Analysts believe 80GB to go $499 this year

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 4th 2007 at 2:00PM }

With all the 60GB PlayStation 3s out of the warehouse and finding homes, it's time for the analysts to say that the 80GB PS3 will drop to $499 (duh) -- this year (wha?). Both Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter and -- please sense the Alan Rickman octave change -- simExchange analyst Jesse Divnich, believe there will be a price cut for the 80GB model before Jesus' birthday.

The analysts go on to say what you can probably just guess. Unless Sony wants to eat a huge helping of "we are total jerks," they'll have to drop the 80GB price to remove the clearance sale tag their 60GB model has been stuck with since the PR nightmare during E3 week when they announced the price drop and followed it up on Friday by announcing a discontinuation of the 60GB model. It's all about the timing now. When will the 60GBs be gone? Who's buying them with this second price drop ready to pop out? We know it has to happen for the sake of PR.

Tags: drop, europe, price cut, ps3, reduce, us

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Shagittarius @ Sep 4th 2007 2:03PM

Analysts believe Fernando Rocker to post FUD in T - 2 posts.

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 4th 2007 2:05PM

Naaa... you dont worth the effort.

Poisoned Al @ Sep 4th 2007 2:11PM

You put down great it is.

samfish @ Sep 4th 2007 2:15PM

Wow, that's the pot calling the kettle black...

Charron @ Sep 4th 2007 2:30PM

Was grammar not worth the effort too?

borland502 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:36PM

Dude, watching you and Fernando is like getting two dogs to fight. It's great entertainment, just ask my buddy Vick.

Shagittarius @ Sep 4th 2007 2:44PM

Its the Ludiite hate club attacking me!

Wheres the Blue Dragon Boos music when you need it?

Lemmiwinks @ Sep 4th 2007 2:46PM

Jelly-filled airplane jackets make staples with butter.

JJ Rooster @ Sep 4th 2007 2:48PM

Can these dogs also be shot once they've lost their edge?

borland502 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:49PM

Did you mean Luddite? Damn Philistine posters, always trying to whip out the big words and failing the spell check.

Shagittarius @ Sep 4th 2007 2:51PM

No I meant Ludiite as in "One who no longer believes in the advancement of technology because Nintendo told them two gamecubes taped together is more than they will ever need."

waves @ Sep 4th 2007 2:58PM

You guys need to start your own blog. You can make as many game lists as you want there.

borland502 @ Sep 4th 2007 3:01PM

I see. Well, I suppose that's better than the usual grade-school smack. But it lacks a little special "something" to make it understandable.

Anyway, while I have much love for my PS3, I can't deny the fun value inherent in the Wii. And from a business perspective, they hit the ball out of the park with that "outdated" console.

While Fernando can be annoying, I'd say that attacking the Wii on that front rings hollow these days. And personally, I welcome all the new gamers we can get. It lessons the reactionary crowd that would like to ban them and increases the amount to chose from.

Poisoned Al @ Sep 4th 2007 3:18PM

@samfish: You not good sarcasm aren't.

Kye @ Sep 4th 2007 3:21PM

Why for bad grammar everyone?

Shagittarius @ Sep 4th 2007 3:22PM

A good game is a good game. There should be no reason to pander to non gamers.

Are there movies that pander to non-movie goers? Why do we need video games that pander to non gamers?

Yes I think the glut of so called 'casual games' on the Wii is indeed a sign of the second coming of the game crash. Although I hope I've underestimated the intelligence of those currently championing the Wii and they will abandon that platform before its too late.

With the Wii were substituing good ocntent and mechanics for gimmiks (yes gimmiks). Its like the basketball game where they put trampolines on the floor so everyone can dunk more easily. Its a magic trick, its a joke, and its not good for the evolution of gaming.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that so many people have fallen for it. A more imprecise control method than anything in the last 10 years. Graphics that do nothing to advance the state of the art, Online play support virtually the same as it was 10 years ago.

Still, people buy it, just like they bought all the boy bands in the early 90s, and now the market for boy bands is virtually dead. Non gamers that happen to get into the Wii will treat it like any other fad, they will tire of it and move on after a while taking with them all the new dollars the industry thought it was going to see, and leaving a glut of "Casual games" that the remaining hardcore gaming audience has no interest in.

