238w ago - Sony's Ray Maguire has said that there will always be pressure for a price drop on the PS3 by consumers, however he added that Sony has a business to run and has to do the right thing for its shareholders.

In short, to reiterate what has been suspected for several weeks now it appears like we can forget a possiblt PlayStation 3 price cut for the holidays.

To quote: Sony has rejected calls for a PS3 price cut in time for Christmas, claiming the perceived high price of the console won't be an issue during the crucial holiday season.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Gamer 3.0 conference in London yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment managing director Ray Maguire said that while there will always be pressure on price from consumers, Sony "has a business to run" and has to "do the right thing" for its shareholders.

Microsoft has enjoyed a 360 sales surge in the UK following the price cut in September, which saw the Arcade cut to £129.99, the 60GB cut to £169.99 and the Elite down to £229.99.

When asked if Sony was feeling any pressure to cut the price of the PS3 in time for Christmas, Maguire replied: "Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there's always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have...

273w ago - According to Ray Maguire, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment's UK operation, a feature labeled as in-game communication is due out this summer for the PlayStation 3, along with Firmware Update 2.4.

To quote: Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, Firmware Update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios. I'd personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey.

No further details were provided. However, we presume that this means PS3 owners will soon be able to chat with people on their PSN friends list while playing a game. A feature many of us have been waiting for.

294w ago - Sony UK boss Ray Maguire says that money previously invested in PlayStation 3's backwards compatibility with PS2 is better spent on new game development or helping to support hardware price cuts.

"As we come to our first Christmas with the PlayStation 3 there's going to be about 65 games in the marketplace, so we feel now that there's sufficient choice in the marketplace and that we're still better off using that money that we'd put into backwards compatibility in either investing in new games or using that money to help support bringing the price down so that people can get into the franchise," Maguire told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz in an interview due to be published on Monday.

He was speaking in light of today's news that Sony plans to launch a 40GB PlayStation 3 without backwards compatibility support on 10th October for GBP 299.

When PS3 first launched, Sony felt that backwards compatibility was an important feature as there were relatively few games for the new system, Maguire explained.

"So it was a big decision," he said of facility's removal, "and we know it is a very emotive subject as lots of people think that backwards compatibility is high on the agenda and yet few really use it."