I read the comment from Jumpin in THIS thread and realised that there might be a potential for this.

He might have been joking there, but to continue to sell the older consoles in "other" markets sounds interesting to me.

I will speak for China now and say that now when the console ban is officially lifted, why not re-release PS3 here? It won't be a huge market but still a market. Well, at least it's very difficult to predict exactly how big the market could be.

They could easily use markets as China, Korea and India one generation behind, and sell PS3 side-by-side with the PS4. Because of less income and more PC-oriented markets, the PS3(and other older systems) has a bigger advantage.

So why not re-release the PS3 here and more or less "start over"?

The price of the PS3 500GB model in the HK PlayStation store is now at 1 500RMB or $245. I don't find any price for the 250GB model, but I would guess the official price is 1 000RMB or $160. So let's say they would re-release the PS3 in those markets I mentioned, and also re-release the games for it, but for much less of course. They could even start with the launch titles from 2006, heck, have the whole 2006 year titles at launch. All of the launch titles like Ridge Racer 7 and Resistance 1 would cost less that $10 today. I did a search and could only find pre-owned versions, $3 for Resistance 2 and $6 for Ridge Racer 7.

They would have a huge number of games that they could sell at a retail price of $5-10 today, and make money.

And re-release the PS3 here, and why not only go with the 250GB model, and sell it for $150 at launch and then do price-drops every year. So in a few years it's down to $100, and even street bums can afford it. And if they could release the PS3 at a launch price of $100 in fall 2014, well, that would be even better.

I can mention this also. Original CS was released in 1999-2000(?) and re-released in China in 2008 as CS OL. CS:Source was released in 2004 and will be re-released in China in 2014 as CS OL2(see my sig). So this is nothing new really, when it comes to PC, and the tacics that Valve uses.

One big question though is if EA, Activision, Sega and of course Sony themselves would be interested in this. Are there really profit to be made here, and if so, is the profit enough? China, India and Korea are three markets where I think this could work. Maybe even in Russia? I don't know much about the Russian market, perhaps the new consoles sell well there. And I suppose there are even more markets in Africa etc.

hmm, India is a massive market but its not a big market for consoles. So why would Pakistan be one? In these countries its only the rich and affluent people who buy consoles. Piracy is also a huge issue in these countries.

IMO Sony should make an ULTRA slim PS3 with 500GB for $200.If they can make a PS4 that small for $399 why not the PS3?

Yeah very true. PC games that are pirated are sold here for 25-50RMB, so if they would re-release PS3 games for a price of 50-100RMB I think they could sell well. Because they would be real copies and not cost that much more really. Also, $100 for a gaming console would be very attractive, and could compete with PC rigs that would cost $200-300. Because you get a pretty good gaming PC for that price here, especially a Chinese brand PC.

You mean for the "other" markets that I spoke of or in the markets they are already in? If you mean in India and China for example I don't think it's a good idea. The price must go down a lot for it to be attractive, just to make it a slim won't make it attractive here.

If you remember the rumors abour the Chinese console being made, their retail price would be set at $120, which if you ask me is a good target price. This is what Sony should aim for too, with a PS3, between $100-150. The lower the better.