PlayStation 3, March 2009 Price Drop Rumor
- Scribbled on November 25th, 2008 by Derrick Schommer
- Filed in Rumor Mill, Sony PlayStation 3
With so many people wishing Sony would cut the PS3 price to something more reasonable, it’s no big surprise we see constant rumors about potential “price cuts.” This time, a March 2009 rumor “supposedly” came out of the Sony Annual Briefing in London where a butt ton of information was “rumored” to be leaked.
The anonymous source is running around with a bunch of neat rumors, such as a LittleBigPlanet release on the PSP, but the one that may hit home most with gamers is price cutting. The PS3 has been around for a few years now and hasn’t budged on the price tag; they’ve had fire sales on obsolete products (smaller disk drives mainly) but no official drops.
Sony won’t comment on speculation, of course, but we’re sure they want to catch Mr. Anonymous from hiding in their meetings and giving away their information… if it is real. D+Pad published the rumor-mongers message saying the “SCEE will be getting more competitive in price from March 2009 onwards.”
Easter would be a fine time for a price cut, if the speculation is real. This upcoming holiday would have made the most sense, to consumers, but Sony apparently has no plans to reduce the price around the time their sales will be increasing anyway. As the PlayStation 3 is doing okay in PAL territories Sony is relying on them, it would seem, to kick up the numbers and show Microsoft they’re not the only second-place game in town.
The Wii continues to dominate and we’re sure a PS3 price drop won’t impact Nintendo’s sales strategy or gamers decisions on one console versus the other as a price drop wouldn’t bring it to a competitive Wii price.
What is your magic number? What price would you buy a PS3 at if you don’t own one already. For us? Drop it a bit and throw in a free LittleBigPlanet.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
$199 would be my price point. The XBOX 360 already hits that mark. It’s far more reasonable than the current $400 pricetag.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Sony cutting the PS3 to $199 with a Blu-Ray drive installed?
No. Way. In. Hell.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
$199 would be optimal for me. $299 would be reasonable IF it came with an extra controller and a decent game and remote control. What can I say, pretty soon blue ray players will be $100 dollars. It doesn’t make sense that a game console would cost 4 times that.
December 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I think for the price right now they need to add a controller and a game, otherwise $299 is totally justified.
December 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Gimme $250 out the door and I’d buy one right now. I’ve been slobbering over the system since it came out, but I also want an excellent HDTV to give me the gaming experience worth the price tag. So if I can afford a HD to go with the HD gaming system…it’s on.
December 26th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Make it the price of the middle xbox and ill get one.
December 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
$199? Are you serious? The PS3 is a very high tech piece of machinery. $199 is insane. blue ray players are $200 alone. Lots of wishful thinking in here. I would like to see $300, maybe an extra controller. I am going to buy one soon, and I will pay the $400.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Alright, look. There are only 2 viable options for Sony to compete in this horrid economy. 1.) Drop the price to $249 for 80Gb with 2 controlers, remote control, and a voucher for a game of your choice, free. 2.) Drop the price to $299.99 for 160Gb with 2 controlers, remote control, HDMI cable, and a voucher for a game of your choice, free. Look, as nice as blu-ray is, it is a technology that should have come out 2 years ago. You can get live streaming, movie theater quality movies, through netflix just like VOD with your television provider. You no longer have to buy DVD’s. And how many people are really going to upgrade all of their DVD’s to a new technology when they just bought DVD players last year and our economy is tightening up that rubber band on everones wallet. Don’t gouge the consumer with high prices. Look what is happening to the auto industry.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
However, even with the production cost drop, every PS3 still costs $450 each to produce.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I would buy one for $200-$299
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I work with electronics and took apart a broken no longer repairable PS3. Probably took the tech 30 mins to make and part cost on the US market is around $80 USD. If you ask me either the assembler make $300 and hr or thats one hell of a mark up. $199 would be optimal price for this but doesnt really matter in my case I bought it for a ton more the day it came out…
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
299.00 and a free cod world at war
January 27th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
299.99 is the price i bet we will see come march or april if the rumors are true. For those of you who hope for 199.99 you’ll be waiting for their next console. The thing i’m worried about is that if they lower the price what will be included? Is the model going to be any less better than the more expensive. What r they going to do to make this price cut happen is the real question. If they make the PS3 less desirable i’m just willing to pay the 400.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Just drop each model $100 (80GB $299, 160GB $399) and I’m there.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:01 am
I agree, if the price on each drops $100 i’d get one asap.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:44 pm
[...] has once again denied there will be a price drop for the PlayStation 3, as was rumored. With so many rumors, Sony was had no choice but to respond about the PS3 price drop. A statement [...]
