Well its interesting - they cant move on too quickly to their next console as the financial environment at the moment means people are more likely to buy games than invest in another console.  So they need to take advantage of the user base they already have.

When it comes to expanding their user base, they cant reduce the price yet since they still haven't made much money from it and Sony are still struggling (recently laying off a huge number of resources from their electronics section).  Then again, a price cut will bring in a huge number of new PS3 fans, like me potentially.  So they're stuck between a rock and a hard place there.

There's good reason to believe a price drop will happen this year.  It's not so much if or when but how much.  A 50$ drop sounds reasonable.  There are rumors that suggest a price drop as high as 100$.   I would bet on a 50$ drop USD though.  I don't know how that would translate in the UK, you guys tend to get ripped off, especially when the pound is losing it's value.  It looks like every major currency is losing it's value, fucking FIAT system.  Anyone with money and any sense would invest in something like gold...


Right now a PS3 is 400$.  USD

 

The basic 80Gb package costs about £290 currently, so I could imagine a price drop to about £250.  A premium 360 costs £160 and an elite costs £210.  I can't believe a Wii still costs £200!

I'll be in the market for a PS3 in a few months - planning to do an impression of Majik and get one along with a new build PC, telly etc. 

If people are expecting a price a drop and are holding off for that reason then Sony's hand will be forced.  Id be gutted if they dropped the price soon after Id bought one.

I heard buying gold is a waste of time.

You might not get rich by investing in Gold but at least your money is safe.  I'll tell you something though, if the economy collapses and the value of our currency drops next to nothing.  Gold would look like a pretty fucking good investment.  Just look at how much the dollar has depreciated over the years.  Only a few decades ago you could buy a car for 1000$  Now a similar vehicle would cost say 50000$.  It's not because the cars are 50 times more expensive to produce, it's because our money is 50 times less valuable.  Of course the average salary has increased but not 50 fold.  Everything is getting more expensive, and everyone is going deeper in debt, even the banks.  We call it inflation but in really it's deflation of the currency.  If you have money in the bank it won't collect interest at the same rate of the deflation of the money.  So the effect is that you collect interest say 1% a year but it's worth 5% less every year.  Good luck finding a bank that gives you higher interest over inflation.  If you're smart you can invest your money in the stock market or something where profit margines exceed the rate of inflation.  So in this sense yes gold is a bad investment, but it's better than keeping your money in the bank. 

So why is our money becoming less valuable.  The short answer is we're printing more money than the true value of the economy.  Why are we doing this?  Watch these videos to understand, this doesn't only affect America.  Most of Europe works under a similar system:

http://video.google.ca/videosearch?hl=en&q=federal%20reserve&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv#

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&ei=s5J7Sa20OZGu-QHRzPGrBQ&q=federal+reserve&hl=en

It's amazing they're getting away with this.  The recession and imminent depression is a direct result of The FIAT Empire.  We talked about this in another thread but it's worth talking about more.

Considering the beating Sony(as well as the rest of the world) is taking, I don't see why they would be dropping the price anytime soon.

Interesting vids Agent.  Wealth is only proportional to your productivity at the end of the day.  Its irresponsible for the powers that be to just print more money for a quick fix.

Money's just a record of exchange.  These days its just a number in your online bank records.  It'd be easy to just add 100,000 to whatever value you currently have in your bank account, and everyone would suddenly be rich and be able to buy Ferrari's - but later down the line when things balance out again, Ferrari will say hang on a minute we don't have that many Ferrari's to give away to just anyone, give us more money.  Suddenly a Ferrari costs 1,000,000 instead.  People will stop buying Ferrari's and become 'poor' again, even though they still have 100,000 in the bank.

To beat the recession, we basically have to increase productivity, rather than just swap around meaningless numbers in terms of inflation, interest and tax etc.  In order to live a life of 'wealth', you need to have just as much to offer in return.

Gold is a safe currency, the amount of it is static and therefore its worth, and it won't get consumed like oil will.  But what are you gonna do, keep a tonne of it in your basement?

There are a lot of big ideas in economy - but at the end of the day you're only worth what you can produce.  Invent something.

Of course none of this will make Sony drop the price of the PS3 anytime soon! :P

You can buy certificates for gold.  That represent a fixed value for gold.  You don't physically buy the gold.  You could though, it's not impractical because gold is heavy and consumes too much volume.  It's impractical because you have to pay for transportation and so one.  It's more expensive to buy physical gold as oppose to buying certificates.  An ounce of gold is currently worth 1100$ CAD.  A brick is millions. 
http://www.goldprice.org/gold-price.aspx
Ideally the graphs should see a horizontal line, with minor fluctuations representing the actual value of gold.  If more people buy Gold it will increase in value.  So people are making some money.  My uncle trades metals.   

