Analyst: PS3, 360 due for price cuts

I've held off of a 360 due to reliability, not price. If Microsoft can promise me the machine won't die regularly, then I'll pay the going rate for one. Besides, even if they cut the price of the systems, the £10-£20 price differential between 360/PS3 games and their PC counterparts will soon add up, particularly as newer games are getting shorter and shorter.

If the PS3 had a price cut I might be tempted to pick one up. I'm more than happy with my 360, and truth be told there isn'y anything that exites me on the PS3 exlusives front (before anyone says it no I hate MGS games, FF doesnt interest me as much as Fable 2 since every FF game after 9 has sucked, Killzone doesnt interest me since the first one was cack and GT5 is too po faced a racer for my tastes), but hey a cheap Blu-Ray player, sweet! Now if Square ever got round to that FFVII remake, I'd buy a PS3 on the spot just to play it!

yeh..yuck too definetly wins.

I'll consider buying one if they drop to $300 for a Blue Ray player , Gran Turismo, and other games, especially since I am on my 4th X360, and it freezes if i press the xbox button. Microsoft needs to quit sending me bumb X360s... All well, at least they send goods if you have to return it after they just sent it to you... To everything below, Yuck_Too wins

If microsoft and sony want to compete with nintendo more...... then a price cut is what they need to get within the range of the wii

Hmm, if the Ps3 drops it'll take me less time to save up for one, hurrah!

phatom5813 Then dont comment about it you arent going to get people to stop. I am tired of you neutral people, yall act like youre going to change the world by getting people to stop console wars. With out people fighting over which console is better there would be no point of making exculsive games, features, and content for them and there wouldnt be hype about the next games or console since they would all be considered the same. So you and other neutral people need to stfu.

I am all for a price cut. Would love to pick up an Elite to finish off the "Big 3" collection I have going on. Oh and one thing...why does every forum turn into a console bash? If you have a PS3 and love it then great, if you have a 360 and love it then SHUT THE HELL UP!!! Can't stand going on forums and hearing the same rubbish arguement...PS3 is rubbish, who needs blu-ray, 360 has RROD!!! Each console has it's strengths and weaknesses. Pick the one you like or the one your friends have and be happy. Some people can't even afford bread let alone all three!! And before you say anything, I am not a fanboy, have never been, had all 3 systems and got rid of my 360 cuz there was nothing I wanted, premium didn't match the colour scheme I got going on and the Elite was too pricey. I'm into gaming for one reason...GAMES!!!!!!! not arguements and console bashing!!!

It's all about the price. Think the Wii would be #1 if it was $400?...nope Would the PS3 be #1 if it was $200?...yep Know your market and stay focused.

@ DiscGuru101"-I vote you stick to Metacritic and Playstation.com" I like metacritic personally, but Playstation.com, I don't even think they review 360 or Wii games. That's no use to me. And I'm sorry your not open minded enough to try and enjoy the great games the PS3 has to offer, or the Wii for that matter. You're doing yourself a disservice as a gamer in writing off the current libraries as "unoriginal". I'd love to see more original titles as much as the next guy but as an owner of all three consoles who knows what each system has to offer, there's a reason the PS3 is my most played console at the moment.

darkride66: "It saddens me that I've been trusting Gamespot for their reviews for almost a decade now, and now I question every review I read on here." I have always questioned reviews. This could explain your blanket favor of the PS3, despite its "too little too late" unoriginal game library. -I vote you stick to Metacritic and Playstation.com

@darkride66: Lists = Flamboyant Fanboyism -Having said that, the price of gas is starting to impact the economy in lots of ways. Hardware and electronic sales may be down across the board, I know most other goods have been dropping since 2007.

@ cyw1988. Price was the single biggest complaint regarding the PS3, and now prices are down. For that we lost PS2 compatibility and a card reader. OMG, who cares? You want BC, spend a little more and buy an 80 gig. You want a card reader? What the hell for? USB thumbdrives work fine and they pretty much hand them out on street corners now. Even at $400 there is no question that the PS3 is the best console value going. Free online, DVD upscaler, built in wireless, great games lineup and promising future lineup, Blu-Ray, Divx player, web browser, good downloadable selection of titles, fantastic quality, quiet, stylish and feeds your cats. And the difference in price over the 360? One year worth of X-box live subscriptions. That's right, the difference in price is what Microsoft charges their users to play 100% of the games they spent $60. And that's $50 a year extra if you want the "privilege" of playing 100% of your games right out of the box. Please. Don't pretend that there's anything wrong with the PS3's features.

