Sony Computer Entertainment America bossman Jack Tretton has gone on record to clearly state that there will be no price-drop for PS3 until at least June 2008.
In an interview with Game Informer magazine, when asked if price drops for the PS3 would be "as soon or as drastic as they were for the PlayStation 2," Tretton answered with a clear, "No."
The PS2 originally launched in the US in October 2000 at a price point of $299. The first price reduction on that machine, when the price was slashed to $199, was made by Sony in May 2002. Hence, if Tretton is to be believed, the PS3 is going to continue to set you back $599 (or the planned £425 in the UK) until well into the summer of 2008.
Tretton claims that the massive investment in research, development and hardware means that the PS3 is far "more difficult to cost reduce" than was the case with the PS2.
"Three days filled with specialist lectures delivered by almost 200 speakers, three thematic summits, and over 2600 guests from almost every corner of the world - the capital of Małopolska became the capital of the games industry for a few days.
Organized by the Krakow Technology Park, the Digital Dragons Conference once again showed that Poland is attracting more and more attention from the world's biggest industry tycoons for a reason." - Digital Dragons.
Atari has acquired Intellivision. The company announced today that it had acquired its long-time rival, ending one of the original console rivalries, dating back to the 1970s.
Wow.... two of my earliest gaming platforms. All they need is Coleco to round things out.
This is like Nintendo buying SEGA.
YES! Colecovision was my start! I came to know Mario there in Donkey Kong before the NES was even a thing. :)
Yes such fond memories. My first was the odyssey, but I really started gaming on my colecovision. Had atari and intelivision but coleco was by far the best of the bunch to me.
Good piece of history here.
edit: I wanted to read it but the cookies pop up is stopping me.
This was just before my time. I do remember my mom's friend having one all dusty in her apartment back in the day.
[R.I.P.} Ms. Irene
People forget that console wars are part of the history of this industry. The console wars were started by competitive companies all the way back then and continued through Sega vs Nintendo, Jaguar/3DO/NeonGeo, and PlayStation vs Nintendo and Xbox.
These companies are across oceans and competing for the same business. These companies created the console wars, not crazy fanboys.
Console wars are fun. It's fun to be a fanboy too. I don't get what's wrong with any of this as entertainment.
Young kid school yard banter was fun. 30-40+ year olds still doing it is just disturbing. Many my age (50+) grew out of that a long time ago. We may still have our preferences, but we also embrace a more central position because there is a lot to enjoy on a wide range of genres and systems.
You'll understand one day and then things will forever change.
The only thing back then was that the game would still appear on competing platforms.
Remember the Coleco Vision could play Atari2600 games via an Expansion modude.
I had both. Snafu on Intellivision was addicting as hell. Also had Colecovision which had Time Pilot. Combat was probably my favorite Atari game and both Atari and Intellivision had similar games like Pitfall and Jungle Hunt. It’s been so long I don’t really remember which game I liked bettter out of those but I did play my Intellivision a bit more than Atari though I’m not sure why besides Snafu. That was 40+ years ago damn I’m old lol
Ahh you're making me all nostalgic! Not old enough to have played these on original hardware but my first console was a bootleg console from Costco that had a bunch of intellivision and atari games. Then had a lot of fun with intellivision and atari collections on ps1 and 2.
Snafu was one of my favourite games and me and my partner still occasionally play it to this day
While some video games overwhelm you with sheer scale, titles like Asura's Wrath and Doom Eternal make you the boss player right upfront.
i think that depends on how the PS3 will sell ( or not ). If it stalls completly, they may have no other choice. It will be a though choice for them, because of the high development cost, but i don`t think they can let their two competetors get to far ahead of them, that will cost more.
One thing`s for sure, i`m definatly not buying one until the price comes down, maybye MGS4 can change my mind, but we`ll see. ( Ps. the lame vote is because of the price, not the story.. savy ;)
but at least you can surf the web and enjoy Blu Ray movies! All that for the low-low-price of...$600
By that time the 360 will be half the cost of a ps3!!! Half the cost of a ps3 and better games??? PS3 is dead!
Historically, gaming consoles lower their price within an 18-24 month period. Microsoft is in a position to do this by April\May of THIS YEAR. The market will not consider them weak as the there product as been out for some time. Will the price cut be 50, or 100 dollars is anyone’s guess. But if Microsoft is worried about Nintendo's success in the UK and US then I suspect a $100 cut. If they are not then 50 will be the number. But Microsoft could steal Sony's thunder in March with the UK launch of the PS3 with a 50-pound cut of the Xbox360. Price dictates everything and Microsoft is clearly in that position.
Sony won't have to slash prices- Japanese retailers have already slashed their prices up to 20%!
(see other news stories today)