How much will it affect it?!

NONE!! SINCE THERE WON'T BE ANY!!!... THAT HAS BEEN STATED BY SONE PRESIDENT ABOUT 2-3 DAYS BEFORE!

And if they were to drop it by 100... That might give em an edge of like a few k a few weeks!

But then... Everything'd go back to normal! Since 500$ is just WAY TOO MUCH, STILL!

With the price drop, PS3 will probably get a chance to surpass X360 in Europe by the end of 2008, and given the lead over 360 in Japan, this may translate into global lead over 360 (by the 2008 end), but things in America need a lot more to do.

So yes PS3 can outsell 360 in overall sales within 2 years but is it good news for Sony? Lets not quickly forget that PS3 is much more expensive to manufacture and every single PS3 sold is a loss for Sony, and they have to suck in another $100 that eats up any chances of making profit out of the console. Its not a "sell the maximum amount of units" game but a "earn the maximum amount of profits" one.

Lets just hope that we can soon buy X360 Premium at $300 (and hopefully European prices will drop down to American levels, bloody good lord!)

i would have to agree.. the only way i see it backfiring is if there is no price cut... with all the news of a price cut everyone will expect it...

I gotta wonder, why do people keep bringing up the 20GB model when talking about this price drop? That model was seen as inferior by unkowledgable consumers and wasn't bought for that reason alone. It wasn't the price, it was the fact that it was overshadowed by another model.

Really, are you going to try to tell me that the 360 isn't going to sell better at $300 simply because the Core system has done poorly at that price? Don't be ridiculous, you make yourself look like an idiot when you say something won't happen just because a different product didn't work in that situation.

This cut comes at the same % as the PSP cut, and that spurred sales along quite nicely. With a large number of games coming out soon (something that the PS3 hasn't even had yet), the system is going to pick up sales and not let them go. There's not going to be some silly 2 week boost then back to business as usual. Anyone who thinks that has no clue about this business. It's the games that sell a console, and there just haven't been any games to sell it lately which is why the sales keep slipping.

Being realistic, the biggest push of the price cut won't even come until it has been in effect for a couple of weeks, and with the games finally coming just a couple weeks later than that we will see a permanent swing upwards. If the price cut is matched by one in Europe of similar proportions Sony will be matching MS's WW sales.

As far as freedquaker's postulations about what that'd cost Sony all I can say is that it's been repeatedly reported that technological advancements have already been developed to reduce the cost of the console. Let alone the fact that consoles are naturally less expensive to produce when you've made more of them, Sony has made large developments on BR diodes and Cell chips as well as eliminated the EE in some models. If the PS1 could sustain a $100 cut after 9 months and the PS2 could do the same after 18 when both launched at $200 less than they cost to make (just like the PS3) then the PS3 can handle the cut as well. Or better.

 Seriously, I can't believe I saw a comment about that. 

With the XBox 360 core you have to spend an additional $50 to be able to play videogames and if you have any desire to download videos or games you have to spend the additional $100 anyways; essentially the 360 core model is truely gimped. The 20GB PS3 has no gaming limitations so was a much more valid SKU ...

If you want I'll bring up the Priemium XBox 360 then. Even in America sales for the XBox 360 have not been particularly good this year:

Three Week Floating Average:

Percentage change in three week floating average: 

Average percentage change in three week floating average: -2%

The market can not support a $400 system for very long, why would you expect reasonable sales on a $500 system?

 What about the fact that the 20gig is really just in North America and Japan? It's the 60gig everywhere else (except for Korea). 

Will increase sales for sure, add some good stream of software and its marketing.  Sales could double to 150k or as high as 200k a month.

july 12 Ncca Football
july 23 Nascar
Aug 6 Stranglehold
Aug 14 Lair
Aug 12 Madden
Aug 21 GRAW
Aug 28 Gundam
Aug 28 Warhawk

It wont be just a price cut.

Read my post a little more carefully.  I said that unknowledgable customers saw the 20GB as being inferior.  Those customers, regardless of what you choose to believe, make up the vast majority of the PlayStation's userbase.  So, essentially, while consumers may have been wrong they saw the 20GB as being just as gimpy as the Core.

And you can't compare MS sales to Sony sales.  That simply isn't how the video game industry works.  The Wii at $400 would be trouncing the 360 still.  Consumers don't just see a price tag when they see a product, they also see the value it brings.  Most gamers see more value in a Sony console than a MS console, and if the score was $400 to $300 Sony would be winning with the higher pricetag. Brand loyalty is a bit stronger than you're giving it credit for.  Sony still commads the most brand loyalty in gaming.  All they need is a competitive pricetag to entice their players back. 

MS, on the otherhand, has already enticed half of their fans back and seek to expand on what they've had.  They couldn't do that at the same price as the competition and are having a hard time of it at a noticably better price.  They've gone to the $400 well and it's running dry because they, as I said, have already brought back almost half of the old fans.  When Sony finally reaches that price-point (probably Q1 next year, Q4 this year if they can't muster m/any weeks where they outsell the 360) they will have a whole hell of a lot more left in the well to pull up.  They'd have more at $300 or any other pricetag you name.  Really, the fact that on a WW scale the 360 can't sell 50% better than the PS3 that costs 50% more is telling.

ChichiriMuyo has a point on reducing the cost after mass production and technological improvements (I am myself a macroeconomics major), but PS3 couldnt sell enough sales to enough push the costs down.

I believe the price discount can be more than leveraged by the technological improvements (especially regarding Bluray), but given the fact that Sony was losing a huge amount of money wiped out any chance of not incuring losses in a near future, so PS3 probably will never be profitable in terms of console unit sold.

I reckon the cost was about $850 and it is probably down to $700 nowadays, and a $100 discount put Sony back to its original situation. Please guys, dont tell me that this high cost was a just a speculation. Which bloody company would go with such a high pricing strategy that would make their beloved consoles sell so poorly unless the costs are very high. Sony executives kept denying a future price drop untill the very last minute cos it was a hard decision to make due to ongoing high costs/losses.