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
There is no reason to not lower the price. Everybody I know has told me they refuse to buy a PS3 for 400$(Canadian) when it comes with absolutely nothing but a single controller, when the Xbox360 was selling for 299$ came with 4 games and a controller.
Whatever happened to the days when a system would not only come with a game but it would be a new game. Not somthing that came out when the system first surfaced like “Uncharted” when there is a new one around the corner.
February 6th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I would pay $400 if they threw in another controller and littleBIGplant or killzone 2 in the package; but if i’d get only a price drop i would willingly pay $300
February 10th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
$299, I’d buy it. $399 is way too much, they need to follow a little bit with xbox in order to compete. add a game and/or controller and they could get away with $349. they should start catching up soon with great titles that are out/ coming soon
February 12th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’d be at the store right now if they drop it 100$.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I think that sony should lower the price right now (100 dollars) because now everyone is going to wait till after april to buy one. Sales in February and March are going to go way down. Besides if the price in april doesnt go down people will be dissapointed in the company and will buy xbox. That also gives xbox two more months of advantage in sales.
February 13th, 2009 at 1:50 am
$100 dollar price drop and im playing with a ps3 on my big lcd hdtv!
February 13th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
$399 is way to much, if it still had backwards compatibility and they threw in an extra controller, then it would be more understandable, but scince it doesnt $299 is the way to go
February 14th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Drop the price. When I bought mine a year ago it came with one controller (SIXAXIS), three games, remote, hdmi cable, cat6 ethernet cable, media card reader, software backwards compatibility and an 80 gig HDD. It cost $499 CAN and was considered a deal.
Now for $399 CAN that 80 gig machine comes with one dualshock 3 controller, no backwards compatibility and little else. I think I did pretty good for my money. I am in the market for a second PS3 today and I wouldn’t consider any of them unless they come to the sub $300 CAN pricepoint!
February 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
$299 would be just fine with me. I’ve been saving up and only have 250. If I only needed another $50 I’m sure I could scrape it together more quickly.
And the 360 being $199 doesn’t count, since you need $100 for it to save a file and another $15-115 to get internet on it, and it comes standard on the PS3/Wii
February 20th, 2009 at 1:38 am
You can go to a pawn shop and get a 360 for $150 now, if they dont drop the ps3 to a more reasonable price I might just get the xbox and say to hell with the ps3 all together and then buy a regular blu ray player!
February 20th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I would definetly but one soon if they would just drop the price to about 250$ they would also have to add some good game like cod waw
February 25th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
[...] story: PlayStation 3, March 2009 Price Drop Rumor Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
February 26th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
300 bucks with backwards compatibility and i’d buy one in a heart beat. until then my 360 with netflix HD will be fine.
February 26th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I have been waiting to get a ps3. I still have my damn ps2!!! the 80 gig is a core system anyway. it doesent come with ANYTHING. If the ps3 is $299. i be playing it ASAP.
P.S. it would take alot of purswading to get a 360
March 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I really want a ps3 but the $400 price tag is to much for me. I love little big planet so much so I really want a ps3. My parents would probibly get me one for my b-day (which is in April) if there was a march price drop. I think a drop to $300 would be great even if it didn’t come with a game or anything.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:20 pm
299 dollars would be excellent.tax and a game it would be about 275????meh….
March 1st, 2009 at 6:40 pm
is the HDD such a big deal? 80GB, 160GB? if you’re just saving game files?
i’d pay 299 for 80GB, 2x dual shock and a game
March 4th, 2009 at 8:28 am
$299 is pretty reasonable for the 80 gb model…you can even say you get a good deal if there’s a game or extra controller included. Especially if you don’t already have a Bru Ray player..I’m gonna wait and see if it’s true before I get my PS3. fingers crossed
March 5th, 2009 at 1:28 am
I hope they drop it to 299.99 I think that price is resonable for the 80 gb one and would entice not only me, but I think alot of other people to finally purchase a ps3.
