410°

PS3 to get smaller Cell and/or RSX chips in August?

Nikko Citigroup upgraded its rating on Sony this morning in anticipation of it breaking even on PS3 costs earlier than expected. At the moment, Sony sells the PS3 at a loss. The respected group of analysts is now earmarking August as the milestone month. Sony's CFO recently suggested that the move would occur in the second half of year -- a date analysts then pegged at November. No details behind the new upbeat expectations were provided by Nikko CG. However, it's safe to assume that the PS3's break-even event will be realized by a switch to a sub-65nm cell processor, sub-90nm RSX graphics chip, or both, since the smaller chips are less-costly to manufacturer.

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engadget.com
SUP3R5843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

All signs point to price-cut.
I'm thinking the 299-349 range for the holidays.

sonarus5843d ago

They are about to break even, they will probably hold out for as long as they can but price cut this yr is very probable

yanikins1115843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

Take these numbers for an example

Current ps3 manufacturing cost = 450
Current sale price = 400

New manufacturing cost = 350
New sale price can = 350 and still break even.

These numbers are made up off the top of my head but they are just to show a point. I think you will see a price cut to the ps3 and BR Players around the same time the new chips are implemented.

1) Sony need to stay at a competitive price point to compete with the 360. Yes the ps3 is much much better value (imo) but sony wont want the 360 hitting that pricing sweet spot while they are still in the stratosphere.

2) Im sure sony would have dropped prices slightly already, but i have a feeling the BRA or what ever its called want to recoupe some of the R&D losses suffered creating bluray before the prices come down. If sony make the ps3 too cheap, other BR players become un-viable and im sure this would really p!ss off some of sonys business partners. I wouldnt be suprised if there is a contract regulating the price that sony can charge for the ps3 for a certain amount of time.

All pure speculation BTW.

EDIT @ the shark guy below: Yeah numbers were just made up to show a point. Im in $AU anyway so to hell with the conversions....

EDIT2 : Cos its a slow news day.... disagree-er person wanna post a reason they disagreed? Im bored....

CrazzyMan5843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

Cool! =)

Pricecut?
Definitely! =]

p.s. @yanikins111, since january i believe, there was news, where Sony representative said that ps3 cost for them less then 400$ to manufacture by that time. =)

Solid_Snake6665843d ago

nope never its already beating xbox so u they would be generous lowering it by even 50 dollars

yanikins1115843d ago

Until it surpasses total sales.

theKiller5843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

so most probably it will be this fall when i buy a ps3 and i want to buy it at 300$ which i believe that also will happened in fall and also there is a good chance to see ps3 slim by this fall!!

i am not a fanboy and i can live without playing for weeks or even months sometimes, i loved my ps1 and ps2 but i never bought them in the first years of launch, also i dont wanna spent a lot of money on a console so the best thing to do is patience with me!!

i am thinking to buy 4 games in fall, so any ideas on what to get?? i have in mind 3 games already
shooter= killzone 2
racing = motorstrom 2
action = metal gear solid 4
so what should i get for the forth one? GTA4 or resistance 2 or hmm.. i dont know!

pharmd5843d ago

in all honesty, i would have GTA4 and Resistance 2 as sure things, if there were one i was questioning, and personally am questioning gettin its killzone 2.... i will get it down the line but not first day launch, i think R2 will be the best one to get at that time....

just my opinion tho

fenderputty5843d ago

that they want the stand alone Blu-Ray players to hit 299 by the end of the year. The usually keep the PS3 inline with the lower end BD player. Using these new chips makes this more of a reality.

Hopefully we will see another price cut soon.

ruibing5843d ago

Only thing stopping a price cut in the US is the poor value of the USD. A price cut everywhere else would be pretty easy.

reccodog5843d ago

You may say that the PS3 hasn't beat the 360's sales, but the ps3 has sold more consoles than the 360 has on its first year.
Get my drift?

yanikins1115842d ago

But what im saying is, I assume devs look at install bases. Sure the ps3 might be seeling better, but the 360 does have a bigger instal base. Its just a fact of life for the moment.

