Especially considering that Sony has already denied that a $299.00 PS3 is forthcoming any time soon... a $249.00 PS3 in '09 is beyond fantasy.

Sony BRAND is everything.

Sony can sell 10 million consoles at launch by BRAND name alone.

People would get a second job only to be able to buy a Playstation even if it cost $599.

Sorry too burst your bubble but i think you're a bit too optimistic.

Brand, yest Sony's brand is one of the factors why PS3 is keep selling, but Playstation brand  currently is nothing like Playstation during previous gens, when it was considered in many countries to be a brand defining any sort of console, it was desired  by every non gamer and gamer as a ultimate gaming machine, now Wii and 360 have successfuly stolen this demand from Playstation, and Wii have replaced is as a phenomena.

1st party Games, yest maybe they have more 1st party games coming than Microsoft, yet Microsoft console does sell much more software, and usually the multiplat version of games do sell significantly better then on the 360, and you cannot ignore excellent Nintendo first party studios that produce excellent games every year that sell like monsters (Wii Music, Wii Fit, MKWii, AC have all moved hardware)

Price, we wont see 249$ PS3 for a long time, and publci percievied value wont change since by the time that price rolls around 360 will be even cheaper, and stand alone blu ray players should hit a good price point. If 299$ PS3 has any sort of impact it can be easily countered by Nintendo , 199$ Wii would start selling even more (just like when PS2 was cut to that price)  and MS can cut prices of Elite/Pro models.

I think this holiday season have shown that PS3 will be stuck in a 3rd place, it's still getting good games so people shouldn't be to worried anyway.

You dont understand my point. If management feels pressure to turn the development costs of a game into some sort of revenue they may decide to cut features and stop smoothing out rough edges of a game to release and get some short term benefit via sales rather than continue on a game.  Bring in some revenue and development team moves to next game.

There is no such thing as brand equity, just ask Nintendo and Atari

the brand name is very powerfull and is really helping sony right now.

This. Without that strong brand, they might be in fourth place right now.

of course they will deny it, just like how they denied a price cut 2 days before it happened. if people knew about a price cut they will lose alot of sales!

its the brand name that will help sony get through easily even with the high price and the economy.