Rumor: $399 PS3 On The Way

hpman247

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
This would not surprise me. The compatibility chips were never released to the EU market, and are supposedly not in the 80GB version being released to the US either. Software emulation covers most PS2 games.

If they were to take the old 20GB model and drop the compatibility chips, maybe they could hit the 399 price point without a significant $$ loss.
 
Id almost be will to get another 1 at that price,
ive never used my card reader in ps3
alli would do is buy a larger hdd after purchase of 399 ps3
for folding alone and then game potential plus br
no brainer!
 
I doubt this is true but you never know. I might get one since I don't have any PS2 games.
 
It was origninally reported on Game Informer:

PS3 Price Drop: They say that a $399 40gig version is on the way, but it will have no backwards compatibility. They actually expected to hear the announcement at E3 on it. So they may have just heard different rumblings altogether.

It would be backwards compatible, because as Mike said, Sony is using software emulation on all new units. So all it would need would be a little hard drive space.
 
It was origninally reported on Game Informer:

PS3 Price Drop: They say that a $399 40gig version is on the way, but it will have no backwards compatibility. They actually expected to hear the announcement at E3 on it.

Sony probably thought they could not unload all the 60s if they announce a 399 one.
 
I highly doubt this mainly because of 2 reasons..

1. 40GB hard drives aren't worth the price of manufacturing or cost almost as much as a 60gb drive to manufacture. Can you even find 40GB drives anymore other than Ebay?

and

2. Kaz Hirai said "single $599 SKU in North America. Majority of the conusmers don't like Multi-SKU items. Which was the reason they gave when the pulled the 20GB PS3.

As much as I doubt this. I will give it a 10% chance of it happening considering all the Sony shenanigans lately.
 
The number one reason for releasing a $399 console:

Step up BluRay sales and be able to right off the loss under the game division of Sony. Huge corporations are always looking for ways to play the money game.
 
I don't think it's a terrible idea. Including the PS2 chipset is a waste of money. The software emulation should work just fine (but I'm curious to know if they are actually saving money this way since they will have to get coders to write individual code for a massive library of games). Who wants to pay for the PS2 chips when most people interested in the PS3 already have one?

40GB HD's?
Western Digital 40GB 7200 8MB ATA-100 EIDE OEM Hard Drive WD400JB at TigerDirect.com
Major Brand 40GB Ultra ATA133 7200rpm 2MB (Major Brand 40GBWL) : Etech4sale.com
Fujitsu 40GB Hard Drive 50PK ( MHT2040AT-50PK ) - Storage
WD Computers - Caviar 40GB Hard Drive - WD400BB
WD Caviar SE 40 GB EIDE Hard Drives ( WD400JB )

Need more? And if Sony was able to find 20GB HD's, why wouldn't they be able to get 40GB HD's? I'm not saying this proves they will release a 40GB model, but that doesn't seem to be a determining factor.
 
40GB HD's?
Western Digital 40GB 7200 8MB ATA-100 EIDE OEM Hard Drive WD400JB at TigerDirect.com Not a 2.5" Drive
Major Brand 40GB Ultra ATA133 7200rpm 2MB (Major Brand 40GBWL) : Etech4sale.comNot a 2.5" drive
Fujitsu 40GB Hard Drive 50PK ( MHT2040AT-50PK ) - StorageIs 2.5 in but speed is horrendously slow. Which is probably why they are selling it in bulk so they can dump them onto some poor unsuspecting customer. AND its not a SATA drive. You CAN get an adapter but then the drive probably wont fit into the PS3.
WD Computers - Caviar 40GB Hard Drive - WD400BBNot a 2.5" drive
WD Caviar SE 40 GB EIDE Hard Drives ( WD400JB )Not a 2.5" drive

Couple specs you need to find next time... need a 2.5" laptop drive, AND it has to be a SATA drive. According to price grabber. The smallest 2.5" SATA Drive is a 40GB Toshiba for around $44. but the Seagate 80Gb is $2 CHEAPER. Both drives cost about the same price to manufacture, why bother with the smaller one at the same price? See how things don't add up with Sony. I THINK they have an excess surplus of older drives from their Vaio line of Laptops and need to get rid of them.

