PS3 $100 bucks cheaper
polycounter lvl 18
i kinda knew about this for a few months, just wasn't allowed to say anything.. now.. everyone go out and get one so you can play ratchet!!!
http://www.kotv.com/news/national/story/?id=131051
http://www.kotv.com/news/national/story/?id=131051
Replies
That said, I do think this is a very positive development for the PS3. I still think cancelling the 30 gig model was a mistake. The PS3 needs a lower-end model with more reasonable pricing. Now the 60-gig model will be able to serve in that capacity. Hopefully this will give the PS3's monthly sales a much-needed bump. The confusion between the differing features of the original models might have been throwing the PS3 off its game. These new SKUs are much easier to wrap your brain around.
I won't buy a PS3 for some time though. It's still very expensive, and there's not nearly enough exciting games to entice me to drop that amount of money (yet).
Instead of having a whole new model (which is EXACTLY the same, except 80GB) I think they should have just sold the 80GB HDD as a separate component.
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But that would have been pretty much pointless, since they already allow for any generic 2.5" HDD to work in the PS3. How can you sell the HDD separately, when every other Hard drive manufacturer on the market is already doing just that, only cheaper? The reason Microsoft is able to employ such a bastardly technique is because they make the 360's harddrive proprietary. I personally prefer Sony's approach to the issue. Sure, it makes the new 80-gig model largely useless to anyone in the know. But then, no one is forcing you to spend that extra $100, now are they?
If Sony had done this price drop, or had suggested it would be approaching in those coming weeks, I would have waited and gotten the PS3. I know the games are coming, so it would have been an investment for the future. Now, I have my 360, I'm fairly happy, and I don't plan to invest another $500 for a system that will eventually offer similar games. Seems like Sony is becoming the company that is always one step behind.
Marcus
Artist - Kaos Studios
I'm guessing to make up the loss for this the price in europe will be going up £100?
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nah, they'll just start charging us £80 for a game.
But to be honest, all the systems are trying to screw the consumer. It's really not making owning a console very appealing.
But to be honest, all the systems are trying to screw the consumer. It's really not making owning a console very appealing.
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Explain that, because it doesn't make any sense that any system (or the company making it) is *trying* to screw the consumer. And even considering that, the only one I'd consider that is actually screwing the consumer is Sony and the PS3. The MS and Nintendo are doing fine.
As for the Wii, screwing the consumer may be a bit harsh, but from what I'm to understand with it, there are a crapload of accessories that IMO, should have been included with the system. Like the LAN adapter. Does the nunchuck even come with the system? (considering they advertise as though it does)
I guess I should also include that I'm 33, so I grew up with Atari, Nintendo, and Sega systems, where you got two controllers with the system and a game. You had everything you needed to enjoy your system with friends from day one.
Seriously man, I know it's fun to rant and rave about how bad "the man" is to us, but companies try to make money, that's what they're supposed to do. They aren't trying to screw anyone over, they want happy consumers, happy consumers give them more money. Use some damned logic. If there are problems with the system, they aren't intentional. MS is paying over 1 billion dollars with their new warenty deal, including reimbursing people who have had to pay to get their 360's fixed. MS, Nintendo, Sony, none of them can afford to just give shit like peripherals away, it costs money to make the stuff in the first place. Pay some flippin attention to your industry before you rant.
You may not feel screwed by these recent console systems and accessories, but other consumers are, and if the consumer is feeling screwed, then they are getting screwed.
Great, MS is paying out money to fix a problem that they should have fixed a long damn time ago. Most likely only because of the pressure of Wii sales. Will they be refunding me and everyone else that bought an extended warranty because of their unreliable system? No, but now I have a store warranty that basically matches what MS decided to offer one month after I bought my system.
And yes, they can afford to include peripherals in their systems, but they choose to package it independantly because they can turn a higher profit on it.
As for the Wii, screwing the consumer may be a bit harsh, but from what I'm to understand with it, there are a crapload of accessories that IMO, should have been included with the system. Like the LAN adapter. Does the nunchuck even come with the system? (considering they advertise as though it does)
I guess I should also include that I'm 33, so I grew up with Atari, Nintendo, and Sega systems, where you got two controllers with the system and a game. You had everything you needed to enjoy your system with friends from day one.
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Now, that's not really fair to Nintendo. The Wii does come with the nunchuck. In fact, it comes with everything you would need for a 1-player experience, including a game. In fact, most of the games within Wii-Sports can actually be played multi-player with just one controller. (since they are turn-based) Wii Tennis and Wii Boxing are the only parts that require more than one controller. (and everyone knows that Wii-Boxing is crap anyway)
Once Wii titles start supporting on-line play, you won't even need multiple controller to get your multi-player on. Yes, Nintendo is actually making a profit off of their hardware. Yes, that means they aren't being as "competitive" with their pricing as the competition. But that's just smart business, and you can't really blame them when everyone is throwing money at the Wii and DS.
