$400 PS3 SKU Rumored for Holidays

September 10, 2007 11:00 AM

An "inside source" at Sony has reputedly given Ars Technica the scoop on a rumored $399 PlayStation 3 SKU with a 40GB HDD. The site lists the new SKU as part of a holiday pricing scheme that will include a $100 price cut for the new 80GB PS3 SKU, putting it at $499.

One or both models will supposedly include a Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray pack-in. Sony's last-gen slim PlayStation 2 would also receive a price drop in the rumored holiday lineup, selling for $99, a $30 drop from the current $129 price point.

The details and breadth of the pricing rearrangement lend some credibility to the rumor. The Spider-Man 3 pack-in makes sense because of previous cross-promotion efforts by Sony, including the Spider-Man 2 pack-in for the PSP and, of course, adopting the Spider-Man font for the PS3 logo.

The timing for the new pricing would work out as well, with Spider-Man 3 arriving on Blu-ray October 30. Sony will also come into $2.9 billion from its Sony Financial Holdings IPO on October 11, giving it enough cash to comfortably handle a holiday price drop, as analysts have predicted.

Ars Technica says its insider has been accurate about predicting the inclusion of HDMI outputs in Xbox 360 Premium consoles as well as the 360 Rock Band bundle's inclusion of a wired guitar controller, though this price speculation is still based on rumor. A Sony rep contacted for comment only told Shacknews the company hasn't made any announcements regarding new pricing schemes.

Carlos Bergfeld

Filed Under

From The Chatty

Refresh Go To Thread

TPSReport

 reply
September 10, 2007 11:20 AM

This just might be enough for me to get a PS3, finally. The $399 40GB looks pretty good. As more devs ramp up, I think more and more good games will finally start to appear on the PS3.
- Carlos Bergfeld
  
   reply
  September 10, 2007 11:26 AM
  
  I agree. This seems fairly legitimate to me, and I would certainly buy a PS3 at $400 and install a bigger hard drive myself if I needed to (but probably won't).
  - d3tached
    
     reply
    September 10, 2007 11:40 AM
    
    That is definitely something that should not be over looked to prospective buyers. Harddrive size is irrelevant to the PS3 since you can just upgrade it to anything you want,
    - TPSReport
      
       reply
      September 10, 2007 11:50 AM
      
      hmm I must've missed the memo on this... so you're saying on the PS3, I can just go and buy a regular PC harddrive and plugged into the PS3 and it'll just work?
      
      And I assume this voids the warrnaty?
      - Grandmoff
        
         reply
        September 10, 2007 11:54 AM
        
        Laptop hard drive... doesn't void anything.. ps3 is a very open system in that regards.
      - Carlos Bergfeld
        
         reply
        September 10, 2007 2:10 PM
        
        It's incredibly easy and also detailed in the PS3 instruction manual. Only warning is the screws are essentially made of butter--you're going to want to use a good PC screwdriver set.
  - captain hampton
    
     reply
    September 10, 2007 12:36 PM
    
    can you use usb external drives? or do some sort of master/slave thing with the existing?
    - theflux
      
       reply
      September 10, 2007 12:54 PM
      
      You can use external usb storage, but only for file storage. The operating system and game cache files still need to go on the internal drive.
    - ttyRazor
      
       reply
      September 10, 2007 12:56 PM
      
      its internal drive is SATA and there's only room for one. I don't know much about how it handles external hard drives, but I think it does support USB ones.
      - [deleted] 716648330
        
         reply
        September 10, 2007 1:43 PM
        
        [deleted]
        
        [deleted] 1271987451
        
         reply
        September 10, 2007 8:09 PM
        
        [deleted]
        
        theflux
        
         reply
        September 10, 2007 11:26 PM
        
        I think this was done pretty early after its release. It was quite ugly looking, but functional.
- aeg1x
  
   reply
  September 10, 2007 7:55 PM
  
  I would definitely buy it at that price point. I just hope it happens here. The last price drop was only in the US. PAL territories stayed at the same (ridiculously high) price point and got a game packed in.
- silverback1138
  
   reply
  September 10, 2007 8:57 PM
  
  The 80GB model at $500? Considering I have about $400 in certificates coming in the next month. That's an easy decision. I've been wanting a PS3 anyways eventually and the fact that I'm not the one paying for it makes it even an easier decision. I'm hoping that's true.
  
  I'm with many people here. At this time, I can only see 3 PS3 games exclusives that I want. I'm looking fwd more for the Blu Ray functionality. My X360 and Wii are more than adequate as far as my main gaming needs until I can put together my beastly PC early next year.
  
  Crazy as it sounds, I also have the HD-DVD add on for my X360 and I've been enjoying the quality. Anyone here have both? Any thoughts? So far, I slightly like the overall library of Blu Ray, but the HD-DVD library has some nice gems.