Drives less than 80GB cost about the same to manufacture as a 40 or 60GB drive Since 80GB is the most commonly used drive on laptops now, they hard drive manufacturers are set up to produce the 80GB drive. This is probably the reason why they are dumping the 60GB drives. I still think the hard drive still has to be a determing factor. Do you honestly think a hard drive manufacturer is going stop production on their most common sized hard drive to make a custom batch for Sony? That will just drive up the price on the console instead.
 
I don't see why they need such a big HD in the first place. Are the page-file sizes large? I wouldn't be interested in doing big downloads to the PS3. If they could even make a version that uses a couple of gigs of flash memory, i'd be happy. The large HD is such a wasted spec, at least for me.
 
The problem sony has is how to differentiate different models. If they want one at 599, how do they sell a 399 model at the same time? Most people would just buy the 399 and the 599 one would rot on the shelves. That is probably why they did away with the 20gb version.

The 20gb without wireless controllers was an easy sell, but the unit costs were about the same as the 60gb one so Sony just took a bigger loss on the unit. There was probably $20 in difference between the units in build costs, but $100 in price, so Sony essentially just loses $80 more selling it.

If they come out with a $399 version how are they going to cripple it enough to save on manufacturing costs to the point where they at least lose no more money than the $599 cost? Saving $5 on the disk, $15 to cut wireless, $10 on the game not being included is $30, a very long ways away from the $200 difference in price.

The best thing Sony could probably do is introduce the 80 gb model for $499. Or start it at $599 and as soon as all the 60s are gone, make it $499. The same problem exists, how do you convince people to buy the 60 if the 80 is the same price? Most people do not know backward compatibility is reduced...

If by Christmas they had a $499 80, and they perhaps they could do a $399 non wireless, smaller drive, and no game for $399 and just eat the $70 as a marketing ploy. People would still be tempted to get the $499 one, after all they see the game being worth $50, so $50 more for wireless and the bigger drive is probably easier to swollow.
 
They are cutting the processing chip for backwards compatibility so that will make it cheaper.
 
All PS3s are backwards compatible with software. So when you download the upgrades one that you will get is the upgrade for software supported compatiblity.

That aside, I seriously doubt that we will see a $399 PS3 this year especially since the $499 60 GBis selling like hot cakes and is sold out at most retailers less than two weeks after the price drop. I think that for XMAS we will see the 80GB model reduced to $499. Maybe by summer of '08 will we see the PS3 at $399.
 
I'd much rather have the hardware than deal with software emulation.
 
"Most people would just buy the 399 and the 599 one would rot on the shelves. That is probably why they did away with the 20gb version."

The 20GB version went away because very few people bought it. The savings just weren't worth it. Attitude seemed to be, pay a little more, get a lot more.
 
"Most people would just buy the 399 and the 599 one would rot on the shelves. That is probably why they did away with the 20gb version."

The 20GB version went away because very few people bought it. The savings just weren't worth it. Attitude seemed to be, pay a little more, get a lot more.

If you look back at the time frame, the 20GB unit was discontinued before Sony had caught up with demand. How can Sony claim the 20GB unit had little demand when they discontinued it before they caught up with PS3 demand in general? Sony lost a lot more money on the 20GB unit, so if you have a shortage of product why produce one that loses more money? It was nice and convient to drop the 20 GB BEFORE supply caught up with demand on the 60GB unit.
 
There always seemed to be a supply of PS3s around here in Feb/March and it was after that they discontinued the 20GB model. I am sure they could tell by the reorder amounts which systems were selling.
 
If you look back at the time frame, the 20GB unit was discontinued before Sony had caught up with demand. How can Sony claim the 20GB unit had little demand when they discontinued it before they caught up with PS3 demand in general? Sony lost a lot more money on the 20GB unit, so if you have a shortage of product why produce one that loses more money? It was nice and convient to drop the 20 GB BEFORE supply caught up with demand on the 60GB unit.

Caught UP???? I don't think so. There were PS3's on the shelves of all 3 walmarts around me 2 months after release.
 

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