Playstation 3 pricing announced

[KenM]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6149470.html

A 20 GB for $499.99 and a 60 GB for $599.99. Be interesting to see how many people pay that much for a console. I also heard the $499.99 vesion will have less stuff.

 

[trancejeremy]

Apparently the $499 version doesn't have HDMI, Wifi, or slots for a PSP style memory stick.


Anyway, as the market for these things is largely those with $2000 HD-TVs, I guess $600 isn't that much if you want to watch movies in HD. Too rich for my blood.

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

I wasn't going to buy one anyway, but I have to say that those price points were even a little higher than I was expecting. It'll be interesting to see whether the market can bear them.

Edit: Boohoo--back to post #1.

 

[drothgery]

Okay, at this point if I pick up a PS3 at all, it will be in the final days of the console along with the handful of RPGs that never got Xbox 360, Wii, or PC ports.

 

[Zappo]

Currently, a BR player costs 1000$ and the 360 costs 399$ w/HD. By the time the PS3 is released, they are probably going to be 500$ and 299$ respectively, making the 499$ PS3 a steep but fair price.

As for the 599$ PS3, I can't see the point. Noone moves a console around much, so wi-fi is minor; the memory sticks are almost useless, 'cause you can save games on HD or a USB pen drive; and HDMI is useless to anyone that doesn't have an ultra-costly TV and not a big enhancement for those who do. Then again, anyone who owns a HDTV probably won't care much about paying 100$ more. The only real reason I can see for getting the 599$ one is for the larger HD, and then only if downloadable commercial-quality games become a major factor.

499$, though, is quite reasonable given the content: a gaming machine better than any PC you can buy at that price, plus a very costly video player. Sony is probably subsidizing about the same amount that MS is, maybe a little more.


This doesn't change the fact that it's a lot of money, and that I really hoped for 399$ even if I knew it was unlikely. They will still sell their entire production in November and December at least, and they know this full well; this makes the high price a rational move.

I think there is a good chance they cut the price very soon after launch, possibly as soon as they start not selling their entire production; the new 65nm chip fabrication process should cut costs, and those expensive BR drives should get cheaper quickly too.


At least the reports claiming 800$ have been proven for the bulldung they were.

 

[Lazybones]

Note that if the cheaper version turns out to not actually have an HDMI port, then it may not be able to show Blu-ray movies in hi-def. While the media companies have thus far stated that they will not include the tag that forces non-HDMI connections to downsample the video quality for analog inputs, they fought really hard to get that capability included (HDCP).

So basically PS3-lite owners may find themselves screwed a year or two down the line if companies start issuing releases with HDCP enabled.

Of course, this is the same dilemma folks with older HDTV sets without HDMI ports have had; relying on the whim of the content industries to allow them to enjoy HD movies.

 

[drothgery]

499$, though, is quite reasonable given the content: a gaming machine better than any PC you can buy at that price, plus a very costly video player. Sony is probably subsidizing about the same amount that MS is, maybe a little more.

It won't be a better than a gaming PC you can get at the price by much, if at all. Figure that by November, you'll be able to get a $400 cheap PC with a low-midrange dual-core CPU (which will smoke a Cell or a Xenon in most tasks, including normal games), well over 60GB of disk space, and 1 GB of RAM (double the PS3 or 360, though a fair amount of RAM will be eaten by the OS). Add this fall's midrange graphics card ($150, should be about equivalent to the near-G70 in the PS3) and an internal HD-DVD drive ($120, about equivalent to the Blu-Ray drive), and you've got a better game machine than a PS3 for $670. And, oh yeah, it's a perfectly good PC too.

 

[freebfrost]

Well, I knew it would be pricey, so I'll just have to save a little bit more each month then.

I can see the use of the memory sticks for PSP to PS3 game transfers, so they are probably thinking about games that could use that functionality.

I'm just wondering about the bigger hard drive - if you are using the Blu-Ray format to store games, do they expect a lot of downloadable games in the future or is there something else that would require such a large HDD?

 

[Arnwyn]

Currently, a BR player costs 1000$ and the 360 costs 399$ w/HD. By the time the PS3 is released, they are probably going to be 500$ and 299$ respectively, making the 499$ PS3 a steep but fair price.

A $500 drop for BR players in just 5 months? Wow.

At least the reports claiming 800$ have been proven for the bulldung they were.

No kidding. Who believed that, anyways?

In any case, I'll definitely be getting a PS3 - just not anytime soon. I'm in no rush, and price drops are inevitable. Hell, the PS1 and Saturn were almost $600 on day 1 - I don't think we are seeing anything new, here.

 

[Arnwyn]

I'm just wondering about the bigger hard drive - if you are using the Blu-Ray format to store games, do they expect a lot of downloadable games in the future or is there something else that would require such a large HDD?

If it'll be anything like the Xbox360 (and early Sony comments says that it will be similar), then the space is required. People are already (already! after only 7 months!) complaining rather virulently that there's nowhere near enough space on the 360's 20 GB HD. What with "microtransactions" (confirmed for the PS3) and that whole "online community" nonsense, the HDs supposedly fill up quickly.