When it looks like the price of gold is increasing, it's not.  What is really happening is that our currencies are becoming less valuable.  We're losing purchasing power.  They call this inflation but really most of it is due to a depreciation of our money.  Legitimate inflation is caused when a resource or service becomes scarce, supply and demand.  The average income is not keeping pace with inflation (it can't by the nature of this system) so everyone is forced to take loans including businesses and even the banks.  Anyone who understands what an exponential curve is can see the problem.  We're exponentially going into debt and paying interest on it.  Including our governments.  The FIAT Empire allows a select few business criminals (federal reserve) to print out literally ten times what they have in reserves to the banks to collect interest the banks do the same.  Because their reserves increase everyday the amount they lend generally increases exponentially.  The second tiere of the scam comes with interest.  This system makes us addicted to credit and the interest is funelling money away from the economy.  The hidden tax that only benefits the crooks at the top.  The American government is seriously at risk of bankrupcty.  Most of their money doesn't even come from taxes anymore, it comes from loans they keep taking from the Federal Reserve. 

In the past money was essentially gold.  The coins were made of gold and the bills were exchangeable for gold.  That's what money should be, it represents true wealth.  Now if you look at a bill it might say "this is not legal tender".  This is because it is no longer backed by gold.  Basically 90% of the money we use is counterfeit.  It only has value because we all agree to accept it.

The only reason we avoided a total meltdown is because the FED is smart enough to lower interest to next to nothing, and lending is being halted.  The problem still exists and it will never go away as long as we're slaves to this FIAT system.  It's easilly the biggest and really the only threat to western civilization. 

Get rid of the fractional reserve system Then we would enjoy our true value.  We're actually more productive than we ever have been.  We have more workers putting in longer hours and technology affords us efficiency, we're even more educated.  The problem is that we're being robbed blind.   

Gold is a safe currency, the amount of it is static and therefore its worth, and it won't get consumed like oil will.  But what are you gonna do, keep a tonne of it in your basement?

There are a lot of big ideas in economy - but at the end of the day you're only worth what you can produce.  Invent something.

Oh I know as individuals you have to be productive.  As a whole we need to produce something.  I believe that they type of economy we have will be influenced by how money holds it's value.  Without inflation, hard work will have more merit.  I'm talking macro economics.  My beef is that people are becoming rich simply by lending money.  I understand you need to charge for the cost of operation with flat fees but interest is just pure greed.  Not only this but the same people printing the money decide the interest rates.  They're not controlled by the government, in fact they dictate to the government what they're going to do.  Imagine if a single gas station had a monopoly and not only did they have the complete freedom to decided the sale price of gas but also had the ability to deciding how much mileage every car achieves.  The FIAT system is more sophisticated than this but it's just as crooked.

Like you said true wealth is supposed to match productivity.  The problem is that our money does not match true wealth.  Our economy is based on a massive Cartel.  Not only is it not sustainable as a whole but workers are being ripped off and businesses are constantly being torn apart by the dangerous business cycle.  
        

I love you, Agent. Most people say Im crazy when I say the Federal Reserve is a privately owned monopoly and the only way to get out of debt is for a gov't controlled currency or something with tangible value(gold, other metals, real goods).

And as you said about the US's money not coming from taxes, youre most definitely on the money (pun not intended). The Federal Income tax only covers the interest on what the Gov "owes" the Federal Reserve/World Bank.

The PS3 is not an exspensive machine it you stop to actually look at what you are getting. Either way you put it, either you're getting a fantastic console for free, or you are getting IMHO still the best Blu-Ray player for free.

The problem for Sony, is that if they are going to market it as just a gaming console then the price does become a legitimate complaint when in comparison to the 360. Sony needs to market the PS3 more as an all in one entertainment machine to the public, and not just to gamers. I do agree that there has to be some sort of price drop announced this year, and very soon for Sony to have a chance at all to save face this gen. But as I say that, I keep wondering if they will even bring out a new console when MS brings out their new console, as they have always leaned on the notion that the PS3 is future proof.

canadagamer


The PS3 is not an exspensive machine it you stop to actually look at what you are getting. Either way you put it, either you're getting a fantastic console for free, or you are getting IMHO still the best Blu-Ray player for free.

