space. I don't need wireless, either. I've got a pair of wireless routers in bridging mode for network in my a/v rack (dating from when I got the first xbox a few years ago). They cost me -$16 AR and $40 respectively.

I had hoped to get the 20 GB model next fall (mostly as a Blu-ray player and maybe some exclusives that I cannot get for the 360). Having to spend an extra $100 (and I don't want/need the wireless) doesn't sound too appealing. Not sure if it will be enough to convince me to skip the PS3, but it doesn't help.

I'm in no hurry, around $300 or less is still my target.