Latest PS3 and Xbox 360 price cut rumors
Rumor has it the Xbox 360 Elite will take the place of the Pro.
(Credit: Microsoft)Ars Technica's "favorite inside source" is at it again, telling the Web site that Sony is clearing inventory on the $399 80GB PS3 in advance of "dropping the price of hardware and launching the PS3 Slim rumor in the fall."
At the same time, Ars' mole claims the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro ($299) will be replaced by the Xbox 360 Elite ($399), which has a higher-capacity 120GB hard drive. In other words, Microsoft will offer up more hard drive capacity at the $299 price point, which seems to dovetail nicely with its plans to deliver a full assortment of retail game downloads that require more disc space than Xbox 360 Arcade titles.
According to the mole, which Ars claims has "an outstanding track record," we should also expect Microsoft to serve up some enticing system/game bundles for the holidays, similar to what we've already seen with the Halo 3/Fable 2 bundle.
In terms of rumors, this one sounds pretty straightforward and logical, and could really come from anybody who has some basic insight into the gaming industry. But hey, other blogs are posting this item, so we feel obligated to let you in on what's floating around out there.
Probably the most important thing to note is that the PS3 Slim rumor is alive and well and we expect it to continue to gain steam as we approach the end of the summer. In the light of Sony's inability to keep the PSP Go a secret, if the PS3 Slim is indeed for real, we somehow doubt Sony will be able to keep it completely under wraps.
It's also clear (if you believe this rumor) that Microsoft intends to keep the pressure on Sony, making sure the PS3 remains in third place behind the Wii and Xbox 360. The other day I spoke with Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, and he gave me the impression that Microsoft fully expects Sony to drop its price to $299 this year. "Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult for them to compete," Greenberg said. "They have to."
As always, feel free to comment.
(Source: Ars Technica)
On Sale Now: $259.99
View the latest prices for Sony PlayStation 3 (80GB)
On Sale Now: $249.99 - $358.75
View the latest prices for Microsoft Xbox 360 (60GB, HDMI)
On Sale Now: $299.95 - $440.43
View the latest prices for Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
One question though: what features are they dropping this time?
Activision recently said that they want ferrari to start selling their cars for the same price as the Chevy Malibu or else they'll cry.
I guess they could stand to lose wifi, blu ray, and a couple of cores. Then just start charging for the use of internet and they should nail that 299 price point.
Activision recently said that they want ferrari to start selling their cars for the same price as the Chevy Malibu or else they'll cry."
so true
I believe the current Cell BE chip is in 65nm process. Only it moves to 45nm or more advanced process can Sony reduce the power demand and heat generation to make the PS3 slimmer and at lower cost.
Sounds completely awesome that Sony would offer such a technological beast for mere pennies.
Anyone who says its "too expensive" should really consider a new hobby. Bird Watching is Free!
The PS3 is NOT overpriced.
They didn't "lock" the PS2 compatibility. They took out the PS2 processor which saved them money.
I'm tempted to buy an Xbox, but the RROD, expensive periphs, and loud drive are holding me back.
What's holding me back from the PS3 is large form, no netflix, lack of games I want to play, online is not as good as XboxLive.
If Onlive is the real deal, then I'd have to take a close look.
I will never buy Sony again due to there additude and there notion that paying more means better.
You do realize the XBOX has only been out for 3 years and RROD was only widely reported a year ago don't you?
To: talking poo
I just recently got a 360 and it is quite loud. As far as periphs go, you can upgrade the hard drive yourself (saves about $60) and use a wifi bridge ($40) instead of the XBOX adapter ($75+). Plus if you have the time and patience, go to Microsoft's clubbing.com and get a 20gb xbox for free.
The reasons you give that are holding you back from buying a PS3 sound a hell of a lot like the Xbox 360's features. So the Xbox 360 is what is holding you back from buying a PS3.
The RROD is a pain if it happens to you, but Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and worked to correct it. Its not as much of an issue as it once was. The 'periphs' are just as expensive as any other consoles 'periphs.' As far as the volume of the drive goes, I would like to know: do you play your games with your TV/speakers muted? I can't remember ever once hearing the drive spinning while I was actually playing, even with the TV volume low (late night for instance, before I bought gaming headphones).
