The rumors turned out to be true, Sony has officially announced both an 80 GB Playstation 3 and a North American price drop of $100 on the 60 GB model.
The new price will take affect on Monday July 9th for all of North America. The 60 GB model price will drop to $499 in the US and $549 in Canada and will take the place of the discontinued 20 GB model as the entry level system. The new 80 GB version will taking the $599 price point and will come with the game MotorStorm bundled in.
Sony’s start in the next gen war has left it in a position it’s not used to being in… last. Nintendo continues to burn up the sales charts with the Wii and the DS. Microsoft’s sales are still strong on the Xbox 360 even though it’s been dubbed the most unreliable console in recent history. The only way for Sony to pick up steam is to lower it’s price point to get consumers to buy it. With a low install base also comes less developer support which is another thing the Playstation 3 is lacking in, great exclusive titles that make you want to own one.
Perhaps the Playstation 3’s biggest draw right now is as a BluRay disc player rather than a game machine. BluRay is consistently killing HD-DVD in sales and install base. The $100 price drop can only help improve BluRay’s market penetration because buying the Playstation 3 as a BluRay player is cheaper than a stand alone HD-DVD player and certainly cheaper than an Xbox 360 with HD-DVD add-on.
Microsoft has yet to release an official statement. Microsoft’s new warranty program is going to cost them a billion dollars to support older consoles. However the new 65nm chip set should reduce production costs and eliminate heat related system failures. There may still be room there for a price cut on the Xbox 360 to be announced at E3. Now when you stack the Microsoft and Sony’s $399.99 offerings, Microsoft’s position doesn’t look as strong anymore.
