PS3 price cut goes official.

[Riggswolfe]

Working Designs

I miss them. They were my first exposure to Japanese games.

[schild]

Well, technically speaking, Atlus and NISA picked up the Working Designs torch better than Victor Ireland and Co. ever could have. Hell, even XSeed, Agetec, and Aksys are filling in those gaps. Victor will eventually be back with Gaijinworks - though I question who would ever give (or sell) publishing rights to a company with the word "gaijin" in the title.

[squirrel]

I still can't get up the enthusiasm to buy one.  I haven't seen anything coming out for PS3 that I want to play that isn't also coming out for X360.  $399 doesn't sound that bad though.

I thought this as well up until, well, last weekend. The PS3 on a 1080p TV looks significantly better than the 360. Don't get me wrong, I like my 360 a lot but there's few titles on the PS3 that I want now, even if they do come out on the 360 I believe they'll be better on a PS3:

* Folksoul/Folklore - schild showed me this for a bit, looks fucking amazing
* Gran Turismo 5
* Assassins Creed - on the 360 but I think the crowd scenes will work better on the PS3
* Little Big Planet

Plus there's a bunch of PS2 titles I want to play and I don't have a PS2 anymore so I figure a PS3 is about the right price now for a PS2, Bluray player and PS3 games.

[Kitsune]

I agree, the PS3 looks breathtaking on a 1080p television; the games are every inch as good-looking as modern PC games.  With the obvious downside of having to pay at least two grand for the PS3/HDTV/Receiver/Speakers setup to actually get these end results.  If you can swing the cash, though, you get a very pretty result.

Oh, and do yourself a favor, don't be a tool and buy HDMI cables from the store for $80, go to monoprice.com and get 'em for under $10, including shipping.  After spending so much for a console, best save as much money as you can in every other regard.

[schild]

Yea, I think I bought the $15 HDMI cable from Fry's. I really should've shown you the difference between HDMI on the 360 and on the PS3. It's a world of difference.

[Sky]

I agree, the PS3 looks breathtaking on a 1080p television; the games are every inch as good-looking as modern PC games.  With the obvious downside of having to pay at least two grand for the PS3/HDTV/Receiver/Speakers setup to actually get these end results.  If you can swing the cash, though, you get a very pretty result.

Well, increasingly people already have the hdtv/receiver/speakers anyway. Or like in my case, I had the receiver/speakers and added the hdtv later.

If I ever do cave in and get a console, it'll be the 360 (65nm ftw), since I've got a 720p set and getting a 1080p set is out of the question for a few years, still (and 720p is honestly the sweet spot for pc gaming yet, 1080p would be rough). Problem is, even though the 360 has more games I'm interested in, it's still under a half-dozen.

[murdoc]

Oh, and do yourself a favor, don't be a tool and buy HDMI cables from the store for $80, go to monoprice.com and get 'em for under $10, including shipping.  After spending so much for a console, best save as much money as you can in every other regard.

Monoprice is awesome. I've gotten all my cables and my TV mount from them.

[Riggswolfe]

I agree, the PS3 looks breathtaking on a 1080p television; the games are every inch as good-looking as modern PC games.  With the obvious downside of having to pay at least two grand for the PS3/HDTV/Receiver/Speakers setup to actually get these end results.  If you can swing the cash, though, you get a very pretty result.

My problem is I only have 720p and my cheap-ass reciever only has one digital audio input. Sooo..I'd have to upgrade those as well.

[Kitsune]

I got lucky; a business deal involved getting a $1500 Best Buy gift card on the same week that Best Buy was selling a 40" Sony 1080p TV with a PS3 for $2090, so the two most expensive components more or less fell into my lap; otherwise I never could have afforded it.  The receiver and speakers I already had from my old TV, so those weren't an issue.

[squirrel]

I agree, the PS3 looks breathtaking on a 1080p television; the games are every inch as good-looking as modern PC games.  With the obvious downside of having to pay at least two grand for the PS3/HDTV/Receiver/Speakers setup to actually get these end results.  If you can swing the cash, though, you get a very pretty result.

My problem is I only have 720p and my cheap-ass reciever only has one digital audio input. Sooo..I'd have to upgrade those as well.

Actually I saw a PS3 on my lunch hour hooked up to a 720p set (I have 720p as well, DLP) and it still looked awesome. Something about the video output seems to be very good with colour saturation. Not sure if that's the nature of the console or tweaking of the titles, but it still looks great at 720p. I'll probably get one and worry about upgrading to 1080p next year.

