Ars Technica rumor claims 399 40GB PS3 this year

[Joe DeFuria]

One,

Can you tell me what exactly you are trying to say? (Your overall point?)

1) Sony is where they expect to be in terms of market share
2) Sony is not where they expect to be, but it's not due to an overestimation of brand value, but poor exeuction of their plan to date.

Or neither?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

[modhat]This is going way OT onto the dead-end 'what did that PR comment really mean?' topic. Once a viewpoint has been expressed in these cases, there's no point arguing it further as no-one changes their mind . So, back on topic please. Which...erm...has probably been covered. Ars Technica had a rumour, and so far it hasn't happened. We've all said a lower price will sell more consoles. Don't see that any more discussion can be had. I'm going to wrap this thread up, though if another mod thinks it should carry on, they can undo my wrapping.[/modhat]

 

[JardeL]

Real Deal Gaming : $399 40GB PS3 To Be Released On Oct 30th

Rumors have pegged an official announcement in October. So doing a little searching and making a few calls and putting all the information together Real Deal Gaming has come up with a well informed/unconfirmed/educated guess of when this rumored $399 PS3 would finally hit store shelves. Read on for the evidence.

[ http://realdealgaming.blogspot.com/2007/09/399-40gb-ps3-to-be-released-on-oct-30th.html ] ,

GamePro France : Sony Big Bang Announcement Coming October 12th

"Indeed, it seems that the dated October 12, 2007 one was chosen by Sony to make an enough important advertisement to be qualified in-house “big-bangâ€￾"…

[ http://www.n4g.com/ClickOut.aspx?ObjID=71113 ] ...

 

[Acert93]

September 24th would have had significantly more impact

 

[22psi]

WOOHOO, time to save up the pennies!!!

 

[mister slim]

WOOHOO, time to save up the pennies!!!

Do you have a dumptruck to get those 39900 (or maybe 39999) pennies to the store?

 

[Titanio]

More rumblings.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/sonys-399-ps3-confirmed-by-best-buy/

Thanks to a helpful tipster, we have a couple of Best Buy documents showing a $399 Playstation 3 with 40GB disk and Spiderman 3 (yes, Blu-ray) bundle with an "In Stock Date" of October 28. However, the more important "Street Date" field is unfortunately empty at the moment. While the docs look legit and don't seem to be Photoshopped, they can still be faked easily enough. So we did a quick lookup on the UPC code and sure enough, while the details are masked, the manufacturer is listed as "Sony Computer Entertainment of America."

(Document scans at the link)

Various posters on various boards are apparently also claiming that stores in Australia and Europe have started putting in orders for a 40GB 399 PS3 (the unit apparently has not PS2 chipset and no card readers, but with everything else including wifi). Some are saying there could be an announcement for Europe as soon as Friday.

 

[avaya]

$399/E399/£299(?)/AUS$699

EU Starter Pack Euro 599 -> Euro 499 (UK, £425 > £350?)

~30% price cut in coming for PAL regions on the 12 of October according to multiple sources at NeoGAF.

BestBuy docs leaked at Engadget

http://www.engadget.com/photos/sonys-399-ps3-confirmed-by-best-buy/422216/

http://www.upcdatabase.com/itemnotfound.asp?upc=711719800606

AVS Forum Sony Style Australia employee confirms rep asked him about how many 40GB's he wants.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11784897#post11784897

Full software based BC.

Personal anecdote, I know legions of people with PS2's waiting for £299.

EDIT: Looks like Bob Woodward beat me!

 

[pipo]

Hmm.

This with WipeOut and LBP could be the deal for me...

 

[avaya]

Italian online retailer

http://www.queencomputer.it/index.php?prodotto=4377

for EU Starter pack price reduction

Credit Panajev

 

[Arwin]

Well this is all starting to sound very convincing. Good stuff.

 

[Titanio]

Also, 40GB showed up today on another Italian retailer, available from Oct 10:

http://www.bitpower.it/oscom/catalog/playstation340gb-p-2168.html

Apparently Sony circulated info to retailers today..

 

[avaya]

I think Sony will be at £199(?), E299 for Xmas 2008 for one SKU, don't know about NA, but that's quite possible given the EU Starter Pack being E499 for two games + two pads.

Thanks to corporate myopia amongst executives, everyone follows the darling of the time (even across different markets), this time it's Apple. When Apple slashed the iPhone price I suspected Sony would soon follow with the PS3. They’re both heavily brand reliant.

360 getting another quick $50 is very likely now for NA. I think that was their plan all along with the modest cut back in August.

 

[Acert93]

The bundling of Spiderman BDR is a really good move. They stole my thunder from my how to save holiday 2007

A $399 PS3 with Spiderman BDR and a either Motorstorm or Resistance would be a pretty killer package -- and would show off what the PS3 can do at a price gamers can capitulate on with said value.

 

[hey69]

acording to my source. 40gb you can forget for europe .. but then again. wait for 12october

 

[Todd33]

So what price will the 60GBs that are still out there cost? $449? I assume the 80GB will be $499.

 

[avaya]

acording to my source. 40gb you can forget for europe .. but then again. wait for 12october

What does he say then?

 

[Rangers]

1 up yours was talking about how Sony was letting each of the regions do their own thing now..aka, if America wanted the 40GB maybe they make it..but EU does nothing. Each region runs itself so to speak..

Although that sounds stupid, it sounds more believable now.

 

[Arun]

Uhm, Australia and Europe are the same 'territory', no? So shouldn't the SKUs be the same, or am I missing something here?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's not stupid at all, from a local market POV. You fleece the local inhabitants for as much as the chumps are willing to pay, and choose the price and bundles that are more attractive. If one region likes bare-bones low price, and another likes high value bundles, you need the flexibility to provide that.

Although AFAIK they've always had this - why has the US got an 80GB model when the rest of the world hasn't. Now I think of it, the difference here is that now the local earnings are going to be attributed to the regional offices. Instead of SCEE choosing the bundles for Europe and the gains forming part for SCE's, the gains will appear on SCEE's yearly financials. Likewise SCEA and SCEJ. That shouldn't affect the regional variation of bundles and models any more than now though.