Earlier today we told you that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time would be releasing for a reduced cost of $39.99 on PlayStation 3 and $29.99 for the PlayStation Vita. This new price did have quite a few people wondering what the reasoning behind the price drop could be, leading Cristian Cardona, Associate Product Marketing Manger of Software at SCEA, to clear them up.

Check out all the questions (edited for cohesion) and un-edited answers below:

What is the reason for the price cut?

We want to make it a no-brainer purchase!

Is the price drop because of the length of the game? Or is it to get as many Sly fans as possible?

As many fans as possible. Believe me, it's not going to be any less of a Sly experience!

Does the $39.99 price tag mean it will have less content?

Nope. That's your assumption - Truth is, there's PLENTY PLENTY. Price doesn't always equal quality or content.

$39.99? Does this mean you have low confidence in the sales?

It's a competitive market right now! We want to make sure this is a purchase you don't have to think twice about. It's gonna be a great game and we want to make sure as many people as possible to enjoy it =).

The bottom line from all the answers is the price drop was made so that they could attract as many potential buyers as possible, with quality of Thieves in Time staying at the level you would expect if it were priced $60. 

There were also a few more pieces of (mostly obvious) knowledge about the new Sly Cooper adventure dropped within the comments section of the PS Blog, which you can read about in bullet point form below:

• There will be only 1 trophy list for both version - no doubles
• You can't use the PlayStation Vita as a replacement for the DualShock 3 on your PS3 copy
• There won't be a special addition
• It will be day 1 digital

Do you mind saving $20 on Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time? 

My opinion - This kind of scares me because I feel as if they don't expect the game to sell well. I know they say that's not the reason for the drop but that's just PR crap talk. I guess the increase in sales day 1 will balance out the $39.99 price tag. I just want this game to do good so that Sony can have confidence in bringing back series such as Jak & Daxter and make a proper Ratchet and Clank game. Also, to continue Sly Cooper.

They most likely saw what happened to Starhawk (retail version), LittleBigPlanet Karting and to a lesser extent PSASBR and decided that it would be better off as a $40 title.
Since the the dev costs weren't as high as other blockbuster exclusives, they may afford a reduced retail price.

After all it worked insanely well for Sniper Ghost Warrior.

Wow. I'm calling this fate. I just paid $35 for Dragon Quest V new at Amazon. I just paid in full $64 for the pre-order for No Ni Kuni at Gamestop for the steel book limited edition. And I just LOST a bid on eBay for Dark Spire used for $40. So maybe that $40 can go to Sly at the beginning of next month?

is that the reason for this http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/game_comparison.php?reg=Global&ending=Cumulative&game%5B%5D=StarHawk+%28PS3%29+%5B43923%5D&game%5B%5D=Starhawk+%28PS3%29+%5B70736%5D&game%5B%5D=&game%5B%5D=

i'd love it if you checked on that for me

OT: i like this move. i could see this happening for fututre ip releasing on PS3.

It is such a crowded Q1 and it would be hard to compete with other big games. With a lower price they could get more people to impulse buy.

I don't think so. The game already has 70k pre orders and it will likely reach 85-90k (maybe even 100k because of this price drop) by launch which could lead to 225k-300k first week sales. Thats pretty good for a series that has been non existent for like 7 years.  

If I had to guess, it would be that they're worried that this is such a PS2 style game that people might pass on it at full price. A lot of people -do- think, at least unconsciously, that "graphix equals quality". This is straight-up designed to be an old-school game.

My bet is that they are not confident in the quality of the game. Didn't want to say it, but I now have very low expectations for this game. Maybe that price cut wasn't a genius idea after all.

Have you seen any of the previews for the game? People having nothing but nice things to say about this game. It's sticking true to the roots of the Sly Cooper series.