$100 PS3 price drop imminent?

  • By Polybren, GameSpot
  • Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:46 am AEST

Source: A poster on the DVD Talk and Cheap Ass Gamer forums that routinely reports on upcoming retailer ads. The official story: "Circuit City hasn't announced any sales price on the PS3, so we have no comment."--A Sony representative. What we heard: Thrifty DVD and game collectors might not know...

Source: A poster on the DVD Talk and Cheap Ass Gamer forums that routinely reports on upcoming retailer ads.

The official story: "Circuit City hasn't announced any sales price on the PS3, so we have no comment."--A Sony representative.

What we heard: Thrifty DVD and game collectors might not know the name "speedy1961," but there's a good chance they've benefited from his work. This poster has been giving forum-goers at DVD Talk and Cheap Ass Gamer a reliable heads up on the Sunday newspaper ads from such retailers as Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target for more than a year now.

In his latest post on each forum, speedy1961 runs down the gaming and movie deals from the Circuit City circular for the week starting July 15. While he covers prices for everything from the latest Kelly Clarkson album to a DVD of the Will Smith film Hitch ($9.99 and $4.99, respectively), speedy1961 also mentions that Circuit City is advertising a $100 price break on the 60GB PlayStation 3, bringing the price of the system down to $499.

A $499 20GB version of the PS3 with a smaller hard drive and no wireless Internet capability was released alongside the current $599 60GB model when the system launched last year, but Sony discontinued it earlier this year. According to the electronics giant, demand for that version of the system just didn't justify keeping the configuration around.

While the PS3 is less than a year old, analysts and third-party publishers alike (not to mention consumers) have been asking for a price cut on the system for some time. While Sony's projected 10-year lifespan for the PS3 will likely prevent the company from cutting the price of the system too deeply too quickly, a $100 cut right now would put the system more closely in line with the Xbox 360. While Microsoft's box is still available in a barebones $299 and a 20GB HDD-equipped $399 model, its recently released 120GB Elite edition retails for $479.

The timing of this news also looks right. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is set to take place next week, and a price cut is exactly the sort of big news console makers have announced at the show in the past. The July 15 Circuit City ad in the papers would be the first Sunday after E3, making it the first chance the retailer would have to advertise a price cut.

Bogus or not bogus? Given speedy1961's previous track record, it's almost certainly not bogus that Circuit City will soon advertise a cheaper PS3. However, with no other retailer listings to confirm the drop and Sony playing coy, there remains a chance this might be a Circuit City sale and not an overall price cut.

621 Comments

  • ooJmong

    Posted Jul 23, 2007 12:05 am PT

    Hey, it was better than nothing. A cut by 1/6? Something to be thankful for.

  • s0njas0n

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 11:08 am PT

    i am happy about this price drop even though i already have the ps3, i hope it sells a lot more systems now. *fingers crossed* come on sony!

  • PMatt722

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 6:15 am PT

    this is a lousy strategy by sony, making people think they are getting deal when the better PS3 is still 600, makes me wonder what all these kids are thinking saying "woot" or "finally im getting one".

  • Ponczman

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 5:50 am PT

    IT WAS FORETOLD BY GYROMANCY.....We all know that Sony MUST do it sooner or later, 4 ours & their own good.

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 2:41 am PT

    Guess the rumor is true now ..

  • rdo

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 12:19 am PT

    1 billion is not a huge hit for ms, less than they make in a month. you have to remember it is a company with no debt and over 100 billion in the bank. sony how ever is loseing money, not just the ps3 but the company as a whole. half of sonys net wort is in debt. a cut is much harder for sony to do, but it may be harder not to do the cut.

    selling it at a 50% loss is better than not selling and taking a 100% loss.

  • Alacard_Omalley

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 9:34 pm PT

    effing w00t, i was saving for the base system, only to discover it's discontinuation then sadness, and a spark of hope, they are true fools if they dont do this

  • lancezmfa

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 3:38 pm PT

    sweet, this price drop might just be what sony needs right now.

  • Geeky-Bored-Guy

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 3:36 pm PT

    so... 600 dollars down to 500 dollars...still too much. drop it down to 400 and we'll talk.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 3:19 pm PT

    it should be interesting to see if this makes a big difference in PS3 sales.