March 7th, 2009 at 12:02 am
i just heard that sony is going to cut the ps3 to 299.99 on the 31st of march or April 1
March 7th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Yea this is supposed to be true i talked to one of my friends that works at gamestop told me he says $299 or so no bundles yet the recent line up is starting to catch my attention i am hardcore 360 but ps3 has better graphics no doubt
March 7th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Another rumor is going around that it’ll be on March 23 at GDC, but Sony denied this one, too.
Article: More PS3 Price Drop Predictions by Analysts
March 8th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
My 40 GB just broke after 1 year of use. I’m looking to buy a new one but at $399 I think it is too expensive. I would love $349 if they would toss in 2 games (older is fine) maybe Resistance and Gran Turismo plus a Blu-ray remote. Otherwise $299 and throw in a game or remote.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
A $100 cut from each model would be great, I’d buy one today. If not a price cut they should give you a better bundle, say another controller, a decent game, and a free blu-ray movie. Those additions might make the $400 price tag a bit more palatable. But if they want to catch up with the Xbox360 they should cut the price.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
i think that if they lowered the 80 GB model to 299$ alot more people would buy it. Sony should also include an extra controller, the remote and a choice of either 4 blu ray movies or 2 games. With the wii and the xbox controlling the market it would make absolutley no sense not to drop the price. if they drop it i would definatley be waiting on line to get one.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I Agree with Matt, if they dropped the 80GB to 299.99$ a lot of people would by but they would lose money if they included 4 blu ray or like 2 games, so the reasonable happy medium would probably be 1 controller, a blu ray remote or messenger pad, one game and one movie or 2 movies. all this for about 299.99$ and they wouldn’t be losing a lot. maybe 349.99% if it comes with 2 controllers and the remote or message pad along with the game and movie(s).. then same deal with the 160GB just add 100 to the price for the extra memory
March 16th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I don’t think adding a game or controller will work if Sony keeps the price at $399 (well, unless we get to pick the game). I think $349 isn’t enough either. $299 will really push sales of the PS3 sky high. Of course, MS would follow and drop the Arcade, Pro and Elite price points too…..but I think there are a lot of people waiting for a PS3 price drop (even 360 owners). Face it, it you wanted a 360, you’d already be able to buy one.
I read in another article that April was the month for the drop. We shall see..
March 17th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
.
http://www.gamestooge.com/2009/03/17/playstation-3-price-drop-on-march-22/
March 17th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
[...] Amazingly Ironic… – 1 Minute Ago It’s a rumor, so it may not be true Who said PS3 doesn’t have it’s own exclusives? Uncharted: Drake’s fortune/Among Thieves Killzone [...]
March 18th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I am on a prayer for this price to drop. I have a 360, and absolutely love it. I think there are more games, some of the same you can get on the PS3 and the Online play is second to none. However, its some games like The Show that I CANT get on the 360 that makes me want the PS3. I refuse to pay 400$ for this thing, and im waiting till the price drops to get it. Xbox wont lose consumers with a price drop, but PS3 will gain A LOT.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
R U people for real?!! A price drop is needed? It is not needed maybe if U don’t Know UR tech Specs, but the PS3 is worth $399 if not more and Xbox is more like GayBox rip off only good console type of the Xbox is the Elite that has true HD and bult in wifi and it is still a rip considering the chances of it breaking down. The PS3 is still a sound investment at $399.
By the way the guy that said this:
“I work with electronics and took apart a broken no longer repairable PS3. Probably took the tech 30 mins to make and part cost on the US market is around $80 USD. If you ask me either the assembler make $300 and hr or thats one hell of a mark up. $199 would be optimal price for this but doesnt really matter in my case I bought it for a ton more the day it came out…”
He is a moron and dosen’t know his specs, but still made a good choice buying it on the day it came out.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Sounds investment? It’s a game console.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
250euros will be great for a ps3 and one remote controller
and for a bonus in some stores a free games can go in it
March 25th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Wat a load of crap yall saying u want it cheaper cause ur a bunch or poor cunts ive had 3 ps3’s since the day they came out and iam happy with wat i paid its called get a better job and maybe u will get 1
March 26th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
[...] been waiting for a PlayStation 3 price cut for a long time – we’ve been talking about one for even longer. We’ll keep waiting for one too, probably but what about Sony’s other [...]
