What I mean is... well, I don't really know how to be more clear. It's a marketing thing: dropping the price is as much about changing the PS3's image as it is about making it more affordable. If you drop it now, you generate some hype, but you also get a whole pile of people going "Ok, now it's a $500 paperweight instead of a $600 paperweight." And what hype there is dissipates quickly as people realize that $500 is still a hell of a lot of money. When the games start to hit, the fact that there was ever a price drop will be forgotten.

On the other hand, if you drop it at the same time as your AAA titles hit, people don't get a chance to complain that it's too expensive or that there's no games. They get a whole bunch of good news all at once, and the PS3's image turns around overnight.

I really don't mean to be negative. If they adjust the price properly in Canada according to the current exchange rate, this might even be enough to get me to buy (by the end of the year). And, if they really thought they had no option, doing it at E3 (presumably in the midst of some other good news) was probably their second best choice. I just don't think it was the best choice.

I was expecting this soon after they dropped the cost of the Blu-ray. I expect M$ to do $250/350/400 after this. I'll see if I can return my console at Target and rebuy the exact same one... lol.

As long as M$ are both duking it out, the better it is for me as a gamer/consumer.

I don't think Ninty will lower its price - doesn't need to. But if the Core and Wii are the same price, then something seems wrong.

I agree, ckmlb. It's the exact same strategy: price the console aggressively to move as many units as possible, selling at a loss again and again. I do think it will help somewhat in moving more consoles; the question is simply how large the effect proves to be. I just think that Sony is setting itself up to follow the financial trajectory of the XBox as well: sell a goodly number of units, at the cost of bleeding out money from the ears. But the situation for them has not been good, so I guess they may as well play their remaining card and see how things shake out.

I can't wait for the next quarterly earnings report from Sony, to see how they crunch their own numbers over this price cut. Does anyone know when that will be?

What a huge day for gaming news, a PS3 price cut and Microsoft 360 warranted announced at the same time! With the latter plan said to cost more than a billion dollars, and the PS3 price cut almost certainly running into the hundreds of millions, these companies are playing hardball. I just wonder if anyone other than Nintendo will end up making ANY profit this generation, drowning in these seas of red ink...

Yeah, you know, on November 17th in the USA, the PS3 launched at 500$. And now there's a price cut, drumroll...

 New price: 500$.

 They should have price cuts like these EVERY DAY!

 Seb Loisel

At this point, I suspect a PS3 price drop may be important just to keep the third-party publishers interested. The first-party titles coming up are impressive, but at retail consumers are more impressed by a solid lineup on display. So that may be a very good reason to drop the price NOW and hope to build the install base in time for the holidays -- otherwise some of the planned and anticipated titles may not actually make it to market this year (or ever.)

The drop certainly puts the PS3 more favorably in competition with the XBox 360 Elite -- having Wi-Fi and HDMI built-in makes this a fine and more cost-effective alternative for me personally, 120 GB of HD space doesn't mean as much to me as not having to spend $100 to get online wirelessly.

Why must you destroy my dreams? I want...I NEED some excitement again, the summer is soooooo boring. 

It's better than desperate fanboys trying to kill the hope ;)

Such a significant price-cut so early in a console's life is never, ever a good sign.

Where the PS3 will still be more profitable than the xbox even if Sony follows the same strategy is that it is also a Blu Ray player, and they are getting more people to buy Blu Rays which is money to Sony.

Also, Sony first party is a lot better than MS so they will make more money off game sales than MS did last gen. 

So overall, the PS3 will be in a better place because of those two factors. This is if PS3 ends up in 3rd and doesn't pick up too significantly. 

Gamecube and Xbox and PS1 all had price cuts sooner.