Industry Mole Says PS3 & XBox 360 Price Drops Coming This Fall

[PS3 News]

According to Arstechnica's favorite inside source, a price drop is coming to both the Sony PS3 and Microsoft XBox 360 consoles this fall.

To quote: Since we can't name the source, we're treating all this information as rumor, but the Mole's reputation in the industry for breaking large stories and outstanding track record for accuracy speaks for itself.

The 80GB model is going to see some serious hardware constraints in the weeks ahead, and retailers have about 60 days worth of inventory before the systems will become hard to find. Expect to see many more 160GB units on store shelves.

Those units have no constraints yet, but if the retailers sell through that supply as quickly as they did the 80GB, Sony is in a good place for the final part of its plan in 2009: dropping the price of hardware and launching the PS3 Slim in the fall.

Expect the Xbox 360 Pro to disappear in July or August, but you're going to see some solid bundles to get those systems moving off store shelves. The Halo 3/Fable 2 bundle the Mole previously tipped us off to shows that Microsoft is willing to put some good games into the box to get people buying.

So what are we going to do without the Pro systems? Nothing. The Elite units, with the 120GB hard drive, are going to become the Pro-level system after an early September price cut. We'll be on the lookout for another holiday bundle as well, and that should hit around October.


More PlayStation 3 News...

[dagnillo]

Wow give it up already!! It's been what, a year or two of continuous "price drop" rumors? Enough is enough!! It will happen WHEN IT HAPPENS. Unless Sony announces it, it's all rumor, conjecture and hearsay.

[PS3 News]

Originally Posted by dagnillo Unless Sony announces it, it's all rumor, conjecture and hearsay.

Ars Technica is essentially just as good as Sony confirming it themselves.

[CyanCaze]

Hm... a $100 360... Yep, Nintendo is toast. Finally that little Wii is going to be destroyed.

[AKmania]

ps3 will drop the price that was obiously. The problem is if they don't drop the game price i think they will hard to compete with 360. they allready have the next generation what about ps3 ? not at all

i hope they will drop the game price soon.

i wish ......
i hope......
i pray......

[BlingOnMyWrist]

Sony waited too long to drop the damn price. Now that Microsoft has caught wind of their [extremely tardy] strategy, they will drop console prices as well and make Sony's price drop of the PlayStation 3 useless.

That is of course in accordance to a new consumer. If I were to visit a retailer looking for a current-gen console, I would obviously pick the one that is $100 - $200 cheaper. (Will the arcade drop in price as well? If so, it will cost as much as a PlayStation 2!)

But, I suppose if you are looking to buy a PlayStation 3 but the current price is too high, then this price drop will definitely help.

Ah, all I want is more of my friends to purchase PlayStation 3s...

[D3M0N2009]

PS3 at this point in time seems to be dieing, 2009 was meant to be the year of the PS3 but the latest titles Infamous & Prototype haven't really helped the console all that much, personally I'm only looking forward to three games Gran Turismo 5, Uncharted 2 & God of War 3. If these games were multiplatform I would have sold off me PS3 long ago, and jumped to an Xbox 360.

So drop the price of the damn thing, get some more developers into developing for the damn thing, and provide some easier development tools to the developers!, and before someone says 'but the reason the PS3 is priced at $XXX.XX amount is because it comes with bluetooth, WiFi and other features'. This arguement has been going on for a long time but the features do not justify the price tag.

[dagnillo]

Originally Posted by D3M0N2009 PS3 at this point in time seems to be dieing, 2009 was meant to be the year of the PS3 but the latest titles Infamous & Prototype haven't really helped the console all that much, personally I'm only looking forward to three games Gran Turismo 5, Uncharted 2 & God of War 3. If these games were multiplatform I would have sold off me PS3 long ago, and jumped to an Xbox 360. So drop the price of the damn thing, get some more developers into developing for the damn thing, and provide some easier development tools to the developers!, and before someone says 'but the reason the PS3 is priced at $XXX.XX amount is because it comes with bluetooth, WiFi and other features'. This arguement has been going on for a long time but the features do not justify the price tag.

Well I do disagree somewhat. Rather than the PS3 dying I'd say it's finally starting to gain momentum. With an increasing number of quality exclusives and a (theoretical at least) price drop on the horizon, it might actually gain a decent foothold. The only potential hiccup is, as was mentioned earlier, the possibility of the 360 dropping its price also. The PS3 slim might be a step in the right direction, but a lot of that depends on the pricing.

As far as the features of the PS3 justifying the price tag, on the one hand they do because if you purchased the same features on a 360 it would actually cost you more; however, not everybody needs all of those features so it becomes more of a luxury that many can't afford or justify for themselves. In the end everybody just needs to look at the features, gameplay and game library of each system and make their own decision. Each system has pros and cons, and as of right now I don't think a single one of them is "dying".

[D3M0N2009]

Originally Posted by dagnillo Well I do disagree somewhat. Rather than the PS3 dying I'd say it's finally starting to gain momentum.

Nope i'd say its dieing, there really is no reason to own one, after playing almost every game that is out for the PS3, I really can't justify the $750 [AUD] I paid for it a 2 years ago, back when it came out I thought "awesome, a new Playstation", considering the way the last two playstations had become the best consoles of their respective times, I assumed that this one would be the same, and I wouldn't end up with a big brick that I use maybe once a month.

Originally Posted by dagnillo With an increasing number of quality exclusives and a (theoretical at least) price drop on the horizon, it might actually gain a decent foothold. The only potential hiccup is, as was mentioned earlier, the possibility of the 360 dropping its price also. The PS3 slim might be a step in the right direction, but a lot of that depends on the pricing.

