Recently on his
Level Up Blog, N'Gai Croal brought to light a blog posting by Xbox Director of Strategy, and avid 19th century poem fan, Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud, in which he states that the
price drop announced at E3 and subsequent
European Value pack bundle are nothing more than a "everything must go" clearance, in which Sony will make way for new skus, gutted systems, and cheaper prices by Holiday 07.
In his
blog, Vrignaud predicts:
...that you're going to see the creation of a new, low-end SKU this holiday. 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.
Intrigued by
Mr. King of King's prediction, N'Gai contacted him to give his own prediction, stating he thinks that:
...for the remainder of 2007 after store shelves had been cleared of the 60 gigabyte PS3: one SKU, $499.
With the predictions thrown out, Vrignaud did what
any good microsoft employee would do, he challenged Croal to a bet.
The stakes? Well..steak. Vancouver steak, at that. If Vrignaud's prediction comes true by Black Friday, the official start of the Holiday sales season, then Croal will have to treat Vrignaud to a fine steak dinner at a fancy Vancouver steak restaurant. If it doesn't come to light, and Croal's prediction of just a single, $499 sku is true, then Vrignaud will treat the crew of Level Up to the dinner.
Keep in mind, Vrignaud
eats,
sleeps, and
breathes pro-Microsoft, so it's not so surprising that he's being so hard on Sony. In this case, however, I think the more likely prediction is Croal's, it doesn't seem likely that we'll see an even cheaper PS3 by this holiday season, and even if we did, I doubt it'd be so stripped of features.
Then again, so long as you can watch
Talladega Nights on da Blurayz, why would you need things like backwards compatibility and wifi? Anyone? Anyone?
[Via
Level Up]
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TALLADEGA NIGHTS!
Dear Lord Baby Jesus,
Please give us teh cheap Blu-rayz.
Amen.
A word to all of them.
ahem....STFUAJPG
I love N'Gai, but I really hope Vrignaud is right. A $399 PS3 would be the tipping point.
I just don't see that happening THIS year. By next year sure, maybe even early next year, depending on how well the PS3 sells this holiday season.
And, like I said, even in the unlikely event that they did release a $399 sku, I doubt they'd gut out all of those features. If they did, they wouldn't have much left that they could tout as being better than what the 360 offers at the same price.
I agree with Buck. I love N'Gai.
Another thing to point out: if the PS3 dropped to 399, with all those features left out, it would be practically on par with the 360 in what you get right out of the box. So what does that mean for consumers who have neither?
Which one has better games? If you ask me, the 360 has a far better line up of games this holiday season, and with faced with two systems that are nearly identical, and one has more promising games then the other, which one would you go with?
why are their names so damn difficult to say/spell/read? why can't we have a "John Smith" or a "Buck McMan" - you know, good, healthy, american names. apple pie, the flag, and Buck McMan.
Buck McMan cheats at poker, will swindle you out of your healthiest steer and he covets your wife. One hell of a model American.
Buck McMan is a thief of first names!