any price drop will increase sales, but me personally think that sony needs to package the 80GB with a different game already and that should raise sales, cause not everyone wants motorstorm

I think leo you should start playin with your PS3 instead of worryng about what may happen with its price.
Can you enjoy it? Or do you need it to be the market leader to start playin....?

Drop it it $100 for 1 week... liquidate the inventory..... make the money back on movies and games and HDTVs (it is SONY) over time. Just get the machine in the homes. Even the casuals would buy it at that limited time price. Then LBP hits and wala......

1. The production costs for Blu-Ray are really low now, so this pricecut could once and for all finish HD-DVD
2. The userbase would grow extremely fast and Exclusives would rise once again in Sonys' favor
3. This would result in a great demand for PS3's -> PS3 DOMINATION!

@fabledgamer, Guess how many Sony is going to make on Blu-ray discs? =))

I found this thread kind of senseless.
The Xbox 360 is not that much expensive than a Wii and it offers almost everything PS3 has to offer, but is not selling well nowadays.
Also Blu-ray is not that killer app that some people here thinks.
People buy videogame consoles for playing, not watching movies. If you want a movie you buy a Blu Ray player not a PS3, even if the PS3 is the cheapest player.
Afeter all, the Wii does not even play DVD and nobody has complained, at least for its sales.

I like how people state that it wont happen in 08 as fact. Anything to back that up? I have quotes that hint towards it being true. One thing is for sure, if Xbox360 drops price then the PS3 needs to counter or it will be in trouble again.

Consumer price range says yes.
Huge cut in manufacturing costs says yes.
Sony execs said 299 is "ideal price point."

Kaz said they are working and researching ways to further bring down costs the week of pricecuts. He was referring to future price cuts when he said that.

Howard Stringer mentioned that the PS3 "comes down in costs every year."

Also, even if they did drop price to $299, recent development costs would still mean the PS3 would lose LESS than they did initally at launch. And who knows how much the most costly component, Blu-ray diode, will drop due to Blu-rays recent format victory.

All signs say its possible, would be a good idea, and they wouldnt really be losing any amount of money that couldnt be made back through the huge software boosts that would occur afterwards.

I think sony should have a 1 week price, were ps3 is $299.99 for a whole week, that would actually sell out.

If the production cost of Blu-Ray players is so low why are Blu-Ray players more expensive than a PS3?

On top of that how much does Sony make on Blu-Ray discs? Being that they share the format with several companies, and the royalties per disc are probably only a dollar or two, I wouldn't imagine it would be that much money ...

I figured i'd do some math to see what is neccessary for the PS3 to get 30% marketshare.

Right now with just others data in for this week we have:

The Wii at 20.03 (43.7%)
The 360 at 16.51 (36.0%)
The PS3 at 9.29 (20.3%)

Now let's look at the most unlikely yet best case scenario for the PS3.  The Wii and the 360 sell 0 units from here on out and remain at a combined total of 36.54 million.  For 36.54 million to be 70% of the market the entire market would have to comprise of 52.2 million meaning the PS3 would have to get to 15.66 million WW.  That's only selling 6.37 million more than what they have right now.  Seems easy enough to accomplish this year right?

Well unfortunately the best case scenario (wii and 360 selling 0 units) is not going to happen.  Forgive me for throwing in an outlandish John Lucas style prediction here but I'm feeling a little bold and predict that both the 360 and the Wii will continue to sell positive units in 08.  Yes crazy I know!  If we conservatively estimate that the 360 sells 5 million this year and the Wii only sells 10 million or some such combination where they sell 15 million, both significant drops by the way since they sold 8 and 16 million last year, then we end up at Wii and 360 market share at 51.54 million.  At that point for the PS3 to get 30% marketshare it would need to get to 22.08 million which is still only a little over 12.8 million units for 08 alone.  A definite improvement compared to their 7.5 million last year but doable and some seem to predict it will happen.

Basically it boils down to whether or not you think such a drastic change in sales can happen.  However it seems quite unlikely to me at least that the PS3 would go from last to just selling 2 million less than the combined sales of 360 + Wii in one year so your best bet for 30% market share isn't till some time later in 2009.

PS3 has AAA games? Are they fun and apply to everyone (consumer) and their needs? Are they enough fun for people to gather and have a good time? The games out on the market now don't really apply to everyone, only a niche group; hardcore. Casuals have always been here on the market, it's just that the heavy-hitting, 'godly' games such as Gears of War, Halo, BioShock (I'm not a X360 fanboy, just pointing out the most popular games) make the hardcore seem as a niche and the casual as a stereotype. Super Smash Bros. for the N64 broke this boundary; people thought the game was going to be 'meh' and a casual game. But as soon as people looked at the depth of multiplayer on it, people became hardcore gamers by playing those games.

Yeah, THAT'S RIGHT. In time, casual gamers will EVENTUALLY become hardcore gamers, because gaming is addictive and they want more. The hardcore gamers we see today were ORIGINALLY casuals to begin with. It's the rush and adrenaline that made the casual to become a hardcore gamer. And YES, the people who play Wii Sports will want more games like that to play, making them HARDCORE GAMERS.

On topic, the price-points aren't the crucial factor in terms of what they sell. Everyone knows it's the software, Leo-j. People want games that are fun and on a system that's affordable. Also a company that has a friendly image and how their product is advertised (I'm looking at the Wii here) drives sales as well. People don't want a system with raw power in terms of something that can paint a pretty picture; Lair showed this as it had painted a pretty picture, but lacked depth.

Just because a game or a system is hyped doesn't mean it's appealing to everyone. I usually look online for reviews for a game before I purchase. Yeah, I know that sounds lame. Even if some games get a lame score or ranking, I rent them to try it out. You actually have to HEAR or SEE for yourself how a game is played before you think it's the BEST THING EVER.