  • RockaWuzHur

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 3:03 pm PT

    Finally! Sony thinks that they can overprice stuff just because it has SONY on the cover. I don't know if this is true or not but the PS3 needs a price drop of at least 30 percent. It would sell more and Sony would get more third party developers/publishers

  • ShadowDeathX

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 2:09 pm PT

    Just to Update the Bottom Part, TARGET has joined and will price drop their PS3's to $500 as well.

  • OblivionGuy07

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 1:49 pm PT

    its good to hear they are lowring the price

  • Nyaar

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 12:25 pm PT

    It is sunday, can anyone confirm this price cut.

  • blitz-ace

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 11:38 am PT

    I'm reading a few comments and I have noticed people saying that Microsoft will definately try to beat Sony's prices by dropping the price of 360s as well.

    This may be a possibility, but if you have been keeping up with the news, Microsoft is going to lose over $1 Billion in repairs for all the damaged 360s and extending the warranty of the 360 to three years. If they do a price drop as well, Microsoft will be taking a huge hit in their finances.

  • shadowblade99

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 10:36 am PT

    Come another $100 and we'll talk.

  • Sparky2002

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 6:26 am PT

    Nooo i just brought a PS3 lol owell

  • Dmitheon

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 6:02 am PT

    Bummer,.. looks bogus:

    http://circuitcity.shoplocal.com/circuitcity/Default.aspx?action=browsepagelarge&storeid=2400648&rapid=421412&pagenumber=25

  • missonrs

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 10:37 pm PT

    ps3 price drop sweet that will help me get a ps3 faster

  • MakinBacon

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 8:28 pm PT

    It's true, i work for a retailer and in our AD coming up we have the PS3 as dropping in price.

  • princeofgames90

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 8:28 pm PT

    at last they should have done this befor but E3 is a good time

  • dmish82

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 5:43 pm PT

    FYI

    One of the Target stores in my area (Chicago, IL area) had the PS3 for $499 already and I was able to pick one up. It seems to be spotty though as I called about 5 Targets and only 1 of them had the price drop in effect.

  • Zaphack

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 3:52 pm PT

    Now I am definetly getting a PS3! About time they dropped the price!

  • music-nut

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 3:25 pm PT

    that would be nice but i dont think sony will do it for a while. even if they did it is still too expensive with the few good games they have and are getting soon.

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 2:53 pm PT

    I'm all for a price drop, but I still won't get one until some games I want for it release. Like Ratchet & Clank and GTA IV.

  • faithnomore311

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 2:51 pm PT



    Dammit, I just had to be an early adopter...cursed Motorstorm demo. It made me want one immediately...     -Pseudo Finrod

    lol, same thing I was thinking. oh well though, because if this is true, than like everyone's saying...Microsoft will drop the price of the 360, and it's about damn time! been out for nearly 2 years! I feel bad for Sony, if you buy the HD-DVD player with the Elite, it comes to 680, so PS3's 600 dollar price really isn't so unreasonable...

  • thk123

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 2:35 pm PT

    This isn't news for me, where I live, shops have been cutting the PS3 prices down by £50 for quite a while now, without Sonys approval, it will be interesting to see if at E3 Sony officially drop it.

  • AceDonald

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 12:03 pm PT

    Is this only for the week of July 15? Because if it is, even with the $100 price cut, i wouldn't be able to get it yet.

  • ChoadS

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 11:35 am PT

    They are going have to drop it $200 to $399 and I will get one.

  • rdo

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 11:26 am PT

    it looks like i may be wrong. i said sony shouldn't announce a cut unless the cut was imminen when the news article mentioned a holiday cut. perhaps they realize that they were telling people to wait before buying a ps3. if they cut now they would get gamesales between now and the holidays. maybe they listened.

    but i wasn't projecting a price cut till november for the 360. i believe that was the reason halo3 was moved up to september, to let it sell units at full price. but ms will match any sony cut so the 360 cut might get moved up, depending on if it's a store sale or a reduced msrp over all. and yes a single store would make a sale that big. walmart did it last christmas for the 360. if you bought a 360 you got a $100 gift card for free. walmart made sure they were getting the money they gave you back but it was still $100 off even if you did have to spend the money at walmart. most cards went for games, which 2 games are $120 so they made another $20.

  • swyg

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 7:15 am PT

    Why are people complaining that there aren't any good games on the ps3?

