Seriously? Sony is still pricing the PlayStation 3 at $400? That was fine when Blu-ray Disc players were selling for about the same price (the PS3 doubles as one), but now that you can snag a standalone player for as low as $150 (and an Xbox Arcade for $170), it's time for Sony to seriously rethink the PS3's price tag.

In the meantime, the best deal going comes from Dell: an 80GB PlayStation 3 for $339.99 shipped (plus sales tax in some states). These are new consoles, not refurbs, and you don't need the usual Dell coupon code.

At the risk of repeating myself, the PS3 is a killer gaming console, notable not just for state-of-the-art graphics and gaming but also for its aforementioned Blu-ray acumen. I'll cop to being an Xbox 360 and Wii guy myself, but some of the stuff I've seen on the PS3 just blows me away.

But even $340 is tough to swallow, especially with Xboxes and Wiis selling for so much less. I know one user who will disagree vehemently, but what about the rest of you? Is this a decent price on a PS3, or does it need to drop lower still? What's your magic number?

$340 is a great price. I got my PS3 day 1 for well over $600.

It's worth it. Why would they drop the prices when the manufacturing cost is about equal to sell value.

Walmart is giving $50 gift cards with your purchase of PS3.

My bro bought his today, didn't even know about it until he seen the sign read "PlayStation 3 80GB Console w/ Bonus $50 Gift Card" http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10858513 it says only online, but he bought his in store.

While there is no dire need yet for Sony to issue a price drop, they won't be able to compete with Microsoft this year without one eventually. Aside from the weeks of major releases such as Killzone 2+Yakuza 3, the FFVII:ACC bundle, and perhaps Resident Evil 5, I don't realistically see PS3 beating 360 in worldwide weekly sales until they issue a price-drop. Unfortunatly, it makes absolutely no sense for Sony to issue one until September at the earliest, so I predict PS3 playing second fiddle to the 360 throughout most of the year. However, I do think it's worth mentioning that the PS3 won't be doing nearly as bad against the 360 throughout the first 8 months of 2009 as the 360 did against the PS3 in the first 8 months of 2008.

Original post,
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10151585-58.html

Make it under 100€ and you got a deal. (Yeah, not going to happen soon... Or never... :P)

$200 price point for PS3 and I might consider buying one.

lol, i'm still waiting for the price of a used ps2 goes under 50 bucks so i can get that with a few games in the used bin.

i'll probably get a ps3 used in about 10 years lol.