A lot of companies are going to go down this generation. remember what happend with the 2600 when almost everyone was a non gamer. Remember well what happened, for it is the doom of men that they forget.

Ska Oreo @ Sep 4th 2007 3:25PM

blah blah blah blah blah.

Jesus christ you're like a broken record. We get it already, the Wii is evil towards all "real" gamers(which I find odd seeing as the ds is much more successful and yet you're not focusing your so called crusade on that).

Ska Oreo @ Sep 4th 2007 3:30PM

I guess when sony fanboys finally feel threaten, they have to pull something out of their asses,(OMG the Wii will be the downfall of all gaming), just so they can find something wrong with another console beating it.

samfish @ Sep 4th 2007 3:35PM

Not be sorry, Poisoned Al. Bizarro samfish am not here now!

Anni @ Sep 4th 2007 3:39PM

I would say that we should lay off Fernando for the grammatical error because he doesn't speak English natively, but then I might have to excuse Shagittarius' stupidity because he doesn't speak logic natively. :(

Crono @ Sep 4th 2007 3:50PM

Anni wins +5 internets for that comment.

Shagi, they make movies for non-movie watchers: they're called summer blockbusters. If you want to draw a parallel to hardcore games in movies, it would be the crappy independent films that have all their little independent film festivals, and have some sort of "meaning", but nobody but film nerds gives a crap.

I skipped the rest of your argument because I've heard it all before from you. Nintendo isn't going to cause another game crash. The home console CULTURE was completely different in '82. There won't be another game crash, especially not now. If anything, the Sony/Xbox "all we have are shooters and racers" was going to cause the market crash because everybody was tired of the same old garbage. If anything, nintendo has saved the industry AGAIN, by adding new fresh ideas and showing us games and gaming ideas not possible in a home console before.

Power under the hood isn't everything Shagi. The number of pixels on the screen expecially isn't everything. Its the core gameplay and mechanic that is MOST important. AI comes next. I'd say graphics, realism, and physics should take a backseat to both of those, and if you look at the most popular and award winning games throughout history, you'll see that they excel in gameplay and AI first, and that graphics and realism are second.

Seriously, it wasn't until the playstation brand came along that graphics and especially realism got all its hype. Its those gamers that didn't pick up a game until PS1 or PS2 that don't know what real gaming is about.

Hirsbrunner @ Sep 4th 2007 4:16PM

Dyslexia for cure found!

Miles Pulsford @ Sep 4th 2007 5:17PM

I sense bad grammar taking over joystiq comments the way "new and exciting" did.

I are all for it!

Shagittarius @ Sep 4th 2007 6:43PM

All Nintendo has brought so far is a new controller. They are publishing the exact same games as everyone else.

If you can't innovate software make everyone believe they aren't playing the same old games by throwing a new controller at them eh?

mr nimblewick @ Sep 4th 2007 2:06PM

I can't wait! Analysts are ALWAYS right!

Mr Khan @ Sep 4th 2007 4:12PM

Exactly

The PS3 outsold the 360 in July, that's a fact :P

Egster @ Sep 4th 2007 2:06PM

Really?

Jonah Falcon @ Sep 4th 2007 2:07PM

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15347

Divnich notes that PS3 trading on simExchange shows the Xbox 360 “on path to outsell the PS3 by over 2 to 1 this holiday season (Oct/Nov/Dec),” but says “from our perspective, Sony has no choice but to make some type of move this holiday season, regardless of the financial loss that may occur.”

joeyg @ Sep 4th 2007 2:55PM

hasn't that been MS' strategy...move systems no matter what the financial loss?

Kye @ Sep 4th 2007 3:24PM

I thought that was MS's strategy with the first XBox.
Get as many consoles into homes so that they can rule the next gen.

If they're still suffering huge losses on their second outing they should stop trying and go the way of the Wii.
If not they MAY suffer losses on their 3rd gen, and well, we all know what happens to companies that lose too much money.

E.J. @ Sep 4th 2007 3:47PM

@Kye

Once again, MS and Sony are huge companies with product diversity (unlike Nintendo). If their respective game divisions suffer losses, they're not simply just going to roll over and die. They get their revenues from other products anyway.

