360 Deathbed Watch: $399 PS3 a reality
MS just can’t catch a break this week. First Bungie leaves and now PS3 hits the magic $399 mark, securing it’s global dominance this holiday season. Lets not even think about how the sales will skyrocket once MGS4, Killzone 2, and Little Big Planet hit the store shelves.
Full Press Release:
Aggressively priced hardware and a terrific software line-up make for an unbeatable combination
New 40GB PS3 at €399London, 5 October 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced details of its exciting new PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) model that will launch throughout the SCEE territories on 10th October 2007 at the highly attractive price of €399.
Providing an incredibly appealing entry point to the world of High Definition gaming and entertainment for the holiday season, the new PS3 brings the next generation of interactive home entertainment to homes all across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia.
Along with an ever expanding line-up of PS3 titles (a total of 65 titles tracking across all genres by Christmas), the new PS3 is equipped with a 40GB HDD and includes all the features central to the High Definition entertainment experience; true next generation gameplay, stunning High Definition Blu-ray Discâ„¢ movies, SIXAXISâ„¢ wireless controller, Wi-Fi and HDMI connectivity, all powered by the Cell Broadband Engineâ„¢, the digital heart of PS3.
As with the 60GB PS3, the new PS3 features upgradeable firmware allowing new features and functionality to be added to the system as time progresses. A recent firmware update, for example, enabled PS3 to upscale DVD’s played on the system to full 1080P High Definition.
The introduction of the new PS3 has been determined following user feedback from thousands of existing PS3 owners as well as research into future potential PS3 owners. The new model features two USB 2.0 ports rather than four and no longer includes the multi memory card port.
The new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation®2 titles, reflecting both the reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles (a total of 65 titles across all genres by Christmas).
The existing Starter Pack*, comprising a 60GB PS3 with extensive backwards compatibility, an additional SIXAXIS wireless controller and two first party titles will be reduced in price to €499. Remaining on sale while stocks last, the 60GB model represents outstanding value for the keen gamer wishing to upgrade to the High Definition capabilities of PS3.
“The introduction of the new PS3 has been the result of extensive research into the entertainment needs and preferences of the next generation of PS3 owners,†said David Reeves, President of SCEE. “It has allowed us to deliver an extremely advanced, yet incredibly affordable High Definition gaming and entertainment system, configured to the needs of the next generation of European PS3 owners. PS3 has always been the device of choice for the discerning gamer and entertainment seeker, and the new PS3 is more than ever the perfect High Definition entertainment system.
ya… those games are coming out when? end of ’08? yea, have fun folding @home with the blu rays.
“and now PS3 hits the magic $399″
The article is refering to Europe and 399 EUROS which is currently $564.09.
This site is a great exercise in showing the lengths fanboys (on both sides) will go to defend their console purchase, but at least try and make it funny without blatant mistakes.
Uhh sorry to rain on your parade but € is the symbol for Euros not Dollars.
€ 399 = $564.74 USD
PS.
€399 = $564, not $399.
No mention of any American price drop. Giving up in the states sony?
so wait… 399 Euros or $399 USD? that’s poor PPP if it’s 399 in both currencies.
So, how badly will this price cut hurt Sony’s bottom line? is the PS3 still producing a net loss on each unit sold?
this means for the ps3 to sell well in England then the ps3 will have to drop down to about £300….. and thats not going to happen
the thing that sony don’t get is that people without HD TVs aren’t going to be tempted to buy the ps3 becuse the Blu-ray player adds alot of money…. and if you don’t have a HD TV then you don’t need a Blu-Ray player.
A price drop isn’t going to shift the ps3 anyway, they need a good load of high quality exclusives (i’m not a fan of MGS or Final Fantasy so they don’t make me want to buy it at all), a good online service (no matter what you say, xbox live is far better than PSN, and its not expensive, its less than a medium fries from Mc Donalds once a week), they need a far better customer service and most of all, they need be able to give the xbox some proper competition (since its release the ps3 has not yet once given the xbox a substantial run for its money, maybe the price cut will but i seriously doubt it)
For the ps3 to win Sony really needs to pull its thumb out its arse and pay attention to what people want instead of telling them what they want
Sony, you suck at life
Lol €399, $564 US……… still not going to help the PS3. Its what, $50 cheaper than the better model, this one cuts out 2 USB ports, memory card slots, and now has no BC, haha, way to make your system suck even more sony, not only are you forcing new unproven Tech down peoples throats, your saying its cheaper, taking even more features away from it, then putting it right back down our throats. Honestly, ps3 isnt even in the race anymore. Xbox already has like what, 300 titles, and alot of good ones at that. Right now its just a battle between 360 and Wii, while the PS3 is struggling to stay alive.
