greenmedic88 on 12 June 2012
$129 is wishful thinking. The PS3 will likely become a PSN+ server side cloud based service on the PS4 before that happens. Old PS3 games won't play directly in the disk drive, but they'll still be playable on the PS4 through SCE servers.
It's not the optical drive that costs more money currently; the HDD, regardless of size, is a more expensive component, and would be the real barrier in selling a HDD equipped console profitably for under $150.
PS2: no HDD. Cheap. Xbox 360 4GB: no HDD. Cheap. Wii: no HDD. Cheap.