April 1st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
lyrical-j,
Not a lot of people have money like you and even people that are rich wont buy it for that price, i mean just because they have money doesnt mean they will spend it unwisely.so stop being stupid and stfu.
but back on subject, i would love to see a 80gb ps3 at the price of 249.99$ that comes with 2 controllers and a game(old one is fine)
April 1st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
$250 USD 80gb PS3 with 2 controllers and a game? Not anytime soon – if Sony announces that, it means they’ve given up and have ceased production.
April 4th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@ Miguel:
what else do you want? maybe a [censored] too, right?
haha with 249 you can only get bluray player with the remote not a console with crap-load of accessories.
April 5th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
SUPPOSEDLY the ps3 costs Sony 400 bucks (according to wikipedia) I dont feel that that is true but hey, anythings possible.
Since serious buyers all look for price drops then most people who see that there are rumors wont buy until there is one. Sony wont see a jump in sales until a drop so why not just do it now instead of waiting until the holiday season 2009 which is now the most highly possibe drop date. Because by waiting people who want HD games just say the heck with it and buy a XBOX. The most logical prices for the systems would be 299-80GB and 399-160GB plus a good package not a Drakes Fortune it should have Killzone 2 plus 2 controlers.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
PRICE CUT………..NOW………come on Sony 299$ is it that hard to put through your black suit ass’s……we’re poor peasants…..your telling me you cant cut the price by 100$???……i mean 400$ for a console and 1 controller? WHAT…….screw that Xbox360 please at 300$ with all you got plus more………(cept blue ray)….honestly SCREW BLU RAY i dont give a flying #$%@ about that shit…….ill watch my DVD’s on my SONY DVD player with component connection thank you…….GET IN THE GAME (remember that?
April 14th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I wish the price to be cut more because in Bulgaria to give 745 leva( wich is very expensive here) is so stupid even the xbox 360 elite with a secound remote and 2 games costs around 500 leva so I wish this year the price of playstation 3 is going to be min 450 600 leva!!!!
April 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
i’m saving alot of money by not buying one.
i was going to buy a blu-ray player for $200-250; but then a friend told me that the price of the PS3 would drop around easter… so i waited.
in the meantime, i haven’t bought any blu-ray discs. i haven’t bought any dvds (cuz wha’ts the point if i get bluray) And I haven’t bought a new player.
$$ saved.
And maybe i don’t need one afterall. I actually went outside for a run with my broke a$$ and noticed OUTSIDE is where all the cute girls were anyway. (Gamer Girlz have lots of acne)
So i bought some comfortable New Balance shoes…. On Sale… and my eyes aren’t being burned out by all the excessive resolution and super bright LCD.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I bought a 40gb PS3 at Best Buy at the beginning of 2008 and got 5 Blu-Ray movies with it for FREE. However it soon broke, took it back and exchanged. Then in February, the Blu-Ray drive went out and Sony refused to fix it. I really want to get a new one, but another $400 would put the cost at around $900 (after taxes and an HDMI cable) which I think is way too much.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
are you people kidding me??, you are asking for a ridulous price cut that if 360 and wii had the same technology in their systems they would laugh in ur face, they would be goin for $400 as well, the only reason why they are so much cheaper is because their technology isnt as advanced, 360 still gets red ring of death 3 years after its release, which for me is a huge turn off, and it looks like crap on an hdtv, i have seen it plenty of times, ps3 far surpasses it on video quality and sound quality, but to 360s defense it has alot more games(exclusives) than the ps3, but i have talked to numerous people who have both and still say ps3 is a better system to play, and the wii isnt a viable console for big game makers to establish their best selling games on it, and not to mention it comes out with a blu ray player, which still goes for about 250-300 dollars, so dont expect them to cut the price to $199 anytime soon, maybe $299 is in sight, or maybe they will add something to the current package to make it worth the $400, but to me if i had the cash i would buy it instantly, i just feel sony has more experience in the video game field, and builds a more stable system than 360, and nintendo has more experiece than Sony but their system is becoming, to complicated for game designers, this is my personal opinion, some facts taken from actual read articles
April 24th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
when the ps3 drops I’ll pickup one – mostly for the bluray and web capabilities.
got a free 360 elite and honestly the hardware quality is crap – but the image quality is the same – running with hdmi to a 46″ lcd & connected to a 7.1 receiver- audio is great too. 360 output on an hdtv looking like crap – only a stupid fanboy would say such a thing.
also have a wii and play it in different ways – with the kids and wiifit.
