Rumorong: 40GB PlayStation 3 at $399

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jul 17th 2007 1:27PM

And here we were worried Sony was going to officially cause us to have a good relationship with our neighborhood bartender and liquor store attendant if they kept this rollercoaster going. A piece of random chatting printed in the loose talk section of the last issue of Game Informer hinted that Sony might release or announce a 40GB version of the PS3 at a delicious $399 price. However, it was just speculation, nothing more. That piece of idle chat made a second pass as a rumor this week stating that once the "clearance sale" is over, Sony would announce the new model. We checked with Game Informer and they explained, "That was one of our pre-E3 rumors that we ran in the loose talk section of the last issue. It turns out that talk was not only loose, it was wrong."

But while we're clearly and emphatically speculating, if there ever is a "low-end" 40GB $399 system with all the specs of the 60GB model (minus the full backwards compatibility, but hopefully with the new rumored Sixaxis), who cares about that extra 20GB of hard drive space? David Reeves sure doesn't.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

Source

Tags: 40GB, playtation, price drop, ps3, sony

Reader Comments (58)

The best recipe for success would be to keep only the 60GB model and drop it by $50-$100 every time they get a chance. Otherwise, they could get drop the 60GB model to $399 and produce a 120GB model at $549 with maybe an extra controller or something. Then keep those models and drop their prices as they age.

Instead, it seems Sony is going to have at least 2, maybe 3 or 4, models in the market at once. Release a new one, move the prices down. So you'll have a base model at $x, model two at $x+$100, model three at $x+$200, etc. Not very consumer-friendly if you ask me.

A dumber rumor I cannot recall. It's not happening. I could type up 3 or 4 paragraphs explaining exactly why, but there's just no point to it. Joystiq seems to be looking for hits by spreading gossip. At least offer some intelligent insight next time, so readers don't have to do it for you. I just don't have the time for it anymore.

Read much? We're debunking an existing rumor.

Bye bye!

Oh snap! Synce has been pwnd!

If true this would be smart of Sony...A first for them this gen. Why didn't they just make the 20gig they dumped $399? Now I have one more great idea for Sony GET SOME DECENT GAMES and I'm not talking about the shit Killzone 2 and GT 5 coming out in 2017.

Regardless of one coming out or not, I'm going to break down and buy a 60 so I have 100% ps2 compatibility. Damn you Sony... I wasn't ready to buy your atrocity of a machine...

Or you could just keep your PS2. I mean the thing takes up no space and you'd probably only get like $30 for it if you sold it at Gamestop. For $30, you can't even get the (not included) component or HDMI cable for the PS3, let alone anything worthwhile.

Why do you guys worry about 100% BC when the software version does 88% compatibility? I just don't see a reason to buy now, when a new model PS3 will come out with a bigger HD and rumble and who knows what else?
You should be engaged with all the great next-gen games on your new console, not old PS2 ones. You guys are just being scared into buying now for nothing. Who says they won't bump up the BC list to near 100% anyway?

It's about time...

This is what they should have done at E3.

$399 is perfect of PS3.

It's about time for what? The article says they were wrong about the $399.99 price point.

Yeah, you see that ingenious title Rumorong - as in Rumor Wrong? You don't even need to read the writeup.

classic "please RTFA" moment

The 80GB Seagate hard drive is probably a cheaper bulk order purchase than a 40GB drive. You wouldn't save any costs much less $100 to $200 on the hard drive. This just never made sense. The different between the SKUs will always be games/controllers or no difference at all (one SKU). When the price drops to $399, the bundle will be priced somewhere near that mark as well.

@baby sea tuna

My PS2 is FUBAR. :)

A 40Gb hard drive is expensier than a 80Gb... it doesn't make any sense.

No way in hell, at least not yet. Sony would simply lose too much money.

How about a hard drive less PS3 at $329.99? Then I could go on Newegg and put whatever I want in it.

If the PS3 was at $399 today, the Premium Xbox 360 would be at least $299 tomorrow. The Core unit would probably go $249.99 to match the Wii price... Essentially, I expect Microsoft to stay a step ahead of Sony when it comes to the PS3, and eventually have an offering that can compete with the Wii as well. They figure they are in a very competitive position. And they are right, they are. I don't know if it will make much difference against the Wii, because it seems to be doing well for reasons other than price, but a Mass-Marketable Xbox 360 at $299.00 looks good enough for me to buy a second one. They can poise the Elite at $379.99 to compete with the PS3.

My question, why is the PS2 still winning? It's a new console generation, and the last gen is still winning the war on sales this year. That is insane.