Stop trying to compare the PS3 and/or 360 to the Dreamcast.

DSR7997 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:07PM

Which means that they are soon to anounce a new 120Gb model?

charles @ Sep 4th 2007 2:07PM

"When will the 60GBs be gone? Who's buying them with this second price drop ready to pop out?"

The smart people are buying them. I'd take hardware PS1 and PS2 support over the marginal 20GB of storage any day, even if both models were offered right now for $499. You can always upgrade the hard drive. The infuriating stress of software emulation is something you'll have to live with forever.

WiseGuy @ Sep 4th 2007 2:08PM

That's a great price point. That will definitely save them. (sarcasm)

rdj75 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:08PM

Hell, about half the readers of joystiq said this about a month and a half ago, i guess that makes us all analysts right?

Poisoned Al @ Sep 4th 2007 2:09PM

Man I would love to be an analyst. Make a load of numbers up, slap together a power point presentation and BOSH! Payday!

gamernewz.net @ Sep 4th 2007 2:09PM

They've been saying that since E3.

samfish @ Sep 4th 2007 2:14PM

HA! I'll do the analysts one better – it'll drop to $500 (just the system, no game or extra controller) within 10 days of Black Friday.

It's really kind of smart, when you think about it. They keep the price at $500 for a while and get all the moron general public constantly thinking it had another "price drop" and they rush out and buy it.

borland502 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:45PM

Ah, but here is a riddle to bake your noodle. If there is always a model at $499, but there ceases to be a model at $600...did a price drop occur?

I'm not quite sure why people either griped at or defended the whole 60GB pricing business. Sony is following the time honored tactic of lowering the price on an earlier model, selling out, and then lowering the next model into that slot. A lot of Consumer Electronic Companies move product in that manner.

This may be the first example in the console business though. Usually form factors don't multiply until well into the generation.

Jonah Falcon @ Sep 4th 2007 2:15PM

http://www.gamestooge.com/2007/09/04/analyst-499-80gb-ps3-for-holidays-or-else/

Derrick Schommer Says:
Sales growth? SALES GROWTH? You know what will grow sales, pick an F’ING PRICE AND STICK TO IT.

I’ve bought things on eBay with a more consistent price than this box. Why would I go out and buy their product when I can wait a month and get a lower price, then wait another month for a lower price. This is much like shopping for a house right now, just wait for the price to become reasonable.

If you don’t stop screwing with pricing people are just going to hold out for the ‘next lower price’ and never buy.

Burnt Meatloaf @ Sep 5th 2007 6:09AM

Welcome to the PC market.

NukeAssault @ Sep 4th 2007 2:16PM

Id hit it.

DBX00 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:19PM

My guess - 80GB PS3 Core at $449, 80GB PS3 Bundle at $499 for the Christmas Holiday

bean @ Sep 4th 2007 2:21PM

hey that's great! I remember when I bought my 60gb way back when in Jan for $450 (booyah) and then replaced the hdd with a 80gb from my mac mini that was just sitting around...so yeah, $499, that's awesome sony!!! Now if I can only get some quality games to play on it...and find a reason to use up all those gb's, preferably with some pvr content...

charles @ Sep 4th 2007 2:25PM

"I’ve bought things on eBay with a more consistent price than this box. Why would I go out and buy their product when I can wait a month and get a lower price, then wait another month for a lower price. This is much like shopping for a house right now, just wait for the price to become reasonable."

I disagree. The changes really havent been all that much. They launched with a $499 SKU, remember? So after this next price drop of the 80GB model to $499, the difference between the two is a marginal 60GB of storage space that is easily upgraded anyway, wifi which is easily added, and flash card slots which are easily added.

Between buying a 20GB SKU at launch and having been able to play the PS3 all this time vs buying the 80GB SKU in a month when its $499, I would have taken the 20GB at launch. The problem is irl we dont make that decision. We make the decision not to buy any PS3 at all because there arent any games.

nick @ Sep 4th 2007 2:26PM

Common logic would say this doesn't happen this year, as you alienate prior customers. Perhaps next year though.

But then again, perhaps Sony is content with selling their console via bait and switch.

But I still say the analysts are wrong (yet again). Thanks for amusing us though!