one of the previous posters noted briefly about the recession and exchange rates. To share what this means for example in 2006 when the PS3 was released $1 USD = about 115 Yen. If you multiply the sale price of the system at launch $600 by 115 Yen it equals about 69,000 Yen. Yes you may say who cares but the Yen has gained significantly in value to the US Dollar and in the past 6 months has averaged about $1 = 95 Yen. This is bad for Japanese companies because when they send the money back it buys much less of their currency. If the PS3 still sold at that $600 PS3 from 3 years ago it would now be equal to 57,000 which devalues it by about 18%. (by the way this is hurting Nintendo as well)
Now take in that $400 PS3 it is only worth 38,000 YEN which is close to half the money Sony was bringing in at launch.