The exclusives this is where it gets interesting, due to the complicated architecture of the PS3 we have massive gaps before a game is released, i.e. God of War 3 - 2010 (f that), not to mention the fact that every good game (in my opinion atleast) doesn't come out till November - December 2009, that 5-6 months away what should I do till then just keep it turning off and on again so that it looks like i've been using the damn thing.

Not to mention if the Xbox 360 does drop the price to $100 the PS3 will be history, $100 isnt much even when it gets here to Australia it might be $150ish or more but still thats nothing I spent more on perfume for my girlfriend just last week. As for the price drop rumours I don't think it will happen and even if it does it won't be a large enough drop to get more people into this console.

Originally Posted by dagnillo As far as the features of the PS3 justifying the price tag, on the one hand they do because if you purchased the same features on a 360 it would actually cost you more; however, not everybody needs all of those features so it becomes more of a luxury that many can't afford or justify for themselves. In the end everybody just needs to look at the features, gameplay and game library of each system and make their own decision. Each system has pros and cons, and as of right now I don't think a single one of them is "dying".

Ok i've spent a lot of time saying the same thing; 'If you bought the same thing on Xbox 360 it would cost XXX.XX amount more', but who cares if Sony had made those features optional they would be racking in the money as well, people may complain but they will eventually give in and buy what they need. Sony wasted money developing the console, paying for the development of the Cell processor, going to Nvidia for a GPU after they ripped of Microsoft with the Original Xbox GPU, Blu-Ray which unlike DVD didn't really take off and XDR Memory.

The Cell processor probably one of the worst moves Sony has made, an absolutely worthless chip designed for number crunching put into a gaming machine, not to mention the fact that you have to jack up the price of the end product to justify the R&D Sony put into the damn thing.

The GPU - 'Reality Synthesizer' - based on a desktop GPU (Nvidia 7800) that is 3 years old and producing graphics which are not even the slighest bit 'amazing'. Not to mention the fact that Nvidia overcharged Microsoft on the original Xbox, I can't even imagine how much they are charging Sony for these.

Blu-Ray - the new UMD; probably not but unless DVD this hasn't really taken off with a bang!, I wouldn't call this feature a complete failure but they really would have been better off with a DVD drive and maybe an external addon to Blu-Ray (like MS did with HD-DVD).

Lastly XDR Memory - XDR memory is owned by Rambus, and overall it is not used by anything other than the PS3 (that I know of), there is a good reason why XDR memory never really caught on and that is because it is overpriced and uses proprietary technologies, pretty much all Rambus wants is people to start using their patented memory architectures while they sit back and collect huge royalties. Recently they released they're 7.20ghz XDR memory which uses 40% less power than GDDR5, impressive but worthless as no one will use it. Another reason why the PS3 has such a massive price tag.

[dagnillo]

Originally Posted by D3M0N2009 The GPU - 'Reality Synthesizer' - based on a desktop GPU (Nvidia 7800) that is 3 years old and producing graphics which are not even the slighest bit 'amazing'. Not to mention the fact that Nvidia overcharged Microsoft on the original Xbox, I can't even imagine how much they are charging Sony for these. Blu-Ray - the new UMD; probably not but unless DVD this hasn't really taken off with a bang!, I wouldn't call this feature a complete failure but they really would have been better off with a DVD drive and maybe an external addon to Blu-Ray (like MS did with HD-DVD). Lastly XDR Memory - XDR memory is owned by Rambus, and overall it is not used by anything other than the PS3 (that I know of), there is a good reason why XDR memory never really caught on and that is because it is overpriced and uses proprietary technologies, pretty much all Rambus wants is people to start using their patented memory architectures while they sit back and collect huge royalties. Recently they released they're 7.20ghz XDR memory which uses 40% less power than GDDR5, impressive but worthless as no one will use it. Another reason why the PS3 has such a massive price tag.

You do have a few good points but I think you are also exaggerating. As far as the PS3 dying goes, its sales have done nothing but increase, which would lead to disproving your theory, and the number of quality games has done nothing but increase as well. The only other major shortcomings are the price, which will allegedly be reduced in the future, and an architecture which is admittedly difficult to program for.

The last problem obviously won't be solved, but the existing developers ARE finally learning to unlock the potential of the chipsets which results in better graphics than the 360, a slight advantage in favor of PS3. As far as the PS3 graphics not being "amazing," I guess that depends on your definition of amazing. If you're expecting twice the power of the 360 you'll be disappointed. However, it does possess more graphical power then the 360 and you can notice this in some games, especially those developed specifically for the PS3. Myself I consider them "amazing" but then I'm impressed by the 360's graphics as well.

Were all those parts you mentioned necessary? Of course not. Sony bet that people would pay for the product that they released, and they were off. The fact remains, however that consoles are still being sold and sales are increasing, so as long as that holds true and quality games are being made, I don't know how anybody can say a console is dying.

And lastly, I don't know where you get your claims about blu-ray, but not only has it won the HD optical wars, but its sales are also slowly climbing. In fact it's catching on at about the same rate as DVDs, which as you might recall were also expensive and hard to find in stores when they were first released. All new formats are; that coupled with the fact that people don't like change will make all new technology slow to adapt. Sony has definitely had some major misses in the past with their proprietary formats they tried to force upon the public but clearly Blu Ray is here to stay.

I realize the PS3 has plenty of negative aspects. So do each of the 3 consoles. I say we stop worrying about who's doing what and just enjoy what's out there.