The problem for Sony, is that if they are going to market it as just a gaming console then the price does become a legitimate complaint when in comparison to the 360. Sony needs to market the PS3 more as an all in one entertainment machine to the public, and not just to gamers. I do agree that there has to be some sort of price drop announced this year, and very soon for Sony to have a chance at all to save face this gen. But as I say that, I keep wondering if they will even bring out a new console when MS brings out their new console, as they have always leaned on the notion that the PS3 is future proof.

Wow, a Blu-Ray player for free!!! OMG!!! Now I can pay $10 more for movies that I'll only watch once! Not that I pay for movies anyway, but thats not the point.

Seriously though, Blu-Ray is a moot point. With old people and soccer moms sticking to DVD and half of the tech-oriented consumers using things like Netflix or streaming from the PC it doesnt matter.

PS3 is getting owned by 360.  I TOLD YOU SO.  None of you believed me back then and now I rub snake feces on your faces.  And no Nitro, the PS3 doesn't still have a chance to surpass 360, stfu.

I dont know, i getting PS3  games instead of 360 games, my 360 sounds like a nuclear reactor booting up when i play on it. Sometimes it wont read discs.

Atleast sony is going to make some money off of me

Vx Chemical


I dont know, i getting PS3  games instead of 360 games, my 360 sounds like a nuclear reactor booting up when i play on it. Sometimes it wont read discs.

Atleast sony is going to make some money off of me

Are you buying enough to help them sell millions of every game?

That was my point in starting this thread. 360 games are selling ridiculously large numbers, where as the PS3 struggles to put a game in the top 10 every month.

Whats really sad is Sony fanboys (typically on Kotaku after Sony brags about its abysmal sales)always claiming "The PS3 has sold more consoles in this point of its lifespan than the 360". Well give them a fucking cookie. The fact remains that the 360 continues to outsell it month by month, and PS3 games are barely making the radar.

Honestly, I would love to see the PS3 and 360 both do well, and both kick the shit out of the Wii. But its not going to happen, and the writing was on the wall from the start. An expensive, hard to program for console with mediocre online support. Now its down to "next year will be the year of the PS3", but next year just doesnt seem to ever come, and is because of a lack of games. I know all you wapanese are going to start flaming talking about this shitty JRPG or that shitty japanese action game, but the PS3 basically only has GoW3 and Killzone 2 this year as far as the American market is concerned.

No but i reckon more and more will get tired of breaking 360's and fuel the fire for Sony.

Im not saying it exceed the 360 but im pretty sure it will sell alot more than it does now

Vx Chemical


No but i reckon more and more will get tired of breaking 360's and fuel the fire for Sony.

Im not saying it exceed the 360 but im pretty sure it will sell alot more than it does now

Breaking 360's? This isnt 2007 anymore.

LOL 360's are still built like garbage.  They're much better than they used to be but anything more than a 3% failure rate is unacceptable and even 3% is high.  Anything before Jasper has at least a 30% failure rate.  We'll se how reliable the Jaspers are...

PS3 is getting owned by 360.  I TOLD YOU SO.  None of you believed me back then and now I rub snake feces on your faces.

You weren't the only one here that predicted Sony's downfall.

Agent Ghost


LOL 360's are still built like garbage.  They're much better than they used to be but anything more than a 3% failure rate is unacceptable and even 3% is high.  Anything before Jasper has at least a 30% failure rate.  We'll se how reliable the Jaspers are...

PS3 is getting owned by 360.  I TOLD YOU SO.  None of you believed me back then and now I rub snake feces on your faces.

You weren't the only one here that predicted Sony's downfall.

stfu and bow down to your prophet.

What i think is that Sony are picking up the pace but very slowly. A year ago when i bought my PS3 i was the only one of my friends who had one. Most of my friends who bought a new console bought a 360. Now a year after only one of my friends has only 360 while all others have PS3s. Some had their 360 break on them and some just bought a PS3 and play on it more.
I see this happen here on the forums too. A year ago if someone mentions Sony they would be flamed for 5 pages and now it seems that most people either got a PS3 or thinking about getting one.

What i think the real question is will Sony be able to make a good position before MS introduces their next gen console?

I think a year ago most of us had ps3. The ps3 flaming on this forum has been very moderate.


Ich bin
du bist
er,sie,en ist
Wir sind
ir sied
sie,sie sind