The magic number for home consoles is $299.99, not $399.99. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The PS3 will sell more at $400, but neither it nor the 360 look likely to overtake the Wii in any major market any time soon, and especially not with main systems over $300.
“The new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation®2 titles”
Balls to thaat. Even SOME backwards compatibilities, like on the 360, is better than none at all.
What I don’t understand is why they took the backwards compatibility out of the 40gb model because in the 80gb its software anyway and still upscales PS2 games and DVDs to 1080p. I do understand that it takes time and effort to make sure the game runs properly when it is being software emulated but updates to games will still be updated with the 80gb so whats the deal? It doesn’t really bother me as when I buy my PS3 in a month I will buy the 80gb anyway unless they come out with a better SKU by then, which I doubt. But this is great news for the people just looking to play PS3 games the cheapest way possible. I personally think the 360 is going to be overshadowed by the PS3 once it hits a $399 SKU here in the states because the people that are being more educated on blu-ray and the the PS3 hardware itself will want to jump on the full HD entertainment system and not even think twice about a 360.
You phail sdf.
This is reality : $564USD, again LOL @ SDF
After all the bitching you guys do about 360′s lack of full backwards compatibility, how does it feel to have NONE, douchebags?
lol….thats 399 EURO which is $564.74 USD…dumbasses
wow…quite a price cut, and you lost all backwards compatibility with that version. hell of a deal!
Yeah but thats not how it works. Most stuff that is in euros are in dollars as well. So accourding to you this Playstation 3 (france) “http://www.amazon.fr/Console-Playstation-3-Starter-Pack/dp/B000TZ8RJC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/403-4509171-4900446?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1191615223&sr=1-1″ should be 848 dollars in America. Which it’s not.
FUCKING LOOOOOOOL, £399 = $399, have you even been in school you little cunt? There’s something called CURRENCY which makes £399 = ~$570… in short turns, YOU LOOSE AGAIN!
So let’s see, should we get 80Gs at $600? or 40Gs at $570? Half the capacity for almost the same price! What a deal!
Xbox & Wii still have it beat, $350 & $250.
Well put by Kotaku on BC
“What was once a “core value” and “necessary” according to… Phil Harrison …is now clearly not at all necessary”
http://kotaku.com/gaming/2007-b%27c%27/scee-explains-ps3-bc-backpedalling-307768.php
Dumb move imo.
Ey they are going to have it for $399.00 dollars we are not in Europa, maybe thats what Sony need to sell more, alof people wan to buy a PS3 but the price is been a factor, but with this and all of those games that are coming in a few months (Folklore,Unrealtournament3,Uncharted.etc) and the Blu-ray player that holds 50GB on one CD along.
Lol, “securing it’s global dominance this holiday season”. Over the last place position? In effect, they’ve made it even more expensive; half the memory, no backwards compatibility. It should be a $200 (thats dollar) price cut.
“Now, the $300! While you can’t play any of our 5 gameson it, it still has BLU-RAY!!”
“WE took out the cell stuff, though”
edit: $300 model.
360 pwns the queer PS3 by a few hundred hairs! Faggy SDF moderators!
Beeeyutch!
Until the PS3 stops sending us over-hyped titles that utterly disappoint, no one will buy a PS3. Stop coming out with Heavenly Swords and Lairs and make sure MGS4 and Ratchet and Clank: Future are decent and you might be able to salvage the console. If the games don’t make the cut, well, let’s just hope that they do.
Also: Ever noticed that the PS3 is utterly perfect until they have already fixed a flaw to these people? I don’t honestly take this sight seriously, but STILL.
You guys a fuckin retards. Currency doesn’t alway apply. Right now the 80Gig unit in Europe is 599 EUROS. If currency trully applied then that system is around 840 dollars in america. WHICH IT’S NOT!
400 pounds!
That’s $800!
Europe is getting screwed over.
“A recent firmware update, for example, enabled PS3 to upscale DVD’s played on the system to full 1080P High Definition.”
ZOMG!!! The PS3 is catching up, Xbox 360 did that since day 1. Sony PR people in Europe-land are saying that PS3 will outsell Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii at the next holiday season by 200-600%, which I kinda doubt… but it’s Sony, what else would you expect?
btw. according to yesterday’s exchange rates, 399 EUR equals 564.03 USD (564.0264 to be exact).
NO BWC = fail.
Sony and their fans should be ashamed.
SDF is now officially unable to post a story without the words “Xbox” “360″ or “Halo” in it.
Fail once again for being incapable of just talking about the PS3.
