If they did actually do this, they would lost billions, and I still don't think it would put them ahead for the holidays. The 360 is riding it's current hype wave with Halo 3, and I doubt microsoft is going to let us forget that it exists come christmas shopping season. If anything they will drop their price and make a halo 3 bundle. The wii is still the wii and will have 2 huge titles strategically placed right when shopping kicks off, with drastically increased supply, suddenly people will be able to get wii's at will rather than hunting for the last one in some hobomart in a haunted ghost town. The PS3 will only have what it should have had from launch, a less than outrageous price point. Ratchet is no Halo, and bioshock, or Mario and Smash Bros. The bundle and price drop will move systems, but not enough of them to outdo the other two platforms in the US. That's my prediction.

It's a desperate move that ultimately I think is going to hurt them financially, and have little effect on them being in 3rd place.

I bought a 500gb external hard-drive for around 140 dollars (115 euro) at retail in europe, so i can't imagine that 40 gigs is anywhere near a 200 dollar price drop. If it does come out, it will mean more looses for sony but could be the only thing that saves them this christmas. I think hard-drive space is an awful lot cheaper than people imagine.

Also 40gigs or 80gigs or even 120gigs is absolutely pennys in terms of hard-drive space when I consider hard-drives for pc's. They need to think of somehow incorperating external hard-drives which would make a lot of sense, if they could stop piracy of games.

Why are people so fixated on the $399 price tag? Has there been ANY proof of this at all?

If the 80Gig bundle (80Gig PS3 + game) retails for $599 - and they have phased the 60Gig $499 bundle out - why couldn't this be a replacement for the $499 bundle?

40Gig PS3 + Spiderman (BluRay) for $499?

...

The value points make a LOT more sense to me then. Remember that Sony NEVER officially dropped the price from $599 to $499 - so why would they officially drop it from $599 to $399? Just doesn't make any sense at all.

I can't believe they can afford to lose *another* $100 * 3m (units) --> $300m over the holidays --> easy money.

We may see another price cut into early '08 (post-Xmas), but not now.

How do we know its going to be $399?

Its basically confirmed now that there is a new SKU with a few changes like less USB Ports, but with the main design intact. People are ASSUMING that the HDs included in it will be 40Gb.

However that said, how do we know its going to be $399 with a game? Whats to say Sony won't bring it in at $499 with the game and keep the 80Gb Motorstorm bundle at $599?

I do think Sony will try and bring it in at $399, but this could end up costing them some major dough, since I doubt the cost of the machines has come down more then $200 since launch even with the removal of several features and the emotion engine.

Its a smart move by Sony though, if they do launch at $399. A price like that will make them competitive this Holiday season, but at the same time it makes it unlikely that Microsoft will drop their prices (so Sony won't have to worry about being undercut).

So with this new SKU it looks like we'll see,

PS3 ($499 & $399)
Xbox ($449 & $349 & $279)
Wii ($249)

All the companies would like an arragement like that, since its fairly "stable". Expect a lot of pack-ins and promotions, but no price drops aside from the PS3.

"And plus you would have alot of angry customers that just bought an 80 gig PS3 for 200 dollars more"

==> quote for .... senseless.

who cares of the guy that bought the console 6-8 months ago ?
nobody ?

Generally, when you buy a console 600$/euros, you know what you do and WHY you do it.

And iphone was only 1-2 months old !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you cannot compare it to the PS3.

 EDIT : I completely agree that 399$ is really really really lower than expected for a first ""real"" price drop.*
will see.

If there is a $399.99 ps3 then it will surge in sales. Like a rocket.

How much per unit of hardware is sony going to actually lose here if the price is indeed $399? Wouldn't they lose $100 per console sold? Assuming if this does come out I would expect to see 2 million of this version to be sold from then through christmas. Thats only a 200 million dollar loss. Sony has been making money off their 80 gb sku. Seems that they are content by being close to even.

@libellule

thanl you for adding sense to this thread...

When you BUY something for £425, $600, whatever Euros

yOU HAVE A HUGE REASON!!

+ YOU know BUYING a console on launch HAS ITS DISADVANTAGES

so you have youself to blame

If this happens, Microsoft will have another price cut for sure:

- the Core will be $250 at most
- the Premium will be $320 at most
- the Elite will be $420 at most

 If they did say bye to xbox making a profit any time soon, a decade of loss's doe snot sound good.