Xbox 360 Guru Bets On $399 PS3
Published by Robert Staehlin July 26th, 2007 in Gaming, PlayStation 3.
Is there going to be a $399 PS3 on the shelves before Thanksgiving in the United States? Andre Vrignaud, Xbox 360 guru and Microsoft and employee, is willing to bet on it.
“My prediction is that you’re going to see the creation of a new, low-end SKU this holiday,” wrote Vrignaud on ozymandias.com.
“It’ll likely remove integrated WiFi, memory card reader, and most controversially, all backward compatibility. (Remember, there’s still some back-compat hardware in even the new “software only” back compat SKUs; removing the remaining CPU is a significant cost savings.) You’ll see a new WiFi dongle made available. And finally, this low-end SKU will likely come with a smaller 40 GB hard drive. The low-end price will be set at $399, with the higher-end 80 GB SKU dropping to $499.”
He boldly predicts that the new PS3 is going to happen much sooner than later.
“So there you go - nothing magic about the current value SKU. It’s just a classic retail technique of clearing the channel for new SKUs. Now we just need to wait a few months for the announcement - it’ll have to be before Thanksgiving, so I’d expect October.”
Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal thinks otherwise. The two now have a steak dinner bet on it. If Sony starts selling a $399 PS3 by Black Friday 2007, Vrignaud wins. If not, free steak for Croal. Let the dramatic tension begin!
What does the guru predict for Xbox price drop?