PS3 price cut goes official.

[schild]

You'll have no worries once Little Big Planet drops.

My god. That game is just.... so perfect.

[Kitsune]

It's a bitch move, but I think that the limey's right, they probably are cutting off the 60GB models.  We already know that they're trying to drop the hardware support for emulation, so it makes little sense for them to keep producing a model that has it.  So looks like they're going to go back to last on the sales charts once the 60GB models are gone, until they discount the 80GBs.

[schild]

That 80GB discount will come by Thanksgiving though, probably by the week of Halo 3 really though...

[CmdrSlack]

Of course, if they still don't have many games out by then, well, it won't matter much.

Or else they'll discontinue the 80gb model and come out with a 100gb model.

[Fabricated]

What a terrible fucking idea to have a temporary pricecut to shove inventory out the door.

[Murgos]

What a terrible fucking idea to have a temporary pricecut to shove inventory out the door.

I sea wat u did thar.  O_<

[Samwise]

I'm pretty tempted to pick up a PS3 now just so I can play some of the PS2 games I missed out on (with the added possibility of PS3 games in the future).  $500 is still steeper than I'd like, though.     And how important is it to have a big hard drive on a console system?  What does it get used for?  Do you need to "install" games on a PS3 like it was a PC?  I am ignorant.

[schild]

Yes, almost all PS3 games have an "install" option. Meaning, they load all the main assets onto the harddrive. Honestly, I'd like to see PCs adopt this system. Load times on the PS3 get cut down 70-90% on certain games. Ninja Gaiden got cut down at least 95%, but it happens to be one of the worst loading games of all time (was on the xbox also). Virtua Fighter goes from unnoticeable load times to completely unnoticeable load times. It's a pretty fantastic tech, and yes, I can see 60GB not being long enough once the PS3 gets into full swing. Also, Linux.

[Yoru]

Yes, almost all PS3 games have an "install" option. Meaning, they load all the main assets onto the harddrive. Honestly, I'd like to see PCs adopt this system.

... Many PC games have had it for years. It's called "Full Install". The only thing they use the disc for is CD checks and, sometimes, cinematics.

Hell, I remember full installing quite a few games, including cinematics. You sometimes had to check a special option for installing 'em, but hey, no CD lag.

[Roac]

Yes, almost all PS3 games have an "install" option. Meaning, they load all the main assets onto the harddrive. Honestly, I'd like to see PCs adopt this system.

 

[schild]

Yes, almost all PS3 games have an "install" option. Meaning, they load all the main assets onto the harddrive. Honestly, I'd like to see PCs adopt this system.

 

That was worded so badly.

I'm going to go hang myself.

[Velorath]

Sony screws up their announcements all the time by one of their legion of executives talking out of turn, this guy might be contradicted by some other president today.

Of course he's being contradicted.

A spokesperson for Sony in the US told Next-Gen, "As announced this week, SCEA's product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future."

Officials at Sony Computer entertainment Europe - including president David Reeves -  had said that the US price would still be $599 because that would be the only model on offer once 60Gig stocks ran out. If true, this would have rendered the $100 price cut a virtually pointless gesture, meaning that PS3 had not been cut in price, but was simply being offered with extra memory and a bundled game.

SCEA has reacted with puzzlement to the European perspective, suggesting that there may have been an incorrect interpretation. The spokesperson said, “Those quotes from David Reeves are not accurate.  He said that if they had lowered the price in Europe, that territory would have run out of their current inventory by the end of July.”

Nevertheless, Kaz Hirai himself says the one SKU strategy is the plan. He told Scandinavian website VGTV, "[We do not] have a 2 SKU strategy in the US, we learned very quickly customers respond better to having one SKU than two. We dropped the price on the 60GB model, as you know that model is no longer in production, once it's no longer on store shelves it will just be the $600 SKU."

Previously, a senior PR at Sony in London had backed Reeves statement, confirming that he had been talking about the US market, though the PR later distanced London from the remarks, telling Next-Gen, “I believe that is the plan, but SCEA has not formally made an announcement on any timeframe. As it affects the US you should confirm with SCEA.
”

SCEA subsequently denied the story entirely. However, questions will now be raised about the company's long term plans for the 60Gig version and for its $599 / $499 pricing strategy as well as its ability to stay on-message. We're waiting for clarification on some of these issues from SCEA.

Problem is that not only can't they keep their stories straight (since Kaz obviously seems to be saying the same thing Reeves did), but nobody is really going to trust anything Sony says given that they already flat-out lied once recently when they were denying the price drop, just days before they announced it.

[Miasma]

They will probably have to go and disembowel another goat as a sacrifice to the marketing gods in order to put out a single definitive statement of what the hell they are doing.

Then the nearest regional PR department will have to put out the standard "Sorry for sacrificing a goat" statement, I believe it's form number 82273-b.

[Simond]

Read it again carefully:

A spokesperson for Sony in the US told Next-Gen, "As announced this week, SCEA's product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future."

Read as: "We have lots and lots of 60GB PS3 stock filling up our warehouses, so it won't run out for a fair old while yet".
Notice the distinct lack of confirmation about the sixty gig model still being in production. 

[Roac]

It's becomming increasingly clear what the root problem with the PS3 might be.

[caladein]

Searching for this is proving futile sadly so I'll just ask:

In the US are all the 60GB PS3 running hardware emulation? Is there any way to find out without ripping the box open and looking for a serial if that isn't the case?

I'm asking because the last time I looked that backwards compatibility page... it wasn't pretty.

[schild]

No software emulation in the US yet.

[Simond]

(US) PS3 60s have PS2 hardware in their guts, PS3 80s will be all emulation.