[Riggswolfe]

Actually I saw a PS3 on my lunch hour hooked up to a 720p set (I have 720p as well, DLP) and it still looked awesome. Something about the video output seems to be very good with colour saturation. Not sure if that's the nature of the console or tweaking of the titles, but it still looks great at 720p. I'll probably get one and worry about upgrading to 1080p next year.

Mine is a DLP as well. That only leaves my worries about only having one digital input on my reciever. I guess I could spring for some kind of HDMI digital audio switch box at some point...

[Sky]

Yeah, I've got the single DVI input on my DLP, too, and the pc is hooked to that. My dad has two or three HDMI on his little 40" 1080p DLP, and the bastard also has analog inputs (hello creative eax) on his receiver. Yet the guy is so pussywhipped I bet he puts his 360 (talked him into holding out for the 65nm) on the crappy 32" analog CRT in the spare bedroom. Makes me cry.

[Yegolev]

I paid $80 for the Pelican HD switch some time ago just after switching my consoles to component cable.  It does not have HDMI ports but it does have optical switching.  $80 was a ripoff, I think, but there was no cheaper alternative at the time.

[Merusk]

derail:  So is this your stepmother and a recent marriage, or your mother that's got him "whipped."?   At that age I thought you called it "Henpecked" because he sure isn't getting any to be "whipped" with. /derail

I'm really hoping for a price drop on HDTVs this x-mas.  I'm not going to buy anything less than a 1080p, but they're still way outside of my "go ahead" range, since I know they'll drop.   Then the new console comes.

[Miasma]

I'm really hoping for a price drop on HDTVs this x-mas.  I'm not going to buy anything less than a 1080p, but they're still way outside of my "go ahead" range, since I know they'll drop.   Then the new console comes.

Damn, that post made me check what the prices are like now and sure enough the equivalent to my HDTV is now 35% cheaper, has more HDMI ports and supports 1080i instead of just 720p.  I only bought it a year ago.  I fully realized it would happen and have no regrets though.

[Kitsune]

Damn, that post made me check what the prices are like now and sure enough the equivalent to my HDTV is now 35% cheaper, has more HDMI ports and supports 1080i instead of just 720p.  I only bought it a year ago.  I fully realized it would happen and have no regrets though.

1080i looks like crap on the local digital stations that I'm getting on my antenna, there is hideous motion blur that is absent on 720p broadcasts.  I don't have any breadth of knowledge to know whether that's the fault of the TV station or my TV just isn't good at 1080i or if all 1080i had craptastic motion-blur problems, but really I wouldn't be crying myself to sleep over getting 720p instead of 1080i.  Now, 1080p on the other hand is absolutely sweet, a pixel-perfect resolution on a 40+ inch display has to be seen to be believed. 

Summary: 1080i not worth throwing cash at an upgrade.  1080p very worth throwing cash at an upgrade, if you plan on buying games and movies that support it.  1080p is wasted on HD television, standard DVDs, Wii games and 720p Xbox games, all of which would play just as well on a 720p display.

[Jain Zar]

Ive got a 1080p upscale DVD player hooked up to my Aquos with HDMI and things look mighty gorgeous on it.  Beast Wars looks absolutely perfect on it, and Beast Machines even better.
Its lovely enough I don't even care about buying an HD DVD player of any format right now.

Again, if they dropped the PS3 to 400 with the 60 gigger currently out there it would be a fair deal (since let's face it, Blu Ray seems to be the winner.  Winner of a race nobody really wanted in the first place, but winner nonetheless..) to get high def prerecorded stuff, but otherwise its just ehh. 

[Sky]

derail:  So is this your stepmother and a recent marriage, or your mother that's got him "whipped."?   At that age I thought you called it "Henpecked" because he sure isn't getting any to be "whipped" with. /derail

Not recent, but it's his third wife. NOT my step-mother. But yeah, henpecked works. So does utter pussification. It's sad, my dad used to be a badass (raced in nascar and was a firefighter). I'm all for having good relations with the little lady, but you can't hand over your balls. Like they had too much luggage last time they went to Fla (not his luggage, of course), so she wants to get a van. He sells his nice car and gets a van, she still has her coupe. Huh? You want a van, get a van.

Aaanyway. I'm really tempted by the new generation of DLPs with the LED bulbs. The LED bulbs last way longer than the 2 years standard bulbs last. I paid $3400 for my 61" 720p set, which was priced at $4999 at CC when I got it in 2003. Now the 61" 1080p set with the LED bulb and 3 HDMI is listed at $2700. So things are getting better, you get a much nicer set for almost half the price. Weight is also cut from 107lbs to 75lbs! Me rikey.