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Now, that's not really fair to Nintendo. The Wii does come with the nunchuck. In fact, it comes with everything you would need for a 1-player experience, including a game.
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Sorry, I missed your post earlier. I'd agree that I probably wasn't fair about the Wii. Like I was saying, I haven't experience/followed enough about the Wii since it really doesn't hold an appeal to me. I wasn't sure if the Nunchuck was included, so I really didn't mean to bash them about that. I do think a network connection should be included though.
I wasn't sure if the Nunchuck was included, so I really didn't mean to bash them about that. I do think a network connection should be included though.
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? It does come with a network connection. In fact, it comes with a built-in wireless adapter. (which is arguably more expensive than a LAN adapter) Yes, it does require that the consumer have access to a Wireless network. But at this point, it isn't nearly as much of a deal-breaker. After all, wireless adapters are much cheaper, and much more common than they once were. I picked up my first wireless adapter last week for $25. Is it really that bad that they didn't include wired network adapter? Anyone who has a LAN can easily hook up a wireless network for cheaps.
anywhoo, the pricedrop is nice, let's just hope they ship all the major titles around the holiday to warrant the system purchase ..
I guess we'll know better after this e3 regarding the title lineup and future prospects.
wratchet looking nice arsh
? It does come with a network connection. In fact, it comes with a built-in wireless adapter. (which is arguably more expensive than a LAN adapter) Yes, it does require that the consumer have access to a Wireless network. But at this point, it isn't nearly as much of a deal-breaker. After all, wireless adapters are much cheaper, and much more common than they once were. I picked up my first wireless adapter last week for $25. Is it really that bad that they didn't include wired network adapter? Anyone who has a LAN can easily hook up a wireless network for cheaps.
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haha, well again, you prove how little I know about the Wii
To get things back on course, again, I do give props to Sony for dropping the price, I just think it's a little late. Hopefully there are still enough consumers left that haven't already purchased a 360 or Wii (or are willing to invest into another console). I've said from the beginning that I was hoping the PS3 would succeed... mainly because I'm hoping it might help get some games ported to Linux
To get things back on course, again, I do give props to Sony for dropping the price, I just think it's a little late. Hopefully there are still enough consumers left that haven't already purchased a 360 or Wii (or are willing to invest into another console). I've said from the beginning that I was hoping the PS3 would succeed... mainly because I'm hoping it might help get some games ported to Linux
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Apparently there arent THAT many 360's out there.. In fact, looking at the numbers, there is the majority of xbox owners who still havent made the upgrade to 360. This means that Mircosoft is only concerned with their own market right now, as long as they warrant an xbox upgrade for the majority of their target market they'll be fine.
What I mean by this is that there are PS2 owners who probably havent yet made the jump into the new generation. There are TONS of ps2 owners out there who are still on the fence or waiting for the major sony titles to ship. This holiday season might break or make sony. If they ship all or at least most "must have" titles this holiday season, the people will have to make a decision.
I think at this point people who havent made the jump will finally be ready to whip out the cash for either a 360 or a ps3 and with a real strong lineup this holiday it will be interesting on how it plays out. The major postlaunch titles that made the ps2 were gta, mgs, dmc, and gran turismo.. two of those are no longer exclusives ...
It shouldnt be too late for sony if they all play their cards right. If they push all the right buttons they can be back in the game.
Here is an interesting read.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14527
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Wait, wait, wait... these *companies* are actually trying to make money off us?! Holy shit, what was I thinking?! Screw them!
Seriously man, I know it's fun to rant and rave about how bad "the man" is to us, but companies try to make money, that's what they're supposed to do. They aren't trying to screw anyone over, they want happy consumers, happy consumers give them more money. Use some damned logic. If there are problems with the system, they aren't intentional. MS is paying over 1 billion dollars with their new warenty deal, including reimbursing people who have had to pay to get their 360's fixed. MS, Nintendo, Sony, none of them can afford to just give shit like peripherals away, it costs money to make the stuff in the first place. Pay some flippin attention to your industry before you rant. "
Apparently you seem oblivious to sales of product, if you can make profit out of something that costs little to assemble or make proffit of something that costs more to assemble, the one that costs less is shitter the other not , if the shittier breaks down you have costumer support to "help" you...Consoles are ment to make profit , and saying that they want happy costumers would mean that by that logic every product would have at least a 50% vut in price and actually not blow up in your hands.
I really would like to get a next-gen console but at the moment there are just too many cost hurdles such as purchasing an HD tv. I bought myself a Wii instead, which I love, although admittedly there is a shortage of good titles for the system at the mo. This looks set to change in the near future though with many indie developers coming onboard. I hope this means we will see some interesting original games for Nintendo's new baby.