Slice the ps3 down a $100 bucks & you’ll have a winner & let it support mkv files for downloaded HD videos
April 27th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I think they should cut the price $100 before June because normally that’s when kids ask for games systems if they don’t have good ones already but with the economy most parents will say no. That also applies to adults with the economy this high price is defiantly a no. Sony wasn’t even that affected that much by the economy.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:48 am
In Australia, right now a PS3 in all shopps that I know of are $688 AUD, with a dualshock 3, and Killzone 2, and its 80GB.
Sony is taking its time to lower its price, Wii and Xbox might just get lower.
But if you think about it, PS3 is cheaper compared to Xbox if your going to play online.
PS3 is free for internet (like setup and stuff for ps3) and Xbox 360 requieres like $500 worth of stuff (cables, xbox live, etc.)
May 18th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Not really, no. Because you pay for it one way or another. For one, Sony doesn’t host any servers. You have to do peer-to-peer. If PSN goes down, you have no recourse.
And then there’s Sony’s charging publishers to host content like demos and DLC. Have you noticed that there’s very few free demos on PSN, for one? Have you noticed there’s not much third party DLC?
May 18th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Peer to peer is used on both services, and if either Xbox Live or PSN is not accessible you have no chance playing online.
And aside from the well in advance mentioned titles, like Fallout3 and GTAIV, with exclusive content, which third party DLC didn’t get released on the PSN? And which demo that is available on Xbox Live didn’t make it onto the PSN? I just checked the “New Releases” section on both systems and aside from the obvious platform exclusive titles they are providing the same content.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:08 am
You should thank god that where you live costs only 400 dollars. I live in Brazil and I haven’t bought one yet because here it costs (officially) around 800-900 USD. Of course there are those who bring it from USA ou Paraguay and sell it here, but the price is “only” 600 USD. I have asked a friend who’s travelling to US to bring one for me, otherwise I don’t believe 800 USD is a reasonable price to spend in a colsole. And lets not forget the the games are sold for 80 – 100 USD and an adittional controller for no less than 80 USD.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I already own a ps3, i have the original 80GB model which has ps2 playback through emulation. Since Sony has shed a lot of hardward features the cost of production has fallen. If Sony was to start using the 45nm cell chips this fall, bring back at least ps2 emulation they could cut the price to maybe 350-450 a unit which is fair for now I say. Then next spring cut it another 50 followed by another 50-100 dollar price cut next fall. This is a reasonable proposal if they were to bring back ps2 playback and it is very possible if the rumors of ps3 slim is true. Sliming it down would cut cost i believe since it would take less material to make the case
and whatever else. Blu-ray drives also play a part in the cost. Also it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start charging 15-20 a year for online services. This would help Sony with hardware losses. This is just an idea I had and should only be taken as an opinion. I think everyone here would agree with me when I say everybody would be happy if the ps3 cost 200-300 off store shelves by next fall.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Wow…do you people actually think it “costs” what it does to put a PS3 together?? My Nikes on my feet probably cost a dollar to make, and that’s human work involved. I’ve worked retail long enough to know better. 199 seems like a perfect idea, besides software is where the money is at, any person with half a brain understands that.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Man all i can say is who gives a SHIT about Hard drive size. Gimme the 60 gig and for cheap and i got bluray which really all i care about and play some games on the side. Damm sony WOW they now got 120 gig Who gives a shit most HD’s today are 500 to 1 tera bytes. Rip off for the increased prices for bigger hd’s in the ps3. pfff
August 14th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Hello to all Bulgarian Gamers.
I have a PS3 used for 5 months and around 10 games. As Im leaving BG, I need to sell them. The games include:
Burnout Paradise
Ninja Garden
World Snooker Chamionship
Gran Turismo 5
Need for Speed Undercover
Jericho
Street Fighter 4
Soul Calibur 4
Resident Evil 5
It includes 2 wireless controllers and everything is impeccable and working like new. The games are all less than 3 months old. Let me know with an email and I will send you my contact nr. I am based in Ruse
Saj
xajjadx@gmail.com