Actually not really... it's saturated as Sony reverse engineers the PS3 and make every newer one have lesser features than the previous one. I don't mind them keeping the same price but put back the emotion engine and the memory card reader!!! It's not the pricing problem. It's what you get for paying that price that's the problem. Nuff said...

im still waiting for a gas price cut!

Cost of consoles/software isn't the problem. The price of gas IS!...lol

Nintendo are greedy (being the ones ALWAYS producing the cheapest console available)? The games for their consoles mostly being up to 20$ cheaper than those of other consoles? Get real, son?

Anyways... Yes, I believe there will be a price drop soon. FYI Sony and MS are NOT NOT greedy. They lost money on each unit sold for a long time. Compare the contents in them and the overall price to equal parts in a PC. PCS are ripoffs compared to consoles. Consoles are exteremly cheap... except for Nintendo... they are greedy because they make money per console and always have. Be fair people.

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@Dionysus444 Why should people care what A) people had to pay for Atari games and B) the costs/loses of the Big 3? The fact is that not everyone has the kind of cash lying around for one of the new game consoles, let alone for extra controllers or a decent software library. Therefore, a price cut could be a big factor in expanding the market beyond early adopters to people who don't necessarily want to pay price tags that have not been matched in recent years by any console.

@darkride66 Alright, alright. As I said, I don't own any of the big 3 but fortunately i can borrow a PS3 from my good friend. I will rent Uncharted and see if i judged it too quickly.

Pretty sure that I'll pick up a 360 of my own if there is a substantial price cut.

My god, I wish you people would stop complaining about prices. Especially someone with the name DecadesofGaming. Anyone remember the prices on a SINGLE Atari 2600 game? I paid $90 for some titles! And that was in the 80s! The price of an Atari 2600 system when if came out in 1977, $249. To compare to todays market, the average (using stats from the www.ssa.gov [US figures]) wage from 1977 was under $10k a year, as of 2006, the average wage is about $40k a year. Comparitively, that means the atari 2600 sold for about $1000 US in todays money. Now stop whining about a $699 dollar PS3 release tag, or a $499 MS crapbox, or even a $299 Wii, let alone the current reduced price, and lets not forget the losses these companies take subsidising their systems for the first year or two.

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More price drops please... STOP BEING GREEDY MICROSOFT.. As the gaming industry has been far more commercially successful than the movie and the music industry for some time now, surely Microsoft and it's competitors could afford to drop prices on consoles that are currently on the market at the moment ?! ....... Since the release of the 360 in 2005 I had been itching to 'Finish The Fight' and continue Freeman's adventures around City 17; plus I had also wanted to get my hands on the Splicers and Big Daddy's lurking deep down in the depths of Rapture.. So over the Chrismas period 2007 I purchased an Elite 360 and all three titles. In the U.K the average price for an 'Elite 360' was £300.. TOO EXPENSIVE.. After playing all three "NEXT GEN" titles I decided to get a refund.. NOT IMPRESSED.. I payed £39.99 for Bioshock; but for what ?! A few water effects, Crap weapons and enemies that repeated the same diologue over and over again. I REFUSE TO BE RIPPED OFF JUST BECAUSE I ENJOY GAMING.. Next time your playing through Episode 1 or Episode 2 of 'The Orange Box' try zooming in with certain weapons and have a good look at the shadows being used throughout both games.. NEXT GEN ! THEY LOOK TERRIBLE.. WAIT FOR PRICES TO DROP. £300.+ IS A LOT OF MONEY TO ME.

PSWi60 "@ darkride66 Thats your opinion about the sites if you don't like them you don't have to visit (your insulting it on its own site irony)" Yeah, I use metacritic now. It saddens me that I've been trusting Gamespot for their reviews for almost a decade now, and now I question every review I read on here. And if it weren't for Halo, I probably never would have bought a 360 either.

I'm sorry if I fell down to the fanboy level just its HALO man HALO like saying bad things about star trek to a trekkie.

