Monday, February 19, 2007

New PS3 to cost as little as a Wii?



Japanese gaming magazine Game Labo is apparently reporting about a new PlayStation3 model that will come without a hard-disk and retail for ¥ 25.000 ($ 210), MaxConsole claims. No more information is given.



If true, the new PS3 would only cost as much as a Wii. Game Labo is the same magazine that was said to have learnt about Nintendo revising the Wii controller.

In my mind, there is no way Sony could be able to offer a PS3 at such a low price only by excluding the hard-disk. They would have to exclude the Blu-ray drive in order to cut costs by that margin and that move is highly unlikely, given that Sony would severely damage its own format.


Source: MaxConsole

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

If they didn't drop the blu-ray drive, how much of a loss would they be taking on each console? That'd have to be even worse than what they have now...

Anonymous said...

aren't the games made in blueray??? ... if so.. ... they can't sell the PS3 without it...

Anonymous said...

there's no way in hell that's true. but by god, i'm going to hope it is. with all my strength.
-jff

Unknown said...

i wouldn't reject this rumor so quickly.

The price of Blue-Ray drives should be dropping pretty fast now.

We also have heard that the cell is moving to a newer fabrication process, which could result in lower prices. Plus I would imagine they are already getting higher yields on the current process and should be able to cut the price.

If i remember right Sony had always been good about improving manufacturing processes, and doing the small internal redesigns to make things simpler and cheaper.

With all of that put together, I think we could see a price drop to at least the Xbox360 levels.

The last fact is that I don't think Sony really sees the 360 as there main competition anymore. The battle is for Japan, so they need to be price competitive with Nintendo, not Microsoft. Taking the hit to improve market-share in Japan, might be seen as a necessary evil if you want to keep the exclusives on your system.

I would imagine when Dragon Quest XI was announced for the DS, Sony executives must have had a fit. Even if it hurts profitability in the short term, they can't let that happen again.

I am more curious about the stated original goal of a $100 price for the Wii. Just think if Nintendo could pull that off by next Xmas.

Anonymous said...

The LucasArts site lists 'Next-Generation platforms, PS2, PSP and DS' among the systems capable of playing this game. So let's just break this down. PlayStation3 and XBox 360 are the next-gen systems. While those other platforms will have the game, the mechanics of gameplay will be decidedly different. Krome Studios will be making the PSP/PS2 version, while n-Space will be handling the Nintendo DS version. But what about the Wii?! Well, when they asked a LucasArts rep about that, the response was, "even if that version does happen, it probably wouldn't be 'the lightsaber game' that gamers have eagerly been awaiting."

Anonymous said...

so much for the lightsaber game falafel.

Anonymous said...

This is retarded.

First loss of the HARDDRIVE (not Blu-ray) would break their own standards and one of their self-proclaimed advantages over 360. Second, a hard drive only adds $50 to the manufacturing costs. What is stated here would constitute a $200 price drop on a system already losing $300 apiece. No, it's not $240. Consider this is Japan we're talking about where the system is cheaper, and isuppli's analysis shows lower model does indeed lose $300 each.

Who in their right mind would make such an insane reduction? And while cell, Nvidia and blu-ray prices might drop massively, do you really think it would be by $500 in the next six months just to not lose money? Even a $250 reduction seems ludicrous, and yet at current prices, they'd still be losing $50 dollars or so a unit, let alone after a price drop.

Personally I thought the reverse might work better. Don't deny what you've become Sony! Make a high end unit with a TV tuner, 200GB HDD and HD PVR functions, and charge $700

Falafelkid said...

Just a quick note concerning the LucasArts story. The statement relates to ´The Force Unleashed´ not being the anticipated lightsaber game.

“Even if that version does happen, it probably wouldn’t be ‘the lightsaber game’ that gamers have eagerly been awaiting.”

Source: GoNintendo

So ´The Force Unleashed´ won´t be that game. But that does not mean said game does not exist.

There is such a game coming and it has been planned since at least May 2006, believe you me. On my way to the last E3 I was sitting next to the president of a very important industry organization in the US and he told me in confidence. There is no way he could have been wrong. You wait and see.

Anonymous said...

Just like the vip who told you that there would be another secret huh?