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You don't need an HDTV for the next-gen consoles... but it does make the experience nicer
lol, good to know then. I haven't tried connecting it to one of my regular TVs, but my wife really wants me to
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as you should. haha i would take mine over but doing this whole freelance thing I feel as I am constantly working and thus don't get the time i would like to enjoy my tv. My kid loves watching Blues Clues and his shows on it though.
Given that, though, I think the future of the console is going to depend on a further price drop and more exclusive titles for it to really grab a larger audience. The PS3 dev kits have been in developers hands long before the console was released so I have to question the excuse that it hasn't been out long enough. But it has a 1 year lag behind the 360 so I guess we'll see.
I am a fan of the 360 for sure, but the PS3 has some awesome potential. It already has a few awesome features, and more will be sure to come. Not saying it will beat the 360, but I think it will be close, especially with the price drop.
That said, I have no fucking idea what will happen with the Wii. I've owned a Wii, and it got old fast. With only a few good games coming out, maybe the hype will die and it will fall in last.. or maybe the next lineup will be amazing and the Wii will dominate. No idea.
What I mean by "they want happy customers" is that a company is not going to go out of it's way to do something that will hurt the consumer (which is what "screwing" them implies). In fact, a company with a long term business plan (ala MS, Sony, Nintendo) will go out of its way, and spend a bit of extra money up front (ex: MS spending over a billion on warranties), to make the consumer happy. It's not fairy tale land, it's business. Take for instance the PS2. Do you think that Sony would have done so amazingly well with the PS2 if they'd gone out of their way to cut corners so they could turn a quick profit? No, word would've spread before they could sell over 100 million units, and they'd have stopped selling so many units early on. Rather, they put out a good product with good enough support to keep the consumers happy, and made buckets of money.
And neither Sony or MS went out of their way to put cheap products in their systems. They put in as good as they could, as is they are losing money per unit sold. If they were putting in the cheapest hardware they could that would not be the case.
Seriously, before you go accusing people of closing their eyes to the world pay some damned attention.
The number one cause of the 360 problems is due to a cheap part. The clamp that holds the GPU heatsink in place is very crappy and puts a lot of pressure on one point, causing the areas around it to bend upwards. When the GPU gets hot (and it gets very hot a lot, especially with newer games like Forza 2), the solder beneath the GPU begins to get soft and the chip will slowly rise from the board, causing the 3 red lights of death. From my experience, this has been the cause of problems with nearly all 360s. This could have been prevented by one of two things: 1. using a decent quality heatsink clamp or 2. by implementing a better method than using light heat to cause a BGA flow. You see, they place a chip on top of a grid of solder balls, then they place a little bit of heat over it and it melts the balls onto the pins or whatever on the chip. They did this very poorly and it just adds to the problem caused by the clamp.
http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/L3R2T2S6?page=1
Here is an article where Asian manufacturers talk about how Microsoft wanted only the cheapest parts and they've known about these problems for a while.
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One Asian manufacturer that SmartHouse spoke to on Friday said "Microsoft have known of this problem for a long time. They are trying to blame component manufacturers but it was a combination of bad design and them (Microsoft) wanting everything cheap. This is what caused the problem along with them wanting to beat Sony to market. A lot of manufacturers were pushed to deliver components without much testing of the components working together inside the console".
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There you have it.
lol...you still amuse me...anyway this phrase summed everything i ment , it means that the company instead of having quality parts decided to go for the cheap ones wich surely will go fudge way sooner and still charge the same price as if it had all quality price, its called business , and sometimes it DOES prejudice the client , but they still make money out of it.
Im off arguing with you since your the man and you know it all.
You know, how pretty much EVERY system at launch was faulty? How pretty much it was one of the best selling systems but also the most FAULTY system too?
How after 3 weeks the drive stopped working? Or the signal went? Or it refused to load? Or it only reads one type of disk?
Any of this ringing a bell...? Sony didn't exactly fix it. In fact it was over a year until they released a new hardware version, and even that had its problems that were just as bad... In fact, the best one they made was the latest slimline, and even THAT has issues....
Yet still, you all jump on MS for admiting there is a problem, upping the warrenty FOR FREE TO EVERYBODY to three years, and trying to fix it...
Yeah ok.
Something screams here "MS" to me. i.e. if this was Sony, it would be different. Fanboys do amuse me.
Something screams here "MS" to me. i.e. if this was Sony, it would be different. Fanboys do amuse me.
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I don't think it has anything to do with 'Fanboys'. I think that's a term that's easily thrown around on the net whenever a console discussion comes up.
I'm by no means a fanboy of either system. I haven't been interested in consoles since the PS1. I got my kids a PS2, but to be honest, the PS2 initial problems (and the xbox's) were reason's that I stepped away from consoles.