Onlive will not appeal to hardcore gamers because of the problems that it will undoubtedly have with latency. Imagine playing a shooter which requires millisecond response times and having Onlive send you the game data, you see it and respond, then Onlive takes your controller input and applies it to the game and then that is updated on the network to be sent back to you. This has to happen for every person in a mulltiplayer game. Its not a perfect description but hopefully you get it. I wont even get into how much your broadband internet provider will love your new skyrocketing usage. They hope you will love Onlive and go past your monthly data caps. You should hope you never have any internet outages either or your gaming will cease to exist.
As far as the price cuts go, I am $#!+ out of luck since I already purchased both of those systems. I would like Microsoft to cut the hard drive prices since I doubt they will ever allow custom HD installs...ever. Also, I dont understand why Sony wont even sell the software emulation for us PS3 owners who HAVE purchased the system at higher price points already. They removed the card readers and the backwards compatibility and give us a marginal HD upgrade (this point is moot because you can install your own) and feel like they are giving us a deal already. Blu-Ray players are approaching $100 so the value argument no longer really holds. Sony also needs to realize that no matter how high a "value" their console has, it is first and foremost a gaming machine. It needs to have people interested in the games available for it to be successful.
That is it for my rant. If you made it this far then you are a cool person.
In their most recent financial briefing Sony reported they were still losing 10% on every PS3 sold. That would be $40 per box. Widely reported this spring.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/15/report-sony-losing-about-40-on-each-ps3/
Quote: "Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda noted recently that the PS3's cost is still 10 percent higher than the system's price, reports Andriasang.com. With the console's price differences in each region, if Oneda is talking about Japan, that would be approximately ¥4,000 ($42). In North America the same $40 loss would also hold true."
Whoever told you they stopped losing money last august was misleading you on purpose.
Sorry!
He knows that because Sony themselves reported(in their last financial briefing), that the PS3 costs1 0%b higher to produce than they were selling it for. And he provided links to back up his statement. All you have done so far, is spew out garbage, with no sources to back them up whatosever.
PS3 to stay competative. Sony doesn't have to do squat, if you combine their PS2 sales
with the PS3 their knocking on the door of Nintendo. The PS3 is not over priced, It has a
Bluray player which is a $ 200.00 bonus, plus it has Wireless built in. If you total the Xbox360
pro with a wireless addon of $99.00 it is a tic for tac price match. Plus if you want to buy an
360 and want to go online, Microsoft sticks it to you with a $60 a year fee, after 4 years you have
the price of a new xbox 360 spent and waisted. The Ps3 doesn't have any three Rings of Death
to deal with or broken DVD Drives that Microsoft has been completely plaqued with. So please
stop telling us all that Sony has to come down in price to be competative, if you want Sony to drop
their price just tell them to do it for the Children for Pete's sake.
oh and do consumers really want shotty hardware and annual fees for online access? you people act as if MS is doing sooooo much better then Sony. 1st off they got a whole year head start, of course they would have more unit sold over all, and second, at the rate PS3 sales (360 30million units on 3 years, Sony PS3 24 million units in 2 years)are catching up at the 399 price MS is done before this gen is over. Sony will as they have the last two generations beat the competition in the end. Do the math MS *****, Sony is selling PS3s faster then MicroS**ts are selling their Crapbox. [CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
You don't need blu-ray or wifi or a web browser to play Gears of War on your XBOX 360. Those are the reasons why the expensive PS3 NPD sales continue to suck. As a matter of fact, the DVD drive on ghe 360, has faster data transfer rates than the blu-ray drive on the PS3.
DVDs do not have faster transfer rates than blu-ray. The bluray in the PS3 reads at 2x at all times non stop. DVDs have variable read speeds so at one moment it could be reading at 5x but the next it could be reading at 1x. Overall Bluray drives have faster transfer rates than DVDs, you were misinformed.
