Awesome. I love being a 'consumer' that 'reacts'.

*goosebumps*

I feel special.

This is an incredible marketing strategy. Once they run out of the 60GB model they'll go for the 80GB model and more than likely decrease the price of it to $499.99. Or keep it at $599.99 and give an amazing bundle, like a second controller, wireless headset, ethernet cable, svideo/compsite cables and component cables, keyboard and mouse, and two free games. I don't know about y'all but that would be one hellova value.

@daftrok: Sorry, that's rampant speculation and flies completely in the face of Sony's actions.

This move confirms that Sony wants the PS3 to be $600. Sure, they COULD eventually drop the price, but instead they are offering a new model with fewer features at the full $600 price. Yes, it has a marginal capacity increase, but I haven't filled up my 20 gig PS3 yet.

Sony has painted themselves into a corner with the PS3, and they seem to be doing everything possible to screw over consumers.

My PS3 is sits unused.

@daftrok:

PS3 Price Cut in US Only Temporary: [www.betanews.com]

This flippinfloppin hurts my head . . .

Man I constantly have to delete things on my 20 gig xbox 360. Everyone freaks about the $600 price tag, but here's what I've spent, roughly. (Somebody with a PS3, please chime in on what is standard to the Sony):

- $299 xbox core, a few months after it came out
- $100 for the 20 gig hard drive (all they offered at that time)
- $49 for a second controller
- $99 for the wireless adapter for xbox live
- $49 for a wireless controller (yes I have 3 now)

So it adds up. I'd probably have both is Sony had some gotta have games.

First of all, it isn't temporary, its for the 60GB model until that runs out. So it will end when there aren't any more 60GB models available. Second of all, we have no idea what the price of the 80GB model will be alone (we know its 599.99 with the 60 GB still available). I believe that once the 60 GB version dries out, the 80 GB will drop to $499.99 with that movie bundle (I do hope they'll give us more options for movies rather than the 30 they offer now).

@Daftrok: Going by your logic (based off of the PS3 pricing patterns so far), a price-drop for the 80 GB would be unlikely unless a larger version was released. You seem to ignore the fact that with or without the 20 GB SKU available, the 60 GB never went down in price until now.

We all know that EVENTUALLY the "top-tier" price-drop will eventually come, but I wouldn't bet on it for a while.

@SchruteBuck: The difference is, there is a TON of downloadable content for the Xbox 360. The PS3's online network is BARREN. Even then, the PS3's hard drive is user-replaceable. It is cheaper to buy your own drive off of new egg and swap it out. All you need is a screwdriver, and it is still covered under warranty. Buying a 120 gig drive 2-3 years from now (if the PS3 ever becomes popular and has good downloadable content), will be much cheaper.

Anyone on the fence about PS3 should buy a used one from one of the many unhappy PS3 owners. The build quality on them is very good, unlike the 360, so getting one used shouldn't be a problem.

Heh, this could be a play.

Act I: The Price Cut Mystery

Act II: The Death of an SKU

Act III: ???

fickle see-saw battle of death...

throw a dart at a dartboard...if it lands in white discontinue it, if it goes black keep it in production. Just make up your mind, or else this is gonna turn into a civil war battle just like the HD vd. BD battle!

oh wait...nvm

This is purely "Purple Cow" "New Coke" marketing crap. It will probably work too. All of a sudden you better hurry up because the awesome deal on teh $499 units that have been collecting dust will be gone forever!!!! You'll miss the deal and your last chance to get backwards compatibility :-)

LOL thats histerical "i have to delete stuff constantly off my 360"

ya ... thats why MS released a 120gb version... but more so the reason is!

THE 360 HAS CONTENT TO DOWNLOAD... PSN's got shit for content, a few decent demos, and well... ya thats it

The ps3 might have better build quality though considering sales for them suck so its not really that fair to compete.. the fact is the 360 has content and the ps3 doesn't end of story.

And as a bluray player, sorry but bluray has dropped in price so has HDDVD so its not even effective as a "cheap player" anymore ... i mean yat the 20gb used to be ... but now with the FORCED 80gb at 600$ its once again sony showing off how its money grubbing over consumer loyalty!

What more its even more a way to show how their idiots considering Europe gets to keep the 60gb for 599 still! LMAO!

Atleast microsoft has 3 sku's that target different audiences, they just dont keep forcing a high price on people, perhaps sony should stop focusing on getting rich off the consumer and actually target getting some content to the market.

HAHA also its kinda funny ... sony switching to software backwards compability (the cheap way they call it) and then microsoft releases another big backwards compability upgrade to enable more games... And with the 360 you get upscaling and antialiasing on the old games :)

@SomeRandomGuy:

ACT III: ???

ACT IV: PROFIT!

I don't think many of you are understanding why Sony is doing this when its quite obvious... Manufacturing cost goes down when you have taken out a hardware element and replace it with the software emulation. Yes you may have to pay programmers but that very well may be a one time deal rather than having to run a machine/pay a person to install the hardware on every machine that goes out. I don't know how Sony makes and installs the components of the PS3 so I can't say for sure, but it makes logical sense to cut processes out of the line since they are loosing money anyways. And the 80gig instead of 60gig probably cost the same now days with memory being cheaper.

This was obvious when the update entailed an extra 20GB for $100, and without hardware emotion engine support. It never seemed like a premium model because it was just an update, and the 80GB box will drop to 5 bills in 2009 when Sony runs out of 60's and finally has a couple of console moving titles.

@endless: Yesssss! Underpants Gnomes!

The sad part is, it really DOES seem like that's their business plan.

1. Release PS3.
2. ?????
3. Profit.

Act III: The Prestige :) lol

Whats the other hard drive size for the PS3??
Does it go back to 20gb or does it go2 80gb.
Cause i mean if they had an external HDD for the PS3 maybe it would sell more.

To all you microsoft fan boys do not forget that sony is not the corporation that is built of off F-ing others, your "saint" microsoft is the well known king of F-ing over their consumers.

And on another note, Phantam: The ps3 is still of a good value with its blu ray player compared to the 360 where you can pay an extra 200 bucks for their hd drive. it all adds up.

Just to let you all know, I purchased the $599 PS3 60 GB from Amazon back in June. As you know the price was cut to $499 recently and Amazon was offering a bunch of free stuff (blu-ray remote, free Resident Evil Blu-ray movie, and 5 free movies via a rebate form) along with the new lower price. I emailed Amazon and they agreed to refund my credit card $100 plus send me the Blu-ray remote and Resident Evil movie all for free. They also said I would be eligible for the 5 movie offer also. For anyone in the same situation, you might try contacting Amazon.

@yabuck: Ah, Yabuck, do you forget the fact that Sony decided you need to install rootkits if you want to listen to their music, not to stop piracy, but simply to prevent you from ripping it to your iPod? Then, when it came out that hey, they installed malware for the hell of it, you needed to jump through hoops to get an uninstaller that actually made your computer EVEN LESS SECURE than with their malware installed?

Yeah, they really scream benevolence. Sony is just as cut throat and greedy as MS, they just aren't as good at it.