The PlayStation 3 price drop
Okay, so Sony does to and fro with PlayStation policy, and the price of the PS3 has been the most legendary example of that this year. From the very beginning of the PS3’s life, people were screaming for a price drop. Bizarrely, Kaz Hirai’s “599 US dollars” speech at E3 2006 didn’t quite excite anyone as much as he might have hoped and the mantra throughout gaming became resolutely “I might buy one if it gets cheaper.”
As a result, the pressure was on. Industry analysts were predicting a drop all year, retailers were advertising their own cuts days after the machine’s release, and all manner of press outlets spent the first half of 2007 proclaiming their ‘knowledge’ that a price reduction was coming. Sony however, maintained an unwavering policy of “Maybe at some point, but not just yet”. In July though, days after its latest denial, Sony announced a $100 cut. That was just the beginning of the craziness though.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President David Reeves quickly let slip that the new $499 60Gb PS3 would only be available until it sold out, and that the 80Gb model retailing at the original price would then take over, bumping the cost back up and making the whole thing feel more like a garage sale than a real price cut. (This itself was subsequently denied and re-confirmed. By this point in the lunacy no-one was surprised) Things have since been smoothed over with the 80Gb machine now retailing for the lower price, but the whole PS3 cost debacle has been one of the messiest and most drawn out pieces of rumour-mill fodder we’ve seen all year.