I don't know about you but I love having a web browser in the PS3 because I can quickly look stuff up and check my email whenever I want. Its also useful when you are stuck in a game and need help. As for the wifi thing, you make it sound like the PS3 having wifi built in is a bad thing!
I own a high-end PC, and I barely play any of the games for which I had such boners when they were first announced. I focus more on good strategy gaming (Galactic Civilizations!) and the rest of my life (daughter, work, filmmaking, etc).
Everyone's gaming style is different... the PS3 looks awesome on paper, but Sony should have made a less expensive version for non-hardcore gamers.
Yes, but the XBOX had a price cut of $100 to $199.99 just 7 months after launch, a price cut which the PS2 matched pretty quickly. Plus over 80% of PS2 sales were done at a price of $199.99 or less.
PS3's been out nearly 3 years, and is still selling for $400. You are just not not gonna sell a whole heap of consoles at the $400 the PS3 is selling at.
Please do research before spouting out facts. The 360 outsells the PS3 every month and MS said they will support the 360 for 10 years, just like Sony is going to do with the PS3. So everything you said is completely false.
When the Wii and the PS2 before that sold a jack of a lot more in that same time period.
@ roachbrain:" $400 PS3 is still selling and at a faster rate then 360"
The 360 is outsellig the PS3 is every single region on the planet, apart from Japan.
"Roachbrain" huh? 'nuff said.
You tell me how can MS promise a 10 year counsel when there system can't even live pass 3 months? You tell me that. Also what happened again to the Xbox???
How about this for a fact 360 sucks, game line up sucks, paying for stuff that should be standered sucks.
No, it's not a few million, try over 7million more 360s sold than the PS3....almost doubling. The 360 sells many more games and systems, and has a higher attach rate for games. I'm sorry your system is getting hammered by all the competition, but you chose the loser.
Ahh, the your games suck attack. If the games suck so much then why do millions of more people buy them over the games for the PS3? Maybe because people like them more? PS3 games are rarely in the top 10 games sold and your system is in last place, so you lash out.....quite poorly I should say.
You don't need wifi or hard drive to play any 360 game. If you want t get online, the CAT5 on the 360 will get you online with no problem, and with less lag than the wifi on the PS3.
@ jefferyjay01 :" and XBox Live subscription (PS3 network is free)"
Free schmee.You get what you pay for. PS3 network is not even on the same planet as the superb, best of breed XBOX Live service.
Let's face it, the PS3 is too expensive to sell well in a reccession That is why PS3 sales in mothly NPD continue to founder. Too many non-essential features in the PS3, have priced it right out of the mass market.
@KWASIO..... :IF UR AFFECTED BY THE RECESSION THAT BAD, BUYING VIDEO GAMES SHOULD NOT BE A PRIORITY. FOOD N BILLS SHOULD BE. AND I DONT PLAY XBOX SO CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WATS SOOOOOOO GREAT ABOUT LIVE THAT I SHOULD PAY FOR IT??? ON PSN, I CAN CHAT(TEXT/VOICE), SEE PPL(PS EYE), MEET NEW PPL(PS HOME) AND MOST IMPORTANTLY PLAY GAMES WITH OTHER PPL, ALL FOR FREE. SO THE SAME REASON YOU PAY MORE OF BETTER ONLINE, IS THE SAME REASON WE PAY MORE FOR A BETTER CONSOLE
They charge 500 bucks for a 160 gb, and then 400 for an 80gb?
You can get a blu-ray player for under 200 bucks these days. And the rest of the features are probably worth a lot less for sony to put into it. That can fill up the rest of the value and the most reasonable price for a ps3 would be $300
sony needs to realize that people don't have 400-500 bucks to spend on gaming, especially in this kind of economy.
"sony needs to realize that people don't have 400-500 bucks to spend on gaming, especially in this kind of economy."
Sony exits to sell us stuff we want and create wealth and jobs. Not to give us free **** when times get tough. Get over it you cheap skate.
Yet Halo 3 alone has oustold MGS 4, Killzone 2, Uncharted Drakes Fortune and inFAMOUS all combined in the US. If you guys think PS3 exclusives are so great, how come you don't buy 'em in great quantities then?