'cause ps2 has some killer games and people are cheap

The PS2 beat the Wii in sales for just one month in 2007 (March) and then only by a shade; overall, the Wii has far outsold the PS2 this year. Check GameDaily for monthly stats.

I wish I had your optimism. I love my 360 but I'm not going to deny the fact that MS has been fucking up left and right with the 360 since launch (starting with the fact that they launched simultaneously in Japan where units sat on the shelves while people were scrambling to find them over here.)

Fact of the matter is that they should have dropped the price months ago, 86'd the Tard Pack, and replaced the Premium with the Elite. It's no doubt that they've got the online infrastructure and the library all but locked down, but with the RRoD getting massive mainstream press, MS needs to get their shit together if they still want to win the last-gen fence-sitters over.

If the PS2 compatibility is being done through software emulation, how do they save money not dumping the emulator on the system? It's a firmware upgrade, not the Emotion Engine.

There's no savings in a 40GB version without compatibility. Hell, the 80GB drive costs less than the 60GB, most likely. They'd have to take out HDMI or Wi-Fi to get any real savings.

Sony is desperate, the last thing that Sony can do is: put Phil Harrison in Oprah, begging people to buy a PS3...

Meanwhile, Nintendo is relaxing, enjoying all money that the Wii and the DS prints, planning the Xii.

I would buy a 5Gig PS3 for $200. Then, upgrade the hard drive.

Make up your fucking mind Sony!!!

this would be great and i would buy a ps3 the day it hits that price but i highly doubt sony would do that, no one would even think about buying the other sku's, but heres to hopefull wishing, but everything they are doing lately is completely random so who the hell knows anymore

Sony just needs to get their act together. I am just tired of all these rumors, confirmed announcements, take-backs, new rumors, blah, blah, blah.

Just send a memo to everyone in the company, and keep everyone on the same page. Done. I am so confused now I don't know whether to wait, buy, sell, etc. I think I'll just play my Wii60 and pick up a PS3 in 4 yrs for $200 and all the games I want to play at $20 a piece.

unless you're a big movie collector, early adopting a PS3 is far from the smartest thing to do. even now.

this holiday is when gamers should be interested in the PS3. its value will finally be in line with its price.

.

Yeah, this isn't happening. In addition to the price reasons, they've also stated that they only want to have one model on the market (except when there's a clearance sale). What they would be doing here is introducing a second/third model to the market. There's nothing they would be able to do with it. They can't upgrade it, because it'd be competing against a superior model alongside it. If they plan on upgrading the PS3 periodically, all they could do is dump it in a few months.

Its funny that this article mentions $399. Given the recent price drop of the PS3 I decided it was time to get one, especially given all of the good looking games coming out soon. I went to Best Buy and asked for one and at the counter asked to price match to a Circuit City add that provided a free wireless controller (Sony brand) with purchase. The guy at the counter tried his best to get me to buy the $100 service plan while ringing me up. While processing the price match he accidentally rang deducted $149.99 from the PS3 instead of the $49.99 for the controller bring the total price with tax to around $430. For those that don't know this is how they ring up discounts and what not on free promotions. They take it of the biggest item, or spread the price decrease amongst various items. Luckily for me I got my 60Gb PS3 for $399.99 and I got a free controller to boot. I went back the next day to buy some blu-ray movies and they forgot to scan 2 of my movies. It was a good weekend to shop at Best Buy!

Awesome! I've had that happen a couple of times but never with such a big puchase. When the Wii first came out I drove all over town to find Wii Points cards and found five at Toys R Us. I grabbed them all and get checked out and the total rings up for $80. I'm not sure how the cashier missed a card, but I got one for free!

Jesus, those guys should have been fired as shit!

Lucky on you, though.

For the same price I could buy a Saturn in 1995.

Guess which one has better games?

The 60GB hard drive is only costing Sony about $50. Any difference in hard drive size will only affect Sony's cost by plus or minus $10. It doesn't seem reasonable that Sony charges $100 difference between PS3 models.

Like others have said this doesn't make sense for Sony. They would not be saving $100 for each unit by including a 40 gig harddrive instead of a 60 gig harddrive. Despite what the console manufacturers want you to believe, the harddrives on these machines are not driving the price.

It's like the old days of 64 bit > 32 bit > 16 bit > 8 bit. Now the console are being measured by gigs of harddrive space rather than the size of the registers on the processor.

Joystiq is the one who is causing confusion by writing articles that have no basis.