[Margalis]

33% bigger hard drive, a game nobody cares about and worse emulation...hmm..hard to say if the 80gb version is even an upgrade.

[schild]

Eh? Look, the emulation isn't worse. At all. In fact, I don't think I could find a game in my collection that didn't run 100% perfect on the software EE emu.

Motorstorm is actually pretty goddamn fun. More fun than Excitetruck at least.

[caladein]

I realized that "hardware emulation" was the dumbest thing I've said in a long while. Whoops.

And what I meant by "it didn't look pretty" was that for example: different "versions" (I guess, there are about six different FF12 EU product codes) of FF12 ran the gamut from "works fine" to "works with noticeable issues". I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from that outside of "WTF?"

[Trippy]

Eh? Look, the emulation isn't worse. At all. In fact, I don't think I could find a game in my collection that didn't run 100% perfect on the software EE emu.

Do you have a Euro PS3?

[schild]

No, but I've gone through their list on nearly every game I own. I don't see how it's going to be a problem. Much like the PS1 emulator on the PSP, I fully expect the PS3 emulator to be as good if not better than the hardware within the year, they have far too much processing power for it not to be.

[Trippy]

Just cause a game may be on the list doesn't mean the emulation is 100% perfect. You were the one bitching and moaning about the original PS3 hardware emulation even though technically all those games were supported as well.

[schild]

Whoa whoa. The original PS3 emulation had problems that weren't generated by the EE chip or Software. It was the video processing that was done, it completely fucked it up. Where's Quinton to explain it when I need him?

[Trippy]

Whoa whoa. The original PS3 emulation had problems that weren't generated by the EE chip or Software. It was the video processing that was done, it completely fucked it up. Where's Quinton to explain it when I need him?

It's still software -- that's why they were able to patch it later on.

Edit: fixed grammar

[Kitsune]

The problem with the European list is, obviously, that they have different games, fewer games, and differently-named games.  Checking their list, several of the games in my library simply weren't listed.  Of the ones that were most were listed as running fine, except for God of War, which was listed as having problems.  In any event, offloading the emulation to the original hardware seems like only a good idea to me, better than making the CPU handle the emulation on top of upscaling the video.  Sony may talk plenty of talk about their advanced multi-core architecture, but emulation is not a light burden, even on modern hardware.

[Sairon]

The PS3 should have no problems at all with emulating the PS2 completely and handle upscaling to 1080p as well as filtering. There's a diffrence between Sony creating an emulator and hobbyists creating an emulator by reverse engineering.

[Yegolev]

Emulation problems aside (and I have one or two that are not listed in the Sony DB), I now have a new problem.  Well, not a new one exactly but I have a decision to make.

My Sixaxis is balls, and after Actually Talking to schild he said that his doesn't stop working, ever.  What he really said was "It always cuts out when it switches into PS2 mode" which was all I had to hear to know that either my Sixaxis is broken, or the bluetooth unit in my PS3 is broken, because it stops working for no apparent reason on occasion.  Recently, since the 1.8 patch, when it stops working it has a chance to cause me to have to powercycle my PS3 since it just will not reconnect.

The decision I have to make is due to this new PS3 model.  I will buy a new Sixaxis and see if that fixes things, however I am strongly suspicious that it is the bluetooth unit in the PS3 due to the specifics of its behavior.  Question is, do I replace with a 60GB unit or a 80GB unit?  I should be able to get Target to give me a 80GB one to replace my launch system, but what's the best option here?  I don't know anyone with a 80GB unit to ask.

[Miasma]

It seems to be official.  The $500 model will be phased out once the inventory is gone leaving only the $600 model...

[Murgos]

So, I can buy a 60gb PS3 now for $499 or wait until late next year sometime when the 80 gb version will be available for, probably - according to that article, $399?

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.

[Riggswolfe]

"Although we think that Sony's public relations gaffe was unfortunate, we do not believe that the company has ill intent, and we expect the $499 price point to be maintained until early next year, when the 80GB model will likely by cut again to $399," Pachter said

I wonder if he has any inside knowledge or if this is a wild guess? If it's insider knowledge I can totally hold off until next spring and get it for $400. While laughing at the people that paid $600 and had no games to play. Though somehow I think Sony is too arrogant to lower the price that much.

[Simond]

So wait...not only is SCEA shooting themselves in the foot with this price-cut-that-wasn't, the industry consensus is that there's going to be an actual price cut in six months or so?

Doesn't this effectively translate to "Buy a 60gig now, or wait until next year for an 80gig. Otherwise, just don't buy a PS3" ?

ETA on Konami announcing "MGS4: Storm Warning" for 360?  :-D

[HaemishM]

There's already been talk by the Metal Gear creator that he may HAVE to put MSG4 out on the 360 just to make back development costs, because there aren't enough PS3's in homes.

[Jain Zar]

They drop the PS3 60 gig with PS2 guts to 400 right now Ill buy it just for Disgaea 3.  Otherwise they can continue to be ignored by me.  (Unless making fun of it counts as paying attention to it.)

I have 52 PS2 games, and close to that number in PS1 titles.  I'm supposed to pay MORE to lose access to all my controllers (not that my Guncons work with LCDHTVs anyhow mind you), and all my game saves (unless I somehow order and find the magic dongle that's hard to come by) and lose rumble features merely gaining Blu Ray and a couple exclusives that won't appear on the 360?

Cmon now.  The PS3 is in worse shape than the Dreamcast was.  (Which continues to give UKResistance a giant boner.) 

Hell, we are talking Saturn situation here without Working Designs and Sega's own genius devs to make it at least worthwhile.

Sony needs to stop trying to save face, suck it up, and at least play match the price with 360.