Thanks to Scull and Mr. Condescension for reporting this as well!
So there has been a torrent of media that has hit the net tonight after Ken's keynote this morning (depending where you are) at TGS. Many people expected this to be Sony's "conference" but it ended up just being a very formal speech by the big daddy of the Playstation. Although many were disappointed, it looks like some good news has come out of it. GI.biz is reporting the following:
Quote:
In a Q&A session at the close, Kutaragi also apologised to software creators for delays in PlayStation 3's over-ambitious production schedule, but said the company is now focused on ensuring no further delays occur.
But the response that won applause from the largely Japanese crowd concerned the inclusion of an HDMI port on the 20GB version of the console, and a repricing for Japan. The 20GB version will cost 49,980 yen (EUR 335 / GBP 225), down from 62,790 yen (EUR 421 / GBP 283), Kutaragi said.
For those of you keeping track, that's roughly $425, which will most likely round out to $400 in the US. Is this an unofficial official announcement of a price drop before November? How many people are breathing a huge sigh of relief that they can buy the PS3 "tard pack" for $100 cheaper and also have it fully upgradeable to the premium? I'm guessing a lot.
Update: 1up has received confirmation from Sony that the price drop is Japan-only for now. According to SCEA the pricing in the U.S. will remain identical. Thanks, Fronz! Total bummer, though...
I've always considered the 20gig PS3 a definite strong possibility -- much moreso than the core 360. If this price cut definitely happens in the U.S. and it's down to $400 or even $450, I'm sold. I'll end up buying a PS3 MUCH earlier. This could be the first great Sony news in literally months.
__________________
"Your revolution is dead and was born out of laziness."
-Max Bemis
That's pretty fucking cool. Call me when SCEJ's ICO/SotC team has something on the production line, because this is attracting my interest beyond my previously planned 2010 PS3-bargain-bin binge.
Good on ya, Ken.
Edit: I know this is Japan-only, but expect the US's Sony-faithful to whine something fierce if the new arrangement isn't relatively multinational.
Price cut is in Japan only, see the Press Conference thread.
has it been confirmed for sure as only in Japan? Or has it only been announced in Japan? either way, I think the top most makes it clear that it's not official in the U.S. yet. If not, I can edit it a bit.
Quote:
That's pretty fucking cool. Call me when SCEJ's ICO/SotC team has something on the production line, because this is attracting my interest beyond my previously planned 2010 PS3-bargain-bin binge.
Exactly!
__________________
"Your revolution is dead and was born out of laziness."
-Max Bemis
has it been confirmed for sure as only in Japan? Or has it only been announced in Japan? either way, I think the top most makes it clear that it's not official in the U.S. yet. If not, I can edit it a bit.
It's not been denied for the other launch areas yet, they just haven't commented. Which I bet means it will be dropped.
I wonder when the PS3 trolls will hit this thread and twist some kind of negative spin on this, a move which makes the PS3 at launch the same price and spec as the 360 premium, except with HDMI (20GB hdd).
I think sony just made their first clever move in months, although this probably means that they are selling this console at huge losses.
Hmm, at $400-$450 (speculation) and the only difference being the HDD size and the wireless stuff, I could see myself picking up a PS3 earlier than expected. Maybe even sometime around launch...but I'd have to know more about the launch games than I currently do before I can make that call.
I don't even know what HDMI is
I do know some tvs have it
I do know mine doesn't
but considering how long i owned my ps2, i'm glad they put it in the cheap version
Crap, HDCP here we come. I was hoping with a lot non-HDMI Blu-Ray players out there it would slow down HDCP but it doesn't look like that'll be the case.
Well, Sony said after E3 that they had some big news to share, and a lot of sites have been saying Sony had some big bombs to drop at TGS. I read a few places that there was big news for the US only sometime in the future (this was around E3). If they drop $450 in the US, that will be really huge, and so is the addition of HDMI which means that all you need is a memory card reader and bigger HDD an you have the premium system.
djsandman: The memory card slots on the premium are for SD/Compact Flash/Sony Mem stick, not PS2/PS1 cards. Sony is selling a seperate USB peripheral for your old cards. Hopefully it will be like $10.
Also, it's great that you can use any 2.5" HDD on the PS3, so really you can upgrade the 20 Gig system to 120+ gigs for only ~$100.
I was just thinking about this, and I don't know if anyone agrees, but I feel like this has been Sony's E3 2006. You know? The real E3 was like they just said "OK we don't have anything let's just show up and talk". Now they have playable systems, demo's (albeit many of them months from completion and experiencing some issues with framerate), videos, hard facts, good news, Ken was not out of control, and who knows what else they will reveal this weekend. It just kind of struck me that this was like Microsofts E3 2005, just without the big press conference before.
Dammit. A few hours ago, I was hoping that all the PS3s shipped here would be Premium versions, as it wasn't the 'gimped' pack. Now I'm angry that there will be so few Core versions.
Its not that HDMI is the only thing that matters, but the other components dont matter enough to me to make up for the price difference. Without Live, I doubt I'll fill up the hard drive that quickly. I'd rather have a more reliable wired broadband than a wireless connection. And however much the memory card reader is, I'm assuming its less than $100.
Also the Japan price cut seems very strange to me. They're getting very few systems (at most 100,00 at launch) and most of those will be Premiums, whose prices are set by retailers, meaning every store is an Ebay. So is there could be less than 20,00 cores, Sony knows that they will sell out in seconds anyway. Pricecuts dont make sense when your problem in supply and not demand. Save the cuts for when people can actually buy a PS3.
This price 'cut' is only for Japan where both the Wii and the X360 are already cheaper than they are in the states, so PS3 had to adjust or else look ridiculous. This will not affect US prices.
That being said, they are only offering 20,000 units at that price, which really isn't that much. They are now almost exactly twice the price of the Wii.
Tits. I would easily pick up the non-premium PS3, if the only difference were the chrome highlights and 1/3 the HD space. This is great news, hope the price cut comes to the states!
Maybe SCEA didn't get the memo? Or more likely don't want to announce it to a small website like 1Up, preferring to announce it later on.
If they didn't drop it in the US, Sony would be shooting itself in the foot (again).
Perhaps Sony were planning to drop the price the whole time, but they announced the prices higher to try and prevent an X360 price-cut before the PS3 launched. (It'd be a stupid idea from Sony, but it wouldn't be their first).
Also, how many premium PS3s are there going to be? How many people are seriously going to pay $150 for 80GB and some wifi, when the HDD will be upgradable for far cheaper than that?
