Why does everyone keep ignoring that the PS3 just received a new model at a drastically reduced price two weeks ago?

If it keeps up through December, it's a trend. Right now it's a spike, nothing more. Any system gets a kick in the shorts for a few weeks after having $100 lopped off the MSRP.

Seriously. The PS3 did a lot better compared to the 360 after it's first price cut, or does everyone have selective memory now? If you're capable of recalling, the PS3 nearly outsold the 360 in North America that month -- they only fell a few thousand short. Now they have another price cut for the same amount and they aren't going to be close to the 360 in the US, and it's somehow amazing?

Sony outsold the 360 worldwide in July, too. Then they flamed out in August and everyone recalls what happened for the months after that. People might want to temper their insane fanboyism until after a couple months have levelled out the effects of the price cut, just as it did last time.

The price cuts did come at a terrific time for Sony as well as MS. Don't forget that in the previous month before Sony released its 400$ version, Microsoft released their price cuts. Price cuts and deals can be found everywhere, except on the Wii (even the DS-lite has a deal where for $150 you get the DS-lite and a game, saving you $5 or $10).

People are impatient. Wait a few months. See how the holidays pan out, see how sales continue after the holidays. See if Nintendo can manage enough supply to get the Wii in stock in North America sometime in 2008. The holiday season may determine the pecking order this generation, but it won't be until months after the holiday season that we'll be able to accurately analyze it. And most people here will already have their opinions formed about how it went even before it passes.

 Improbable. Microsoft is in a quiet good condition right now, because you can sell games on this plattform and earn money. That's what really pushes the gaming industry. And at the same time they earn money.  They would probably be in a good position to lower their prices, but such a move would be stupid. At thze moment they simply want to earn money. Cash that they can use to pay back some of their development costs and to improve their hardware and speed up the GPU shrink. Once they have reached the smaller GPU they are in a very good position to lower their prices significantlyand still earn money.

 In the same time they were able to release their own software company, simply because they no longer need them. The position of the Xbox 360 is quite good, because every game developper is interested in this plattform. It has proven that it can earn money. And it is much easier to develop on it than to really get a good performance from the SPEs of the PS-3. It is more dificult to earn enough on the PS-3, because especially the SPEscanh be a significant risk. You can put a lot of work into the SPE Programmi9ng without any significant results. While both plattforms have their own problems  you can manage the problems on the Xbox 360 more easily, so it is a much smaller risk. On the other hand it is difficult to really use the BluRay advantage, because this is something that you can't expect on the Xbox 360 and the PC in the next few years.

On the other hand Microsoft wouldn't have any real problem to lower their HDD prices (and still earn a bit money) and games could simply demand a HDD. if it becomes a serious problem. On the other hand the performance differnce of these consoles is not really significant. Single plattform development will be rather risky, especially on the PS-3 because HD Development is expensive, while their will always be many gamers with a Xbox 360 a Wii or a PC, that would buy your game. 

If you develop it on a Xbox 360 its multicore architecture can be used as a good proving ground for the PC Version. The program structure would work fine on a PC. But it becomes rather tedious to port a game from the PS-3 to the PC. It is much easier to make this step in an earlier development stage. The finer details that are necessary for a Cell don't give the PC any advantages, while it is a good idea to keep the basic concepts on the Xbox 360 and the PC identical, because any major problem you find and fix on one plattform would probably be a good idea for the other plattform too.  

While some people talk about the attachement rate, this nis a paremeter that drops with the number of consoles.

 So I don't see why they should chnage anything right now. They can earn money and if their might be any risk that the PS-3 would take the need they can simply lower their prices  They would simply earn less money, while the PS-3 would bleed. On the other hand single plattform games are no longer a good idea in this environment. The risks in volved are higher than the profits. They can finally earn money with their console divison, without any major risks involved, because every biug hit on the Xbox 360 will earn them more cache while titles that didn't made a profit for the producer would simply earn them less money.

please: x360 and Ps3 actually are selling almost the same...in the week ending 17th march (right before EU launch) the gap was 7,113 millions and as of 17th november (last week) the gap was 7,339.

In the middle we can consider from one side 2 price drops, EU launch (almost 700k consoles in the first 2 weeks) but NO killer app and from the other side one (small) price drop and at least 2 AAA (in terms of sales) exclusives...the result so far is a tie.

Next year ther won't be any launch (yet to confirm: rumors of a "lightweight" PS3) and probably no price drop but some killer apps for Ps3 while x360 will probaly get a price drop but no real killer app..."firepower" to me is again well balanced: another tie?

Regardless of Sony price drops, 360 sales WW have never been exceedingly high, which was my point. It even failed to sell very well when it was all alone on the market for a year, which really limits the system's probability of success in the face of competition imo.

How does the price cut have a huge effect when the BC less 40gig is still more expensive than the 360? Clearly the 360 has the advantage in both price and games.

Honestly, it's probably a great move by MS to just stay low for right now and let the Holdiay sales play out. They have nothing to lose by just staying quiet. If they win the holiday, they can scream it to the world afterwards, if they don't or it's too close to brag, they don't look like fools for staying quiet. I think it's a decent move...Sony hasn't proven anything to people by leading sales for 2 weeks straight---(although I'm happy to finally see them doing well...heck, I don't think ANYBODY can argue that their situation hasn't at least "improved" over what it was before).

"""NJ5
I think you guys are throwing the fireworks before the party starts, as we say in my country. It barely outsold the 360 due to a price cut, new PS3 models and colors and the launch of DW6 in Japan. Wait a few weeks and the picture will be different. But feel free to have unrealistic expectations, you will probably regret it later.""""


HERE,
I never saied futute is perfect for the PS3.
I saied :
considering all the bad news (delay) / fact (lake of exclusivity+price) agaisnt the PS3, the sales number of the PS3 are VERY good.

Remember the 60gb is near to be sold out in europe and what we have : 100k !!
just like when the price drop 600==>500 was done and the 40gb introduced.

Even in NA, the situation is not so bad too even is the competition with the Xbox360 is a lot harder.

Sony did a price drop, Wal-Mart packed 10 free movies, a major game released in Japan, Sony advertised on the Assassin's Creed commercials, and they only came about even.

Why doesn't MS respond?  MS in trouble?  Sheesh.