"I agree Halo was Massively Overhyped" Ouch.... *cry* (uses $1000 to blow nose)

@ darkride66 Thats your opinion about the sites if you don't like them you don't have to visit (your insulting it on its own site irony) I only use IGN, gamnespot and metacritic....... I like to think I'm not a fanboy but then again I very well may be one I LOVE Halo 1 and 3 (yes no 2) reason I got xbox and 360.

@ hurlytime. I agree with your post, but have a look at Uncharted again. I think Uncharted was the Halo 3 of the adventure/action genre. Like Halo 3, it didn't reinvent the wheel but what it did it did with more flare than most action/adventure games in memory. The weapons were easy enough to use and I was never frustrated during battles, the game looked amazing but what elevated this game wasn't so much the story itself but the cinematic presentation of the story which reminded me more of an Indigo Prophecy type adventure game. The action/adventure genre is unfortunately not as popular these days which is a shame because even with limited replay value I feel every PS3 owners owes it to themselves to check out this title.

I agree Halo was Massively Overhyped, BUT! What it did, it did VERY WELL!!

darkride66 said"Actually, I've questioned Gamespot reviews since Uncharted didn't get a 9 or better, and I've never bothered with IGN. It was a fantastic game that I felt was on par last year with Halo 3 and Bioshock. Halo 3 was another perfect example. Did no one else notice it was just Halo 2, but a little prettier? I know I'm treading on some holy ground here, and I still thought it was a lot of fun but it was not deserving of all the praise that was heaped on it. Bioshock was far and away the better game last year, IMO. " Uncharted was an average, competent adventure/shooter with really fantastic water effects, but it isn't anything mind blowing. Halo 3 was waaaay over-hyped. The sci-fi story can best be described as "serviceable" with it's only redeeming quality being the sheer badassery of the Chief. While it's campaign is short, and rather anti-climactic (see RE4, Metriod Prime Series, Half-Life series, and Painkiller series on how to do awesome FPS boss fights), it still spotlights some solid enemy AI and general gameplay that meshes very well together. Plus, the multiplayer has been balanced so well that it is an addiction to play. What I am saying is this: Halo 3 is way overhyped and does nothing inovative, and is, when you get right down to it, an average game. However, it is rather unique in that it takes all elements of an FPS (graphics, controls, weapons, vehicles, story, design, etc) and does them all really really well, propelling this game to excellence for a design that really meshes well with itself. Uncharted doesn't have that, and while Im glad that you enjoy the game so much, I'm looking at it from the standpoint of the war: it is not a killer app that the PS3 so sorely needs.

PSWi60 said "please if you want to play it GREAT! just don't question the validity of a review site conveniently after a bad review of HAZE" Actually, I've questioned Gamespot reviews since Uncharted didn't get a 9 or better, and I've never bothered with IGN. It was a fantastic game that I felt was on par last year with Halo 3 and Bioshock. Halo 3 was another perfect example. Did no one else notice it was just Halo 2, but a little prettier? I know I'm treading on some holy ground here, and I still thought it was a lot of fun but it was not deserving of all the praise that was heaped on it. Bioshock was far and away the better game last year, IMO. Anyway, IGN gave Haze a 4, which I would normally consider unplayable. When some publications can give 70% scores to a game, others near perfect scores, a 40% certainly sounds a bit out of place, and I also dread the incoming flood of gloating Xbots that will descend on these forums howling with glee because one game got a mediocre score, much like they did with Lair, acting is if no game on their console choice had ever got a score lower than 9. I'm going to wait until I play the game before I judge.

"Nintendo made the mistake of not caring about the next gen of storage and look what happened since the N64. Every year the next generation of systems sold less and less. The wii is doing well, but it still has a LONG way to catch up to the PS2 which is still selling around 10 million systems a year." A console with an exculsive that got 99 on metacritc is bad man i only had 10 games for it (mostly mario stuff) and it was GREAT I couldn't hear those sales figures over "It's me Mario!" same with Halo, xbox, and ps2 maybe im weird but sales don't make things less fun for me

Nintendo made the mistake of not caring about the next gen of storage and look what happened since the N64. Every year the next generation of systems sold less and less. The wii is doing well, but it still has a LONG way to catch up to the PS2 which is still selling around 10 million systems a year.