I was just trying to limit my argument to today's consoles since they are the most relevant. I guess the PS2 could still be included in the argument since it's still outselling the PS3, but the slimline has actually gotten pretty reliable. That's one reason that I finally got one for my kids... plus my PS1 was finally crying out in pain (it was one of the original models).
I like how people cry, moan and bitch over the 360 failure rate, when we all sit here knowing the PS2 was one of the worst systems ever made, yet went on to be the best selling system of all time.
You know, how pretty much EVERY system at launch was faulty? How pretty much it was one of the best selling systems but also the most FAULTY system too?
How after 3 weeks the drive stopped working? Or the signal went? Or it refused to load? Or it only reads one type of disk?
Any of this ringing a bell...? Sony didn't exactly fix it. In fact it was over a year until they released a new hardware version, and even that had its problems that were just as bad... In fact, the best one they made was the latest slimline, and even THAT has issues....
Yet still, you all jump on MS for admiting there is a problem, upping the warrenty FOR FREE TO EVERYBODY to three years, and trying to fix it...
Yeah ok.
Something screams here "MS" to me. i.e. if this was Sony, it would be different. Fanboys do amuse me.
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Well if anything I am a 360 fanboy, so I'm not really talking crap about Microsoft, just pointing out that they made a pretty big mistake. They really impressed me when they announced the extended warranty. I know Sony wouldn't have done something like that. In fact, this may sound like a tinfoil hat conspiracy, but I think Sony designed the PS2 to fuck up. Here is my reasoning:
I used to do PS2 repair on the side along with all the other console stuff I did, and probably around 80% of all problems I saw was that the laser would no longer slide along the rail or the laser pot was set too weak. Even when the laser gets stuck occasionally moving up and down the rail, it can cause it not to load a game or to lock up. What was the cause of this? They used the cheapest, shittiest, worst lubricant (a crappy white grease) on the rails they could have possibly used, and it dries up after a few years (or sooner, or later, depending on how well you use it and how clean you keep it). I've fixed so many PS2s by just wiping the shit off the rail completely, and using either a modified motor oil, a good white grease, or WD-40. I have not had anyone to this day tell me that the PS2 I fixed this way no longer works. This is how I fixed my LAUNCH PS2 that is still working today. Also, the pot on the laser seems to be set so low, that if a thin film of dust gets on the lense, it won't be able to read right. You can easily manually adjust the pot to be barely more powerful and overcome this (or just clean off the lense). There were I think 11 hardware revisions of the PS2, and every fucking one, including the slimlines, still used that shitty white grease. They knew that it fucked things up, but they didn't bother to fix it, up the warranty, anything!
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26704
Wow, Sony sucks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6896261.stm
Instead, they're bundling controllers and games with the basic system and leaving the price the same.
Seems a little odd...
I wonder if they are pushing out this new revision of the PS3 because the old one is designed to break, and seeing what is going down with the 360 know that they can't get away with it anymore? More likely they are just trying to reach some kind of "critical mass" of consoles out in people's hands.
If I already had a 360, I would buy a PS3 80gb for $500 if they changed the case design.
LOL sounds like SCEE president is callin SCEA a buncha jerks!
Sony are not reducing the price of the basic PS3 in Europe, nor are they announcing the 80gb model.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6896261.stm
Instead, they're bundling controllers and games with the basic system and leaving the price the same.
Seems a little odd...
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I think I know why they did all of this.
They announce an 80gb model that is the exact same thing, minus the emotion engine processor (crippling the backwards compatibility), and with another 20gb (about a 2 dollar manufacturing difference) for the same $599 that the 60gb model was. So really, since they removed the emotion engine stuff, the $599 80gb model costs less to produce than the 60gb model! After E3, everyone is pumped about Sony, especially since the price drop and decides they want to buy a PS3 at some point. Sony then quietly stops producing the 60gb model that is the only decent deal and everyone buys the remaining 60gb models because of the price drop + E3. Now everyone is forced to buy the $599 model again (completely removing any idea of a $499 model) that actually costs less to make, so Sony loses less money off of each one. In other words, they make a crappier version that seems better to the average consumer (80gb is higher than 60gb!1) so they can make more money per console (or lose less money per console). They of course disguise this ugly manuever with a so called generous price drop... that lasts a month.
As far as the Euro bundle - Sony recently announced that they are making the new SIXAXIS controllers have rumble. So for Europe, instead of offloading their current consoles, they are offloading their current controllers and a few of the crappy games in the form of a new fancy bundle so that focus will be on the SIXAXIS rumble and the new games.
I've grown great discontent with the PS3, living in the UK. I'm not paying £475 for a PS3 that's inferior with 2 good games. Anyone that goes for that rather than an xbox360 which is 1/2 the damn price, is a moron.
If they owed a pricedrop to anyone, it's the europeans cause they're getting shafted HARD.