BTW, the bolded part is completely incorrect.

That is simply the cost of a devkit - and its only Sony that had such a ridiculous price on a PS3 devkit (Wii kits start from $2k). 

This would be a good thing by Sony, and I think perceived as a proactive move on the heels of Blu-Ray's recent wins. This is the point at which Blu-Ray stops being a noose around the PS3's neck, and becomes a key differentiator vs. the XBox360.

A $300 PS3 is a great deal almost as much as a $99 HDDVD player. Microsoft can come out with a Blu-Ray atttachment drive, but the total cost of ownership will be in Sony's favor.

Sony sacrificed the PS3 (at least out of the gate) in a big gamble to push Blu-Ray, and now it seems it will actually pay off. If they are going to really try to build enough momentum to catch up to Microsoft, they need to strike while the iron is hot, and with all the Blu-Ray talk recently, the iron is now hot.

I know the games matter the most, but in terms of general marketing and holiday consumers, a $300 Blu-Ray playing PS3 is gonna be big. Until a couple of months ago the PS3 is probably the last next gen console I would buy, but now it is likely neck-and-neck with the Wii for me personally.

Everybody has sales projections and this site has great sales data, but the biggest key factor for PS3 was Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, and it was impossible to predict if and when that battle would dramatically shift one way or the other. HD-DVD shot their wad with the $99 players, but it was not enough to even up disk movie sales vs. the PS3 owner base.

If there's a similar cut in Europe and a backwards compatible sku I may well bite the bullet.

Seems a bit of an obscure time to hit people with a price cut...when do sales kick back up again after the holiday period?

Wow, I didn't it'd could this early. I thought it would come .... but this quickly.

I highly doubt this would happen anytime soon. I expected at best a $50 price cut around MGS4's release or over the Summer, but $100 now? It makes no sense. The ps3 has only recently finally started selling well, and the system needs some stability to stay all the confusion out there regarding SKUs. I figured they'd leave it at $399 for quite some time, until they either start making a good profit on each system the sell, or else the 360 starts outselling it again by a good margin.

If Sony drops the price by another $100 in the next few months, my only conclusion could be that they want to be #1 again, and that they are now taking on the Wii. It's the only thing that could warrant such an insane move.

Of course, there's also this little conspiracy theory: they've worked out a deal with Universal and Paramount stipulating that they'll star releasing on Blu immediately if Sony drops the price of the ps3 even further. It would be a roundabout payoff, helping increase Blu-Ray's market faster ensuring more sales for the two studios, while also helping Sony win the console war. This could have also been a stipulation in any contracts they made with Warner. It would've been far cheaper than throwing $500 million their way.

I imagine someone may [should] have already said this but Wii = $250 yet is £180 If PS3 was $300 then it would probsbly be £210-£220 here.

How crediable is this source?  When did Sony announce the reduction in cost from $800 to $400! wasn't this an external consultant!!.

Got to be someone trying to create hype, im sorry but i dont believe it

 just curious, isn't the 80 gig in europe backwards compatible? it may use software emulation, but it still has over 80 % compatibility with ps2 games (at least in america it does).

or do they not have the 80 gig in europe? 

As a sony fan yeah this is great news but should i believe that website? As for that receipt shown that could be any 299 item, hence the red barcode. If sony did that then i could see them possibly catching MS by mid march of 09.