Wow I didn’t realize that there’s no Backward compatibly, that’s the only reason why I would buy PS3. I had to make a choice last Christmas which I should buy PS2($129CND)/Xbox360 bundle($399 from boxing day, include 3 games and wireless controller) or PS3($699CND), glad I made a right choice by getting PS2/xbox360 instead.
I have like 9 ps2 games that’ll keep me busy for years and xbox with 20 games as well.
399 euros may or may not mean $399. I know the big PS3 bundle is $599 and 599 euros, although that doesn’t necessarily hold true for how the pricing scheme will hold true. It sounds completely impractical to sell the unit at $399 when compared to the 80GB unit, it’s only reducing the hard drive by 40GB and getting rid of 2 USB ports. Backwards compatability is gone… but that shouldn’t reduce production costs much at all considering the 80GB unit just uses software emulation and including it would cost Sony practically nothing.
It sounds like this SKU is here to get more people into the market, but at the same time, they are intentionally crippling it so the more powerful units which lose less money for Sony can still sell.
Realistically, the difference between the production cost of this unit and the 80GB unit is probably something like $20. (looked at price of 40GB and 80GB laptop hard drive on newegg.com and found cheap ones for $40 and $55 respectively. Estimated 2 USB ports as $5 each.)
A $200 difference in price for a system that’s $20 and a game cheaper to produce seems pretty ludicrous. I’m not saying Sony won’t do it, but they are going to lose loads of money on this system and the only logical conclusion to draw from the lack of backwards compatibility is to encourage people to buy the system that will lose less money for them.
People… The same annoncement is comming for north america. 399$ PS3. I’m in.
i remember when ps3 fanboys bashed the 360 for its crap bc and now bc is unneeded. whats australasia?
Even at $400 I won’t consider touching it until MGS4 comes out.
I remember the good old $200 launch Game Cube. Why can’t the budget models of a system that’s been out for a year even go below double the price of the only SKU available that was brand new 5 years ago? $400 doesn’t seem ludicrous now… but that’s just because we’ve been trained to expect really expensive consoles due to the 360 and PS3.
In spite of all the hype about HD graphics… the tech jump really isn’t that amazing. I find the graphics jump this generation to be really small compared to previous generations… and we’re getting the largest price boosts in history regardless of that.
399 EURO you mean, how could no one notice that?
thats over 550 dollars american at current exchange price
ummm
what the fuck are you guys talking about. the canadian dollar and the american dollar are both high than a euro.
higher*
krollzen youre an idiot
look it up
a euro is around 1.4 dollars
so 400 euro is 550+ dollars
‘Lol €399, $564 US……… still not going to help the PS3. Its what, $50 cheaper than the better model, this one cuts out 2 USB ports, memory card slots, and now has no BC, haha, way to make your system suck even more sony, not only are you forcing new unproven Tech down peoples throats, your saying its cheaper, taking even more features away from it, then putting it right back down our throats. Honestly, ps3 isnt even in the race anymore. Xbox already has like what, 300 titles, and alot of good ones at that. Right now its just a battle between 360 and Wii, while the PS3 is struggling to stay alive.” The wii doesn’t have the potential to be the number one game console. Ever. It lacks third party support,and lacks support for online and hard core gaming. I’m sorry,wii lost this long ago. Right now, PS3 is in the race,and may have more tricks than you know. Who knows,it might lose.But what you shouldn’t do,is try to pin it on who wins now,or you’ll end up looking like a fool. Think of it this way, The 360 came out a year before the ps3.DO THE FUCKING MATH!NO DUH IT HAS MORE GAMES!
God fanboys piss me off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_rates
and yet another fake and biased article sent by a bunch of stupid sony fanboys. sry to say this but who would want to spend $399 on a worthless system like the PS3. its still overall a terrible system that will not get any better. it amazes me how there are some people in this world who are so retarded. you still think it’s a good system then why don’t you look at the REAL sales and the embarrasing press conference. c’mon! 80,000 units. thats just brutal. on the other hand look at the Xbox 360 sales as well as the Wii sales.
to sum it all up: long live the 360 and we are waiting for the PS3′s deathbed
yea i used an outdated money converter by accident. but it doesnt even matter cause there is a 399$ one in north america. and now the 80gig vers is 499$.and also PS3 is the only system who dropped the price in canada lower than american versions cause our dollar is now worth more than americans
and 360 is a peice of shit jsut like the original xbox. microsoft should have never even tried to make a system. as soon as sony came in they owned everything. ps1 kicked the shit out of all the systems in its generation, same with PS2, and now ps3 will do the same, sure right now its sales are bad, but that doesnt mean the system is shit.PS3 is so kickass and all fo tis games are fun. i playesd alot of 360 ones. and there not that good