Surely everybody in the whole world knows that the base price of the PS3 makes it currently the most expensive of this generation of consoles, and it probably doesn’t take a financial genius to work out that you probably sell more of something if it costs less. The story of a PS3 price cut has never really gone away, it has been around practically as long as the PS3 itself, but now it may be, just about, possibly be almost time for it to happen.
Reports are coming out of the US that an employee at EB Games has knowledge that a price cut will occur on March 22nd, with the price of the 80GB falling from $399 to $300. Should we hold this information on a pedestal and take an unnamed employee’s word? I don’t think so, but C&VG are also reporting that they have received word from a major UK retailer (GAME & GameStation) that they have been contacted by Sony saying that PS3 & PSP price cut is definitely coming soon.
If we add the two sources together does that make the rumours any more credible? Possibly, but Sony aren’t going to say that because it will only harm sales in the run up to a price drop.
It could be said that there is a case for not having a price cut, because in a way (in the UK at least, and possibly Euro-zone) we’re already benefiting from one. The PS3 has retail price of £299, however a quick look around the Internet and you’ll see it’s available for far less than that, for example it’s available from Amazon for £289 bundled with Killzone 2 (which they sell for £35) so in that particular deal the PS3 is technically only £255, being roughly 15% below the recommended price.
It could even be argued that there is the case for a price increase, if we were to take into account that the GBP is around 20% down against the Euro which is also down against the Yen, then an increase in price equal to this fluctuation wouldn’t have been surprising. Thankfully that hasn’t happened, but a price cut might finally be just around the corner.
Via 2old2play, C&VG.