Yes PR execs dont always give correct information, Joystiq you should know that by now. Remember when Kaplin said Wii would be region free? or how about when Reggie said MP3 would feature online play? get the idea? dont take PR exec interviews as the final word on an issue.

wait for an official press statement by Sony.

Thank you Curmeo for that official sony press release.

"wait for an official press statement by Sony"? NEVER! If we did that some people would have bought a 60GB PS3 at $599 the week before E3.

If we wait for the official press release, it'll be old news by then.

This shouldn't be true. I mean, a 20gig, 40gig, 60gig and 80gig model? All in the same year? Now who's confusing the consumer... (Although Msoft has a non-gig, 20gig, 120gig and Halo themed 360, so I guess it doesn't matter too much.)

$399

Now that price would be worth it to pick up a PS3. Even if all I get it for is Little Big Planet, MGS4 and maybe Nobi Nobi Boy. And this way I would have both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD for whichever ends up being the victor.

Lower price point FTW!!!

as much as sony needs the ps3 to be $399, thats just too much of a loss per sale.
that would completely negate any gain they got from increased production and put them in a bad position...since no one will pay 600 when they can get a little less of the same for 400.

i think Sony could pull it off. EE chip is gone which means less loss per console. Blu-ray diodes have gone down in manufacturing costs. and HDD memory keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.

MS is the one who cant afford a price drop right now. Remember their Entertainment Division has set itself back an unexpected $1 billion due to the RRoD issue. In Japan MS is throwing money out the window tryin to convince Japanese gamers to accept the Xbox brand. MS Corp keeps putting pressure on the Xbox division to turn a profit. Remember Sony directly profits from Blu-ray movie sales, which have been strong. this is an advantage MS doesnt have.

You truly are dumb...

"Unexpected"? So you're saying MS made an announcement and a decision about how to do deal with RRoD without knowing how much it would cost?

Get Real. Besides that MS hs plenty of money to make up for that loss. MS have proven that they're willing to invest in their system. The fact remains is that MS does NOT NEED a price drop UNLIKE the ps3. The 360 is doing just fine in all regions save Japan. So why drop the price? Especially with all the great games coming out this fall. Theres plenty of incentive for a person to buy a 360 now at the current price. I bought my Elite just for the games that are coming out in the next 5 months.

Theres no "pressure" on anyone except sony. So keep lying to yourself.

but you need to remember that the original cost per console for sony was arround $800. Even they have reduced $100 for the EE, HDD prices are very stagnant, especially at lower sizes so the most they could reduce that is $50. Even if Blu ray costs have reduced $100, thats still $550 cost, and $150 loss on each console sale.

Even though MS is doing poorly in japan... it's old news. It's fairing better than the original xbox, which is great. Even the PS3 isn't doing too well in japan, and considering how they usually react to their domestic brands, it shows the the PS3 has a serious problem.
Not to meantion that MS has been turning a profit on the 360 for quite a time now, and they have gone over a year and a half without any prices cuts....hell, they are doing so well they add a console with a HIGHER price.

Not to meantion that besides the fact that Sony is getting BR royalties.... MS on the other hand has VIRTUALLY LIMITLESS funds, so i don't think that even if they wanted to give a price cut, it would hurt them in the wallet tooo much.

I think this is a false rumor. Sony execs just spent part of E3 dissing MS for their multiple SKU's and how it "doesn't work". Although, it would finally force MS to lower the price of their machine.

I'd buy a 0GB model if they'd price it at $399.

curmeo...i sure hope the sony defence force is paying you well...or maybe your getting free blu-ray movies....on topic why dont they just release a ps3 with no hard drive and let the suckers put their own hd on it...

yeah Sony wouldn't do that, unless they like the idea of losing tons of money.

I am not saying it won't happen, because it probably will one day. I will say that I don't think a 40 gig PS3 makes sense. Here is why. Shaving hard drive spce from a 80 gig to a 40 gig doesn't save a lot of money. For example, I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but Sony made a lot more on the 60gig PS3 than it did on the 20gig one. That is because the extra 40gigs of hard drive space only increased the overall cost of manufacturing the console by a few dollars, while Sony charged an extra $100 buck for that space. For example, I just looked on Newegg.com and a brand new Seagate 40 gig drive is going for $38.99. The 80 gig variant of the same drive is only $42.99 - a difference of only 4 bucks.

Considering the above, I don't think that Sony is going to release a 40 gig model, but shave $200 off the console price. It just doesn't make sense.

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Rumorong: 40GB PlayStation 3 at $399

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