Non-Blu-ray PS3 on the way?

Wednesday 25-Feb-2009 9:45 AM

www.cvg.co.uk

Could lead to PS3 price cut announcement "in the next couple of days", says analyst

Sony could be about to announce a PS3 price cut "in the next couple of days", according to one analyst, who says rumours persist that the company's planning to introduce a non-Blu-ray PS3 to the market.

"Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days," said Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey on Tuesday.

"We think the company needs to reduce the current price by $100 to effectively restart unit velocity at retail. ... We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June (E3) at the latest," he continued, according to Edge.

Perhaps most interestingly, Hickey suggested a PS3 price cut could be enabled by the introduction of a non-Blu-ray version of the console.

"We are also hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console, which could enable them to make the aforementioned hardware price reduction," he said.

With all current PS3 retail releases on high-capacity Blu-ray discs, the move would seem a strange one bound to confuse consumers and developers alike. It doesn't seem to make much sense to us at all.

Sony has already sold 21 million Blu-ray enabled PS3s, while one research firm expects Blu-ray sales to top 100 million units in 2009.

A Sony UK representative told us this morning that the company doesn't comment on "rumour and speculation".

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i call BS on a non-bluray ps3 as its senseless.

i do however belive that a price cut might be announced soon mabey end of FY. my best bet would be E3 to show off a vastly reduced version of a ps3, whilst still keeping a premium model at the current price. a 2 tier sales model.

Games are on Blu-Ray disc...

If so what will it have dvd only.

PLAYSTATION 3.60 W00T! lmao

How would that work! All ps3 game discs are blu-ray. What a load of crap.

How does this work? If games are on blu-ray disc, and this PS3 does not have blu-ray functionality. Then what is it good for?

I honestly do not believe a single word of that article. It doesn't make sense, if they remove backwards compatibility from the PS3, then remove the functionality of Blu-ray from the PS3. What's left of it? A pretty-shelf ornament for Xbox 360 fan boy's to buy just to stick next to their 360's and pretend they have a PS3? No, If sony needs to cut costs on hardware to reduce the price of the PS3. Removing Blu-ray is not the logical answer.

Seriously, couldn't they come up with a better idea to, excuse my french but bullshit us with? Infact, I'll think of one right now. Remove Wi-Fi? A minor change that could easily shave off a couple bucks off the sticker price. I'm pretty sure no one would mind having to run a eternet cable to their PS3 anyway.

This rumour has been made before and we all know this rumour is false. PS3 would not be able to play PS3 games without a Blu-Ray player. The PS3 games are on Blu-Ray game discs.
There is a PS console already out on the market that is non-Blu Ray and it is in its 9th year of its life. It is called PS2 and is retailing for one quarter the price of PS3 and it plays PS2 and PS1 games but it does not play PS3 games.

I guess they can have a ps3 that downloads games on the hard drive but most people wouldn't understand that and will get home and find out No blu-Ray drive...

Of Sony would have to figure some sort of software Emulation for the non Blu-Ray Player to play the games....

They could make it a "PlayStation Downloadable" (PSD), and put full backwards compatibility back in, take out the Blu-ray drive, and include a 100GB hard drive and $50 PSN card. But otherwise, no way.