Borkachev on 29 October 2007
I think it definitely means that it was a reactive price cut to the results from September NPD. No one expected their sales to go down in a 5 week month with Lair launching at the tail end of August, and Heavenly Sword dead center in September. In a mall close to where I work, there are two game stores, and one of them STILL shows $599 for the 80gb pack, while the other has $499.
I think it's a lot more likely that they wanted to avoid the kind of leak fiasco that preceded the E3 price drop. Slipped rumours of a drop 2 weeks before it happens really undermines the PR impact of the official announcement, as well as sales during that period. This time, while we knew the 40 gig was coming, the drop on the 80 gig was uncertain until the announcement came.
It's possible that the sales preserved by keeping the lid on the announcement until the last minute canceled out the sales lost by catching retailers off-guard and delaying the extra advertising. After all, even if they didn't get the drop into this flier, it'll be in the next one...
Still wanna know about whether or not 60's are 400.......
Officially, they're still $500. Just about all the stores that still have them are selling them for $450, though.
