Sony Announces New PS3 Models and Price Reductions in Europe
We knew this was coming, based on the information leaking out in the last week or so, but now it's official. From GameIndustry.biz:40GB unit to sell for £299 with no PS2 backwards compatibility
Sony has dropped the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 to GBP 349 and introduced an "entry level" 40GB model to retail at GBP 299.
The repositioned prices will come into effect on October 10, with the new 60GB "value pack" including two first-party games for the GBP 349 asking price, along with a single controller.
...At the lower price point is the new 40GB model which only features two USB ports rather than four, and loses the multi-memory card slot and backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 2 back catalogue.
I'll talk more about this in the console post on Monday, but I think this dramatic price cut clearly puts the lie to Sony's statement that they had "momentum" in Europe. At the pre-cut prices, Sony had no momentum anywhere, and all this does is confirm what we already knew--that unless they cut the price dramatically, the PS3 was not viable.
Having said that, Sony deserves credit for what they're doing. They've managed to drop the price of the unit dramatically in ten months, and I fully expect a $399 40GB unit for the U.S. to be announced shortly. So in spite of all their ridiculous bluster publicly, they're managed to respond with a significant move.
Does this "win" the console war for them? No, but it at least keeps them in the game. Does it win the high-definition format war for next-generation DVD's? Yes, I think it probably does.
And does this put enormous pressure on Microsoft? Yes.
Now it gets interesting.
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