[murdoc]

I'm pretty interested in the LED DLP sets now too. After I bought my LCD I said I'd stop reading about TVs for at least a year... I'm not going to come anywhere near that.

[Sky]

I'll need a geforce 11000 to run with bells+whistles at 1920x1080, so I'm not too worried about a tv upgrade for a couple years ;) Meanwhile the 8800 kicks ass at 1280x720, so I'm very satisfied right now.

[CmdrSlack]

I'm using the same 17" CRT that I've had since 1998. I am in serious need of a PC upgrade, if not total replacement soon. IF I can find a non-shitty AGP video card (and remember what kind of AGP slot this machine has), then I may just go that, get more RAM and a new flat display.

I would much rather build a new machine. 

That said, even at the price cut level, I just don't see myself affording even a price cut PS3 and the TV required to make it look nice.

ETA -- Wow, that was the eternal pause for editing, the point, I guess being that I need to fix my actual PC issues before getting all crazy with my console upgrades.

[cmlancas]

I find that for the price nowadays, it is easier to replace the mobo and buy a PCI-E.

[Merusk]

That's a damn nice TV there, Sky.  61" is wayyy too huge for me, though. I need to find something closer to my 32"sd.  Hrm.

[WayAbvPar]

61" is wayyy too huge for me, though.

There is no such thing as a TV that is too big. You just need a bigger room, obviously. My 60" seemed HUGE when we first bought it...now I can see where a 70" or even a 100" could be useful  :-D

[Sky]

Don't even need a big room, really. My room is pretty small and the 61" is perfect. I'd even trade up for something a bit bigger, maybe 70", for this room. If I actually ever find a decent house to buy with a big living room, I'd think about something bigger, or maybe go to the projector for a gaming room if there's something reasonably-priced and high resolution by then.

My father has a bigger living room and was of the mind that a 61" tv was way too big (or his wife convinced him of such). He got a 42" and even my fiancee commented to me (privately, of course) that it seemed tiny.

Movies on the 61" are great. We saw Sicko in the shitty back theater Saturday and the sound was far worse than I have at home and from where we sat the screen was almost the same size, proportionally speaking (filled the same area of our vision, about 3/4 of the way back in the theater). We did have the theater to ourselves, which was cool in that we could freely discuss the film without bugging people, but sad because nobody in our shithole town gives a damn about socially conscious movies.

PC gaming is ridiculous on it, I earned my grief title, and I stand by it. Transformational experience, leaving the tiny screen and desk behind for some good sofa gaming imo.

[Merusk]

61" is wayyy too huge for me, though.

There is no such thing as a TV that is too big. You just need a bigger room, obviously. My 60" seemed HUGE when we first bought it...now I can see where a 70" or even a 100" could be useful  :-D

If you want to buy my entertainment center off of me so I can own the huge TV, ok then.  :-D  It's not going in the junker because it's great and it's wood, and I'm in a slab-on-grade until the house market stops being shit, so no basement to put it in.  Ergo, I need something that'll fit into it for the first HDTV, which will become the bedroom TV after we move.

There's a plan, always a plan.

I can see how the 61" would seem small, though, if the measurement is on the diagonal the same as SD TVs are.  That extra 1/3 into the length means it's a lot squatter than SD tvs of the same size.

[Sky]

Yes, my buddy the eqholic had an old 50" tv he bought to play the N64 on (Goldeneye 4-player ftw). It's roughly the same size as my tv if you hack off the widescreen bits, my set might actually be a hair smaller.

[Yegolev]

Looks like the price cut worked, at least according to Sony.  A Gamasutra story reports sales are up 135%.  Of course, Sony is still selling at a loss, but you have to get that install base before the holidays or else.

[Margalis]

A fair number of people probably want to pick up the old model before the new, crappier emulation one comes out.

[Velorath]

Looks like the price cut worked, at least according to Sony.  A Gamasutra story reports sales are up 135%. 

Yeah, but right now we're only talking about a 2 week period, right after the price drop.  To say that there's been a surge in sales is really a "yeah, no shit" kind of statement at the moment.  I recall Sony themselves pointing out before that they're in a marathon, not a sprint.

[Morfiend]

I have actually started to consider that it may soon be time to get a PS3. While there isnt a huge amount of games I want, there are some decent ones coming soon.

The PS3 controller is crap compared to the 360 controller. I have never likes the PS controllers for any thing except Tony Hawk. The left analog stick is just in the wrong place for my thumb, kind of the same way the thumbpad is in the wrong place on the 360 controller.

[MrHat]

kind of the same way the thumbpad is in the wrong place on the 360 controller.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.