Reactions: PS3 slimming down with a price cut, 360 advertising new SKU?
Did you lose weight?
Haha, oh man, my titles entertain me. But anyways. If you’re into recurring rumors about things that won’t happen for months, then read on. According to GameSpot, there’s a reliable tipster who claims that Sony will be cutting the price of the PS3 as well as introducing the long rumored 120GB PS3 Slim this fall.
The source had no specific information on what the new price point will be or if Sony will be tinkering with any of its SKUs. However, he/she did say that Sony is currently flooding retail with the 160GB PS3 SKU and limiting supply of the 80GB model. Apparently, most retailers have about a 60-day supply of the 80GB model left in stock. So it stands to reason that Sony is probably phasing the 80GB SKU out in favor of the new 120GB Slim. Reports of Sony signing manufacturing contracts for the PS3 Slim seem to confirm this, and some sources are even pegging the big release for August.
But not to be outdone, GameSpot says that Microsoft will counter Sony’s move with some SKU jiggering of its own. The rumor is that Microsoft will use some “attractive software bundles” to sell through the remaining Xbox 360 Pro stock before replacing the mid-level SKU with the 120GB Elite model in early September. So it’s not really a new SKU, just a $300 Elite.
But don’t get too excited now. All is not well in rumor land. Kotaku is also reporting that we may soon be seeing ads in our Xbox 360 dashboards. Director at Microsoft’s Advertising Business Group Sean Alexander has let slip that Microsoft “plans to bring IAB specifications for rich media technologies, including Silverlight, to Xbox Live within the year.” With Silverlight being Microsoft’s version of Flash, MediaPost says that “Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser.” And these wouldn’t be the gaming related ads you already see crowding your dashboard, these would be regular ads. Microsoft has yet to announce anything in an official capacity, but when they do, they better mention that Xbox Live is now free or that this is only for non-subscribing Live users. I don’t see how an annual fee could be defended any longer with ads cluttering our dashboards.
4 Comments to Reactions: PS3 slimming down with a price cut, 360 advertising new SKU?
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It would make sense that at some point Sony were thinking about a PS3 Slim. But I have to say that looks so fake! It may be a prototype of what they are planning on, but I do believe it will happen – a PS3 Slim. It will be Sonys next promotion plan – get a slimmer PS3 for half the price!
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Hopefully backwards compatability makes a stunning comeback with the PS3. I think I’ll hold off on buying one until I (and they) know for sure what they’re doing. In other news, I agree with you about the ads bit. I feel they sort of go too far by making me start out at “Spotlight” everytime, but I tolerate it. Full on ads for a Gold account would be unacceptable.
I do think it would appropriate for the Silver accounts to get hit with them, though. More incentive to upgrade, and they’ll pull their weight for their (limited, granted) use of the Live servers.
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Speaking of backwards compatabillity, I recently heard that Sony patented some tech for software emulation of the ps2′s emotion engine, and that said tech could be used on all ps3s with a simple firmware update. I’d cite the article for you, but I’m lazy.
Also, MS responded to the ad thing and pretty much said “we’re not trying to interfere with the live experience, just enhance it.” So yeah, one of those bs answers that completely avoids the important question. At least I never spend much time in my dashboard.
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On an unrelated note, I just looked at the weekly poll and I’m pretty sure Ryan spelled monkeys wrong. I don’t think it’s supposed to be monkies. That sounds like some sort of sweetie-type name for a monk.
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