Its like having a 2 car race, and your car stalls on the start line. You get it started after 2 minutes but the other guy laps you as you pull away from the start line. Now you have an 07 Skyline GTR (anyone with prologue, buy this beast), and he just has a Mini, so while you are catching him, and its a 50 lap race, you still are not winning until you pass your opposition. Add to this analogy, that the other car is overheating and belching smoke cos the guy pushed to hard on the first lap, and i really think it fits the situation.

+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 5842d ago
shine13965843d ago

ironically you sound like a star wars character coming via soul calibur to the 360..he he!!

yanikins1115843d ago

Is that gonna be cross platform multi player? that would be wickid. Yoda Vs DV. I want it.

Bathyj5843d ago

Ummm didn't they announce the cost of making a PS3 had dropped from $800 to $400 about 3 or 4 months ago? They said it had halved I remember distinctly.

I believe Sony could cut price any time they want and I think they should do it on the 28th of April, giving M$ just one day to panic and follow suit less the console war be decided in the next 10 weeks.

Lumbo5843d ago

the original $800 was already made up by some random "analyst" , so you can guess the half number isn't any better in terms of reality. Sony has not so far released ANY figure about the manufacturing costs of the PS3 system. And it is unlikely they ever will .. such information is normally strictly confident.

marichuu5843d ago

The PS3 shouldn't cost what it does to begin with... The numbers of consoles being sold now only tell me (note: I said ME, meaning it's not a fact, just MY opinion) that it would outsell the 360 if they had the same price.

yanikins1115843d ago

I have no idea of the figures sony has to work with, nor their production capacity, but I wonder if it would be worth them undercutting or matching the Standard 360 price (i dont know what sku's and prices they have now). They would undoubtedly lose alot of money on hardware sales, but God.... the war would be over tomorrow imo. Of course i doubt they could keep up with production, and as of yet, while there are great games out, I dont think there are enough to make back the losses made on hardware. But the Charts would look cool. Hell they should match the Wii Price for a month and see what happens.

shine13965843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

yeh...I heard that as well...and also they sold a cell making factory to toshiba...so this article could probably be a little misinformed...

Edit: been looking on the internet, and found this to be true...sony could be moving to even smaller chips, as in below 65, and that could mean the ps3 being even cheaper...I reckon this is around LBP time, to get in the families, leading up to chrismas...it might just be the must have item for chrismas...

rawg5843d ago (Edited 5843d ago )

Sony selling the Cell manufacturing plant to Toshiba is not that big a deal. Cell has always been a joint venture between Toshiba, Sony and IBM. The sale is part of Sony's strategy to move away from manufacturing to focus more on chip design.

That said, smaller chips would definitely reduce costs, not just in making the chips but all of the other components that would be impacted, i.e. less cooling, smaller power supply, consolidating other components, etc.

Add to that the fact that Blu-ray drives are going to be manufactured in higher volumes since the BR win, the overall cost of the PS3 could come down by a lot. Like you said, probably just in time for the holidays.

Show all comments (55)
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shinoff218316h ago(Edited 16h ago)

It's not the ideal situation but Sony does offer them on ps plus. I to would just like a big ass compilation on doscto though

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240°

LittleBigPlanet 3 Servers Are Officially Shut Down 'Indefinitely,' Sony Confirms

Sony has confirmed that LittleBigPlanet 3 servers on PlayStation 4 will remain offline “indefinitely” following troubles with the service from earlier this year.

15h ago
rlow114h ago

Sad day, hopefully they’ll allow a third party server solution. Goes to show game preservation is an uphill battle.

blackblades7h ago

Sad day oh wait everyone that whining about it didn't play it or haven't played it in years and never was going back to it. Funny how people start to care when this happens but when it was actually up those same people didn't even pay attention to it.

rlow12h ago(Edited 2h ago)

First, you don’t know who has or hasn’t played it. So that’s your assumption. Secondly, even if people haven’t played it in awhile, it’s still nostalgia. Those memories of sharing your creation and having fun playing other peoples creations. Third, no game out there is really like this or as iconic. Today if they made this they would nickel and dime the whole way through and it would launch broken.