;)

Anyway...

Falafelkid I need more polygons and shaders and specular lightning!

More of everything please!

I can't live without polygons!


-IALS

Anonymous said...

Mei jetz ia da Flaffi wieder beleidigt

Falafelkid said...

GoNintendo has commented on the story in more detail - and I very much agree with what RMC said.

I just don’t see this happening, as it would screw with projects that developers have in the works. They build games off of base models, meaning they build games for components that the system ships with at its lowest level. I am sure there are games in the works that utilize the hard drive. The 360’s lowest model doesn’t have a hard drive, so developers have been creating games knowing that not everyone has the hard drive.

The other major reason that I don’t see this drop happening is because of Blue Ray. The removal of a hard drive wouldn’t drop the price all that much, but the removal of Blue Ray would. I think we know that Sony doesn’t plan on ditching the PS3 centerpiece anytime soon.

Just wanted to make a note on this rumor. I was going to hang back from it, but seeing that so many people emailed me about it, I thought I should at least mention it.

Anonymous said...

Falafel please beam me back to the 90's !

-IALS

Anonymous said...

Is there even an IALS person at this point?

Anonymous said...

Starstriker1 that was gold!!!

Respeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeect!

No no wait

That was pure diamond!!!!

11 out of 10

Anonymous said...

Hi Falafel.

Show me one good looking Wii game and I'll walk into a store and buy Wii before Galaxy comes out.

I promise.

:)

IALS

Anonymous said...

If God Of War 2 can look so good on Ps2, I don't want to know how good games on Wii could look if only developers put more effort into them!

Anonymous said...

Twilight Princess had fantastic art direction and excellent use of animation. While it doesn't compare to, say, Gears of War, it was a fantastic looking game running on hardware that was basically half of what the Wii could give.

Red Steel also looked fantastic, but in my opinion, the control was awkward and... honestly, why didn't the testers mention the horrible writing?

Anonymous said...

Falafel man jetz hör echt mal auf immer die beleidigte Leberwurst zu spielen! Ich war eigentlich immer korrekt zu dir bis du angefangen hast durchzudrehn mit deinen Theorien!Früher hast du wenigstens noch den Irrelevant Annoying Laughing Stock ausgepackt!Take it easy man!!! IALS isn't evil! He might have been frech at times but I mean come on Kid!What's wrong with you? I have been here since day one!Let's be friends again!

Anonymous said...

Falafeeeeeeeeel

Please give me a high polygon count cuz you know who this is
and you know who demands it

:)

I need the design talent of the Capcom old schoolers coupled with the engine power of Factor 5, the sense for style and story telling of former Uk Acclaim employees that work for Take Two now and the gameplay twist of Mr Miyamoto!

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOD !!!! THIS BLOG STILL EXISTS !!!????? WHAT"S UP FALLAFEL WHERE THAT BIG SECRET MWAHAHAHAHAH

Unknown said...

To be honest, I think all the early adopters would be really pissed off if this happens.

1.) Almost every early adopter I would imagine justified the cost by thinking... well the games are on bluray so that will be standard for ps3 for ever,

2.)A 20 or 60 gig hard drive is pretty gnarly and since both versions have it then a good bit of games will use it...

If they drop either of those, all early adopters basically bought a system that has way more power and "things" taht are even necessary to play ps3 games..

Anonymous said...

free wii points via amazon.com http://sternclips.blogspot.com/2007/02/free-wii-points-via-amazon.html

Smith said...

The PS3 better still have the Blu-Ray Feature! It would be cool if the PS3 was to cost as much as the Nintendo Wii!

Philip said...

This rumor is laughable.
Sony will release at this price in 5 years, maybe.
Sony as a company in whole has so much riding on the success of PS3, and now they have a system that costs them a grand a piece to build, retails at $200 more than the plenty-impressive 360, and still cuts them a few hundred dollars loss each time they sell a system... And seeing as how they can't even sell the system too well (and it's popularity is only bound to decline from here on out), do you expect they can go ahead and cut the price a few hundred MORE? Well, sure... just not within this decade.

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Anonymous said...

last fact is that I don't think Sony really sees the 360 as there main competition anymore. The battle is for Japan fdsaf

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