@Darkside66 "hurleytime said "Also, can I comment on how big a disappointment Haze is?" I'm still going to give it a try. Famitsu gave it almost a perfect score. They must have done something right because Famitsu doesn't just hand out those kind of accolades, and most gaming reviews are just saying it's good, not great (with scores of about 70%). That sounds worth a play to me." Oh noes I've been baited again What The Critics Said All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more... 70 PSM3 Magazine UK So Haze, as a PS3 exclusive, is far from a reason to own a PS3. But there is a certain charm to it. Read Full Review 70 GameDaily It doesn't do anything vastly different from its competitors, but it doesn't need to. Just pop it into your PS3, relax and start shooting. Read Full Review 70 GamePro Also lacking is the game's graphics, which are a huge letdown. Despite its tight story and well-balanced action, the killer buzz Haze cultivates all but dies when it comes to the visuals thanks to janky animations, blurry textures, and downright pitiful special effects-it really is fitting that the game is called Haze. Read Full Review 65 Gamer's Hell Ultimately, Haze is still sitting in the wake of Call of Duty 4, and falls into that category of being just another FPS. Read Full Review 63 Game Informer Haze’s saving grace is its co-op gameplay, which can be fun when you shoot a friend’s Nectar tank from behind to watch him freak out. But these short experiences do nothing to offset the major disappointment the rest of the game delivers. Read Full Review 60 GameTap There are many great ideas within Haze, they just happened to be trapped in an extraordinarily mediocre game. Read Full Review 60 GameSpot A seven-hour campaign and uneventful multiplayer modes just don't cut it in light of the far better modern shooters available on the market. Read Full Review 60 VideoGamer Haze is far from a complete disaster but, given the high level of hype surrounding its release and the pedigree of developer Free Radical, it still stands as one of the biggest disappointments of this generation. Read Full Review 58 The Onion (A.V. Club) More narratively cohesive than the Halo trilogy, but less inventive and compelling than Resistance: Fall Of Man, Haze does finally give us a self-aware portrait of videogame soldiers, and a foil for all the head-butting, "boo-yah" behavior that's been the norm for far too long in the medium. Too bad it's paired with one of the more pedestrian FPS games to come along in recent years. Read Full Review 45 IGN Haze does not live up to the company's reputation thanks to a horrible plot, weak gameplay mechanics and visuals that are truly underwhelming. While playing with friends is enjoyable, not even those are enough to bring this lackluster title around. Read Full Review 40 Giant Bomb Though it was announced just over two years ago, the end result plays like something that was slapped together and shipped after a year or so, rather than something that was painstakingly developed and refined. Read Full Review 40 G4 TV There's nothing remotely compelling enough in the online modes good enough to take the focus away from the disappointing single-player mode. Read Full Review 40 GameSpy It's clear from the bare-bones multiplayer, glitchy graphics and incredibly short storyline that Haze is a game interrupted. Read Full Review (copyed and pasted from your favorite site) please if you want to play it GREAT! just don't question the validity of a review site conveniently after a bad review of HAZE I quite frankly felt IGN was completely right on its assassin creed review but that doesn't mean gamespot didn't have a good one too so if you think famitsu is right go ahead have FUN (remember thats what gaming is Suppose to be about)

darkride66, whether or not Haze is actually competent or not isn't the point. It is one of a limited number of 3rd party exclusives, as well as one of a few shooters on the PS3, Haze falls short of it's lofty expectations. The Sony people, in an advertising campaign only a chimp on crystal meth could come up with, they proclaim that their console to be the herald of the next gen. On the surface, it appears that their console is certainly technically masterful with Blu Ray and powerful processing, but for the Next Gen thing to be actually true, the system exclusives have to be absolutely fantastic. This does nothing but disappoint.

Why does everyone think Blu-ray is the greatest thing since sliced bread? You dont need 50GB of space for games or movies in any HD res. Also it is more expensive to produce a Blu-ray disc than HD-DVD. They are both the same except for storage and cost to manufacture. The reason why HD-DVD lost was because WB pulled out, Walmart stop selling players, and Best Buy to customers to by Blu-ray stuff. Im not saying that Blu-ray is bad but there is no need for a disc like that for this gen of games and movies, even though MGS4 is suposedly to be bigger than a 50GB disc. And MS is working on a Blu-ray add-on.