    They have Resistence FOM, Elder Scrolls 4(doesn't matter if it's not exclusive), Darkness(same as Elder Scrolls, doesn't matter about exclusivity) and Ninja Gaiden:Sigma. All four of these games are great and they aren't even the biggest games that are to come out for the ps3, Sony is just getting warmed up.

  • Javi_air

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 1:18 am PT

    it dropped at target today I was surprised.

  • Dsanche2

    Posted Jul 7, 2007 12:30 am PT

    one word .....sweet!

  • artanisxvi

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 11:23 pm PT

    I believe the actual time those Xbox 360 cores that sold out at Amazon.com for $99 was around 13 seconds

  • thekey

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 10:20 pm PT

    $100 price drop is not good enough. $450 and you have a deal.(no funny business either such as "taking the emotion engine out etc)

  • Dryker

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:29 pm PT

    Still too expensive for Lair ( the only game IMO worthwile). I'll probably do the same thing I did with the PS2, after almost its entire life-cycle (last month), I bought one for four games: Odin Sphere, Final Fantasy XII, God of War, and God of War II. When the PS3 is a couple hundred bucks and has a handful of "My Type of Games", I'm sure I'll buy one.

  • neerajkumar_4

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:18 pm PT

    thats good news!! i hope that they will drop the huge price tag!

  • thegeorger

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:16 pm PT

    I'm amazed at the positive response here, I'm so used to all the PS3 bashing. I guess a price drop goes a long way if it can convert the members at gamespot. Even though I paid th original price for it (and in Canada it ends up closer to $700) I hope Sony does cut the price... It'd be nice to have more PS3 owners around.

  • morpheusxp

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 9:06 pm PT

    $500 is still way out of line IMO. The only way I see Sony having a chance of catching up with Ninten and MS is to match the 360s price. Then and only then will Sony be on a lvl playing field with the competition. The BD drive is not a system selling feature,no one but tech geeks gives a rats arse about watching HD movies on their game console.

  • og72187

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 8:40 pm PT

    i work at target and i actually just got off, the PS3 was already dropped, we are now selling it for $499, so its not just a rumor, it already happened

  • drewcal58

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 7:57 pm PT

    This has already happened at Target.

  • racerx737

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 7:11 pm PT

    a $100 price drop would definitely entice more ppl to buy a PS3, Sony still needs to get some good games for their system that ppl cant get on another, cheaper system if they want to have any hope of winning this generation. either way it doesnt make a difference to me, I have my 360 and that's all I need for this generation.

  • Agreb91

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 6:58 pm PT

    Price cut or sale Circuit City will be seeing me soon.

  • Rertezjui

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 5:53 pm PT

    Then I might go for a cheap X360 (expecting price drops on that side too) and wait a year or two for PS3 to catch up on offering valuable gameplay experience. I'm a bit pissed that PS3 is only a promising home multimedia device at the moment. Not a real gaming console... Since I'm mostly a PC-gamer I'm not investing into something I might want in the future for even cheaper than after this expected price drop. Game development costs on PS3 is a real threat for PS3 owners. I'm really curious about PS3's future but I'm still can't trust in it.

  • deonicio

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 5:15 pm PT

    If the rumor is true then I'm getting my PS3 soon!!

  • PreLuDe_DuDe

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 4:52 pm PT

    A hundred dollar price drop is definitely great, but there are no games out that are decent. I'm still giving it more time until they get a blockbuster RPG in the mix. 499 with no games = lose.

  • Dman4Life1217

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 4:17 pm PT

    Well, to say stores wouldn't discount something on their own isn't true, as stores in japan were discounting ps3s without an official word from Sony. To say the "war is on", I don't think so. 500 bucks is still pushing it for a console. It's a nice gesture if this is true from Sony, but if it's just a store discounting, it's a way of moving excess stock that they normally can't move.

  • MrSickVisionz

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 4:13 pm PT

    This could be like that Amazon.com thing where they sold 1000 X-Box Core systems for like $99. They sold out in like 2 minutes.

  • weisguy119

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 4:01 pm PT

    Still not buying it.

  • sherif77

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 3:55 pm PT

    100 dollar drop wouldn't do it for me on the PS3. They came out the door bragging about their system and they have nothing to deliver on. That system need to be slashed in half for ppl to like them again.

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