Cacabunga1h ago

Reason why i really dislike online games.. they become unplayable over time.. LBP story mode is actually only a tutorial

14h agoReplies(3)
just_looken10h ago

What needs to be highlighted by this is that the series has had 4 main games then that go kart spin off yet sony let them all die.

There is 0 games like this on ps5 and to my knowledge 0 first party main kids games no tech demo crap

Sony purchased Media Molecule studio the ip then tossed it away letting it rot for over 7 years yet the community carried on until now were we have lost 16 years on all games of content along with no replacement.

Everyone goes on about ea killing studios but sony has killed way way more but its fine its sony they can do no wrong.

Before the sony blidboys track me down again go fire up your holy boxes all the dlc they tossed out all the trophies and all the user content needs a server side handshake that no longer works. Yes offline single player version 1.0 works but that is it.

Media Molecule was not cut i know but they only made LBP and dreams it was reported they just missed the chopping block
https://gamerant.com/little...

Do not forget the dreams game was tossed out 2020 but 3 years later support was pulled
https://www.digitaltrends.c...

All in all this is another failure at sony on a long long list in the past 10 years

Inverno8h ago

It's kind of hard to disagree when SONY has a history of abandoning many of their IPs. They killed Mod Nation and turnt it into LBP Karting because of brand recognition but left it to die too. They made their own Smash Bros only to rush the studio, and turn the game into an advert for recent release at the time and still let it die. They shut down PS Home for more or less the same reason, they left it to rott till it became too broken and exploited to bother fixing.

just_looken6h ago

This right here

Playstation home is what facebook is trying to make now but in vr that metaverse deal

Imagine if sony kept up ps home development

The death of playstation forums was also a huge loss

u-bEttA-rUn7h ago

Their games were unable to attract the masses every game that came out the attachment grew smaller and smaller they advertise LBP for years the industry changed and then came fortnight... You want Sony to continue to support them which cost them money that they're not getting back from the studio.

DOMination-4h ago

Honestly, I think a well-designed LBP-style game would do better than ever in the current state of the industry.

People have short attention spans. Having something that is pick up, play a few levels and put down again is the experience the "masses" are after.

Keep it as a 2D platformer only with well-designed base levels, make it easy to build new levels and more importantly easy to access new content - personally I always found the way Forze Horizon 4&5 provide daily, weekly and monthly challenges via new content that they've built or handpicked from the community is a system that works great - and then stick it on mobile and PC with Steam Deck support.

Make it F2P with a one-off fee for the level editor (to stop people spamming crap onto the store) and have MTX for more characters, outfits etc. and there you have a live service game that Sony should be all over.

Do the same with a new Karting game and a 2D fighting/Smash Bros style engine and you have three bangers right there.

(I appreciate the N4G community will hate the idea of LBP being a live service game with MTX and I get that but I think if there's one game this model could work well for, it's this.. just imo)

anast2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Astro's is similar.

Not enough people cared to play it, so they cut it.

Sony has never been a kid friendly console. This should be obvious. People go to Nintendo for this stuff.

StoneTitan2h ago

Its on media molecule though. They did not want to continue LBP. Sony accepted that.
Sumo continued it. With a solala lbp3 and a great sackboy though.
Its not sonys fault. They dont want to force a studio to create a new LBP game.
But I would love a revival.

romulus239m ago

For some people Sony can do no right either. You can play Sackboy A Big Adventure on PS5. So there is "a game like this" on PS5.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 9m ago
Tacoboto9h ago

I feel bad for Media Molecule. For the ideas they have it seems they need a publisher that supports games like this and Dreams especially for as many players as possible.

DOMination-5h ago

Sony in the Andrew House era did support them massively though. They let them do their thing with LBP and spent millions marketing it. I remember one E3 they even used LBP to cover the boring parts of the presentation where they talk about sales figures etc.

And then they allowed MM to announce their game on the PS4 console announcement/showcase event and waited the entire generation for them to release it.

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