PS3 Price Drop and Slim Model

[Jet Pistol]

Huge news. It was announced at Sony's Gamescom Press Conference Today.

http://kotaku.com/5339926/sony-2009-...yline=true&s=i

MSRP: $299.99 (This will be affective to all current models starting tommorow)
It will be released in September
120 Gig.

[email2003]

The new slim model looks ugly.

I still have my PS3 since launch 2006 and still works fine so no need for a slim model for me.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Yep, the worst kept secret ever finally confirmed.

It's a good deal and makes the PS3 much more competitive.

I was hoping they would announce some software fix that would allow our old PS3s to play PS2 games, though.

[sdp]

Not huge news we've known about it for month(s) now, the PS3 Slim is the worst kept secret like the PSP Go, even kmart and sears revealed everything 12 hours before the event.

Also no BC with the PS2 is lame.

[email2003]

PS3 also gets a firmware 3.0 update somewhere in September which changes the look of the PSN and will have animated theme's / backgrounds. Not really impressed.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/...-v3-00-update/

[Juu-kuchi]

Nice, now I probably won't have to deal with the bulky one, provided there are no catastrophes with the Slim's hardware or build or whatever.

[email2003]

Nice, now I probably won't have to deal with the bulky one, provided there are no catastrophes with the Slim's hardware or build or whatever.

I wouldn't be surprised if the new PS3 slim had a ac adapter just like the PS2 slim did.

[Classic Speedy]

Now that it's officially $300, I may actually be in a good position to get the PS3. Though maybe I missed it, but where does it say that PS2 compatibility still isn't included in the slim model? (not like PS2 compatibility is a huge factor to me, as I can still use my existing PS2, but it'd still be nice to have)

[Shawn Hopkins]

Now that it's officially $300, I may actually be in a good position to get the PS3. Though maybe I missed it, but where does it say that PS2 compatibility still isn't included in the slim model? (not like PS2 compatibility is a huge factor to me, as I can still use my existing PS2, but it'd still be nice to have)

It doesn't say that it isn't, it just seems like the kind of thing they'd point out if it is. I hope they do add it.

[River26]

I doubt it, because even in it's current sku; 80GB it still won't include PS2 backwards compatibility.

That is if they include this issue in the next F.W update, which btw; SONY's been in talks of patenting the PS2 backwards issue.

[Behonkiss]

Well, ever since I got a steady paying job I've been telling myself I should pick up a PS3 for certain games (I'm a huge Ratchet & Clank fan). This cinches it, especially if they're lowering the prices on all units even before September.

[Eddy]

Now getting a PS3 doesn't seem too out of the question. I'll still wait a while until I have more money to spend and I want to make sure the slim model doesn't have any problems. I've kind of been interested in the PS3 for a while now. Granted, with the 360, I get most of the third party games and great exclusives, but PS3 has been starting to get some cool looking exclusives too. Plus, I've been wanting a Blu Ray player.

[Shawn Hopkins]

If Nintendo wants to hang on to having the "cheap" console, they're going to have to bring a drastic price cut soon. Last gen graphics and technology don't look as justifiable when you're only saving $50, less if you want to get the other half of the controller so you can play most of the games. Wii sales fell off a cliff recently anyway, so they'll have to do something.

Which is nice for me, because then I can buy my own Wii and stop playing my brother's.

[Mynd Hed]

Regarding backwards compatibility, Joystiq's coverage of the story specifically notes that the feature set will be exactly the same between the PS3 Slim and the current models, and that BC will NOT be added.

Interestingly enough, just a couple days ago they did a poll asking people what features they'd be most interested in if Sony announced a new model of the PS3, and PS2 BC ranked second (at 34%) just behind a price drop (45%). Naturally a survey of Joystiq readers is going to come up with very different results than a survey of the video game buying public in general, but that's pretty interesting all the same.

Personally, at this point there are still probably more PS2-exclusive games out there that I'm interested in than PS3-exclusives, so the PS3 still isn't all that appealing to me.

If Nintendo wants to hang on to having the "cheap" console, they're going to have to bring a drastic price cut soon. Last gen graphics and technology don't look as justifiable when you're only saving $50, less if you want to get the other half of the controller so you can play most of the games. Wii sales fell off a cliff recently anyway, so they'll have to do something.

I hope you're right, but personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo stubbornly resist a price drop for quite a while. Wii sales have certainly dropped off a bit in the past few months, but they're still far and away ahead of the competition. Microsoft has had comparably priced and even lower-priced packages for a while and it doesn't seem like that's lit a fire under Nintendo yet.

I think a lot will ride on how sales numbers look this Christmas season. If Microsoft and Sony are able to close the gap or even overtake Nintendo for any significant amount of time, it'll be the kick in the pants Ninty needs to drop the price. Otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised to see them sitting pretty at the $250 price point for a while to come.

This is just me armchair quarterbacking, but I think rather than a straight-up price drop, we'll see a new bundle out of Nintendo offering more stuff at the old price point (maybe Wii Sports Resort instead of the original and an extra Wiimote / Wii Motion Plus / Nunchuck set) to compete when the Sony wand and Microsoft's Natal hit the market.

[Nel]

Heh, I might be able to get a slim one then. BC isn't too big of a deal for me because my PS2 is still up and running, so yeah.

[GWOtaku]

The price cut is a good move, but yeah--this is why I went out of my way to get a good deal on a fully-featured, 60gb model on eBay at just about that $300 price point a little ways ago. I figured the odds were very good that PS2 compatibility wouldn't make it into a Slim model, and I was unfortunately proven right. Sure, the body may not be flawless (it has a few scratches on the top), but it does everything I want and if I want more space I can install a better hard drive later.

Still, this makes the PS3 very competitive with the Wii, no doubt about it. At this point, I'm expecting a cut in the Wii's price to $199 in time for the holiday season.

[Shawn Hopkins]

This is just me armchair quarterbacking, but I think rather than a straight-up price drop, we'll see a new bundle out of Nintendo offering more stuff at the old price point (maybe Wii Sports Resort instead of the original and an extra Wiimote / Wii Motion Plus / Nunchuck set) to compete when the Sony wand and Microsoft's Natal hit the market.

They might try that, but I don't think chucking in Wii Sports Resort and Motion Plus at the same price point is going to look too impressive in the face of Natal. Heck, not even in comparison to Sony's wand thing (that they really need a catchy name for).

Edit: I was looking around for an affordable 60 gig PS3. But then I stumbled across a 40 gig for like $180 and it was too good to pass up. I'm very happy with my current PS3 but I do pine for that PS2 BC and upscaling, which is why I was hoping they'd add it in an update.

[defunctzombie]

Regardless of the price drop, I will not be buying a PS3 until they put the BC in. I considered myself a loyal Sony customer, but not anymore.

[Mynd Hed]

More PS3 Slim news: bad news for DIYer types. Remember how the PS3 Phat let you install Linux and really get into the guts of the thing? Yeah, not any more.

[Elven Moon]

Eh, it's still a little too much for me to afford, and the fact that you can't play PS1 and PS2 games on it is a turnoff. Really, the only reason I wanted a PS3 was for that, and Fat Princess. So for now, I'll pass.