As soon as the 40gb ps3 drops to $350, I just might have to pick one up!

hurleytime said "Also, can I comment on how big a disappointment Haze is?" I'm still going to give it a try. Famitsu gave it almost a perfect score. They must have done something right because Famitsu doesn't just hand out those kind of accolades, and most gaming reviews are just saying it's good, not great (with scores of about 70%). That sounds worth a play to me.

Also, can I comment on how big a disappointment Haze is? Stepping outside of the console wars for a minute, I want to say that the reason I end up rooting for the PS3 so much is that it is the underdog. Having a balance of power in the console wars critical to consumers. Microsoft has more money than God, and without two competitive rivals keeping it in check, it will be capable of, oh I don't know... cutting corners on console production resulting in overheating and console death AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT! Microsoft can already pull a lot of crap that would cause bankruptcy with anyone else. Do you really want to see how far they can go as the only console maker on the market? We need balance! A win in the console wars for CONSUMERS means a 3-way tie between the big 3. This is why Haze failing so hard is such a disappointment. For every Forza Motorsport 2 we need a Gran Turismo 5. For every Final Fantasy we need a Fable. For every Gears of War we need a ... well, certainly not Haze because it sucks... hopefully Killzone will live up to the hype.

I know that Microsoft and its fanboy army are going to be backing downloads as the next medium, since HD-DVD lost the format war. The fact is that the internet will not be fast enough for the general market in the foreseeable future to be able to download games that are the size and scope of Halo, MGS, Fable, etc. Also, consider the fact that on Blu ray, the data is compressed and encrypted. If you expand that to a form that can be dowloaded onto an HDD, then you are looking at 1 game per hard disk, and THAT is hardly cost-effective. Downloadable games will work for smaller releases, and will be critical to lowering costs for fledgling developers. These games will be a low risk source of independence and innovation. However, the larger titles will continue to be disk based. Ultimately, the 360 is technologically inferior to the PS3. I am NOT SAYING THAT THIS IS A BAD THING FOR 360, ESPECIALLY IF ITS LIFE CYCLE ENDS BEFORE THE PS3's!!! All I am saying is that eventually Microsoft's next console will need to adopt either Blu Ray or a proprietary format since HDD-based games will not be feasible for a long time yet to come.

"Normally I do not get in the whole "Console Wars" seeing as I have both a PS3 and a 360, but so... Why not? Yeah I have to say that when you say it doesn't have a purpose for gaming that is useful, you are completely for writing that. If you are going to bash another console which is at least learn your facts. Blu-ray GREATLY increases your gaming because of the amount of information it can hold. Blu-ray can hold around what 50 gb a disc? That allows for MORE gameplay MORE work put into the graphics and MORE features, look at Metal Gear Solid 4 for example Kojima has stated that he cannot even fit all of the game on to a Blu-ray disc (keep in mine it can hold 50gb) so that allows for these cut-scenes and gameplay with stunning graphics and a long game. Hence it is probably one of the reasons why 360 won't get MGS4 because it would take _ amount of discs to play through the whole game! If it took 2 Blu-rays it would take nearly double that number. So blah blah blah..." ---Shinkus So why not put in a 500G hdd & just install the thing from DVDs? As I said before, YOU DON'T NEED BLU-RAY! Hello? HDDs are cheap and contain much more space. Next-gen systems will not need blu-ray unless they fear that they can't control piracy. However, even 50G of space on a disc is not very much these days. The disc is pointless now. And as for MGS4? So what? I never played the other 3, it never made it to a PC or a non-PS system..or if it did go to a PC, perhaps years after it's release on a PS & nobody heard about it. So I guess you just had to be there right, hoss? Bigger does not mean better with a game...unless you think that large in-game movie sequences are something to get excited about.

I am expecting the next price cut around the fall pre-Xmas season. At which time Killzone, Resistance and new others will join the Xmas console competition.

I agree with the article price cuts are over due for both systems.

the ps3 should have some price cuts, its too pricey, even if its a good system not everyone can afford it.

Everyones getting into one big dispute about this article. Quite needless. I'm guessing that by how long some of the comments are. Anyway, that said, I'm glad that the price cuts are initiating. Should be good for gamers who feel they need to be introduced to a reasonable platform to their liking. Variation of course. They have a lot of suspense to treasure with with what games are being released later on in the year. I'm with them in that instance :) Can't wait!