Um you are going to see ps3 prices go back up in Canada, same with Wii. 599 console was 699 (Launch). Wii was an extra 20 bucks I think.

Well I imagine that the cost of production remains the same as was originally contracted, as well as their sales to the retailers/distributors. I could be wrong but I am unsure that this would necessarilly affect that.

well all i can say is that retail stores better not think about raising prices on anything anytime soon...they gouged us for far too long.

@Commando
You are right. One thing to consider though is that if they keep the units in Japan (and manage to sell them) instead of shipping them to Canada, they will pocket an extra 25% (plus their shipping cost, which the retailers might bear, would be greatly reduced). This has to make the Canadian market very unappealing to Sony right now or it will make them raise prices.

Basically I'm going to recommend some people I know who wete waiting for a price drop to just buy now to avoid a price hike.

Not sure about raising the price, that will rub canadians the wrong way, but they shouldn't expect HW price cuts for a while, or expect game prices to go down as fast as they used to...

Raising prices would kill console sales for whoever does it unless all three do it together.

I don't think it is in Nintendo and Microsoft's best interest to oblige Sony on this one...  Even if it puts them in money losing scenarios because Nintendo knows it hurts Microsoft and Sony the most...  And Microsoft knows it hurts Sony more...

No-one is going to raise console prices.

Canada might miss out on bundles, and they certainly wont see a price cut any time soon, but no-one would be dumb enough to raise prices

They can on software.

I doubt they will raise the cost, since it would hurt sales, but it may rule out future cuts, with the yen staying steady (usd) or gaining (almost all other monies) it does hurt them strangly, MS only makes a small gain in japan the collapse of the euro, is most likely hurting ms too with the two price drops there, but sony and N will be hurting more... the quark as some metioned they would make more money if they could move more of thme in japan, thought a shift to sales in the usa should also help with the gain of the dollar on the pound, euro, and loonie.

on the flip side, somewhere around december or january, alot of economists expect the yen to start a major slide vs the dollar, now this depends on how much shopping the us does in the winter holidays the more shopping the less the slide, no matter what happens,

next year should allow both sony and N to make strides in cuts if the yen drops, where MS will be feeling the pain pinch of a strong dollar. which if trends continue around late december early january the dollar will be worth more than the euro..... no perdictions yet on it ever being stronger than the pound.... it will be interisting to watch