When the overhyped Killzone 2 was launched earlier this year, the PS3 had a bigger install base than the 360 install base when Halo 3 was launched back in 2007, yet Halo3 sold THREE times more in just 12 days in September 2007(at 3.3 million), than Killzone 2 has sold in 3 months. Go figure.
Even Activision CEO is now threathening to stop backing the PS3 if PS3 sales don't improve.
Go figure.
The quality of games shouldn't be judged by the sales. Example: GTA: Chinatown Wars = great game but weak sales.
Halo 3 and Queers of War is as far as you will get with 360. Let's even add Fable, Left 4 Dead, and Mass Effect to the over rated line of 360 exclusives.
Killzone fights Halo and Resistance fights Queers of War (You can call them all equal in their own way). Not to mention the xbox exclusive Bioshock also showed up on PS3 last year. SORRY.
Honestly I have been waiting for some good Xbox exclusives in 2009. I haven't seen any lately. Halo Wars doesn't count.
Now this is a true line-up of good games (All PS3 exclusives):
Metal Gear Solid 4 (best game ever)
Little Big Planet (most creative game ever)
Uncharted (second one is gonna kill)
Warhawk (online only, but fun)
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (too under rated. This game is really really fun)
Resistance 2 (8 player online Cooperative is the best co-op ever)
MLB 09 the show
Killzone 2 (perfected the FPS genre, but not as good as Crysis)
inFamous (PS3 bonus)
Haze and Lair ?(They suck, but xbots seem to think of them as the only ps3 exclusives for some odd reason)
PSN exclusives are awesome too. We just FFVII on Playstation store. Gmaes like Flower and Wipeout are just unbelievable. Braid is over rated.
Everyone knew PS3 was better than Xbox 360 in almost everything including features, hardware, and bargain. The only thing Xbox was better at was GAMES. I hope you xbots realize now that games isn't even a factor anymore since PS3 is dominating and will keep on dominating with its powerful exclusives shown at E3. M$ tried really hard to fool everyone by showing 10 of their exclusives at E3. Splinter Cell and Alan Wake (Look like good games) was the only thing that kept the M$ conference alive. And please don't even mention Natal since we don't even know the price of it yet. MGS Rising did not catch as much hype as the FFXIII coming to PS# news last year. MGS game without Solid Snake = waste. Btw it looks like the game will be about Raiden during the time between MGS 2 and MGS 4 and it will show how becomes kinda like vamp.
Good PS3 exclusives shown at E3:
Uncharted 2
MAG
God of War 3
Gran Turismo
FFXIV online
DC Universe
Agent
Heavy Rain
Crack in Time
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Modnation Racers
What should it be judged by then?
Here we have 2 shooters, Killzone 2 and Halo 3. Both had great hype, both had very high Metacritic scores, both had great markerting, both were pushed by their makers as the definitive FPS, yet Halo 3 sells like 5 times as much as Killzone 2 did.
Again, I aks, if Sony fanboys think Killzone 2's such a great game, how come didn't buy in high numbers like 360 fans bought Halo 3?
Also, how come killzone 2 had zero effect on PS3 hardware sales, even while Halo 3 doubled 360 sales in September 2007 when Halo 3 was launched?
@ KaalX :"Example: GTA: Chinatown Wars = great game but weak sales."
That is just the point. Adult rated games don't sell so well on Nintendo consoles/handhelds, whose demographics has a big chunk of kids, soccer moms, grannies in retirement homes etc. You are not gonna compare Killzone 2 sales on the P3, to bad Chinatown sales on the non-gamer orieented Nintendo DS are you?
- by CrimsonDeo June 28, 2009 3:28 AM PDT
- I decided a while ago that I wanted a PS3, I currently own a 360 and I love it. I'm not a fan boy of any sort, but I will say that a $400 console is a bit too much (at least for me). There are some exclusives to PS3 that I really want to play, MGS4 and Little big Planet being at the top of that list. I'm thinking about just splurging though, lol.
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