wow what a douche bag

Well i dont think they will keep that price that high and if they do then we can give 2009 to the 360 once again

Basically they'll be bundling games to hell and back (as they're doing already, at least around here).

Then why did they remove the BC feature from the machine?

I think this part highlights Sony's inability to make any price cuts for the short-mid term.

Given the PS3 sells in Europe for €399, even after taking away VAT you are looking at around US$460 as a direct conversion, US$550 if you include VAT, yet they are STILL making a loss even in Europe where the price is much higher compared to everywhere else.

In Australia the price for a PS3 is AUD$699 even taking away GST that's still US$430, US$475 if you include GST

Now I know Sony is based in Yen, not US$, but if that shows you that even Europe is losing money on hardware then I don't know how anyone can expect a price cut worldwide any time soon.

But the only reason they are breaking even or ekeing out a profit, based on the Euro quote you had, is software.  Adding PS2 back compat costs a small amount, but there's little upside now that there isn't that much new PS2 software running out the door.  There's buckets of cheap used PS2 software out there, which doesn't help Sony much.

If I have a choice between buying four or five old PS2 quality back catalog used games or one copy of Killzone 2, it's a tossup.  I think that's a huge reason why they don't put it back in, personally.

Id say that B/C costs more than we would guess.... part of the reason we have not seen another ps2 price drop... and why they cut it out of the ps3 first... it was too much of a drain.... they cut half of it out and emulated part... and when that wasnt enough they cut the rest of it... it had to cost  quite a bit more, because it offered true functionality enhancement for the consumer, and to remove it over wifi, in my mind means that the chip set must still be in the 55-70 dollar range.

 I think the loss wasn't purely the cost of the chip in the PS3 to enable BC. I think the biggest reason is that it made the PS3 more expensive, which meant a greater loss on each PS3 sold ON TOP OF a potential loss of sale of a profitable PS2 console.

So for arguments sake, lets say the chip cost $20 and the PS2 is making a profit of $60 per console, then not only are they guaranteed a loss of an extra $20 per console, but also quadruple that if the buying wants to play PS2 games.

I'm pretty confident that the moment the PS3 becomes reasonably profitable they will bring PS2 BC back and kill off the PS2 so that they can expand the PS3 install base quicker.

Well if they aint slashing the price...bundles ahoy!

that could be, but with the ps2 taking a year over year nose dive, why not cut the price by 20 bucks to spurr more sales. which could mean more profit with a unit that is making profit... the reason i see them not doing this is because the margine of profit on the ps2 is far lower then we have thought it was, and the little psp is actually where sony has been making the most money per hardware unit sold. which is why they have spent so much time trying to find a way to fix the piracy issue, and are going to keep it on the market longer.