Culver City (CA) - Based on "preliminary internal data", Sony says that PS3 sales rose by 135% in the first two weeks following the $100 cut on existing PS3 units.

Sony announced the new price right before the big E3 Media & Business Summit two weeks ago on July 9.  The company says that during the first 14 days after the price fell to $500, PS3 sales were 135% higher than the two weeks before the announcement.

Total Playstation software went up 15% during the same period, and peripheral sales rose by 60%, according to Sony.

It was revealed soon after the pre-E3 announcement that the price drop was just a way to get rid of existing inventory.  Sony plans to replace all consoles on store shelves with an 80 GB model priced at $600.  That's the price that used to belong to the 60 GB unit.

Surprising news

Jul 24, 2007 11:05     

This news surprises me because the 20gb console sold poorly at the $500 price point. I would expect these results if the 20gb had been dropped to $400 when discontinued.
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Hindsight is always 20/20

Jul 24, 2007 11:14     

Sony, when you put that massive 80GB drive (when did hard drives get so big, anyway???) into the PS3 and try to pass it off on the American public for $600, you should rename it the PS4. I mean it's such an improvement and clearly worth the extra hundred bucks that it definitely warrants a name change. New Coke was such a dismal failure. you guys just wouldn't want to slap "NEW PS3" on the box...
Ryan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Very Strange...

Jul 24, 2007 11:22     

Price goes down, sales go up! What an amazing concept!
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Price Cut

Jul 24, 2007 11:24     

So Sony is now selling two PS3s a day? I must admit the PS3 is looking tempting but its still too expensive. The price in Canada has actually dropped $150 ($143 US) and is now selling at $550 rather than $700. It's currently the cheapest, widely available BD player here too. Now if only they'd get some decent games.
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Whats really funny

Jul 24, 2007 11:36     

Over twice as many consoles are supposedly being sold but software sales are only up 15%. So basically everyone who wanted a cheap Blu-ray player cashed in and bought one. So the PS3s situation as a games console really hasn't improved too much. If those people had intended to use it for games, they would have bought at least one game. Obviously thats not the case unless no one else has bought PS3 games in that time period but new PS3 owners.

David report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

just imagine if they had games?

Jul 24, 2007 11:45     

they should of save the price drop at the launch of a kick-ass title
coldmast report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

To bad it's only temporary.

Jul 24, 2007 11:54     

When the 60 GB units sell out it's back to $599 for you. Maybe Sony will get the picture?? But I doubt it.
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not that impressive, really

Jul 24, 2007 12:42     

The surge in sales was from all the fence-sitters jumping on one. The effect is temporary and won't sustain itself. It doesn't surprise me sales only slightly more than doubled in the first 2 weeks, but don't expect the same numbers next month.
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Re: Hindsite is always 20/20

Jul 24, 2007 14:09     

To put it in perspective, you can get a 250 GB hard drive from any online E-tailer for around $80. An 80 GB HD for $100 isn't exactly a great deal. Something more current would be at least 160 GB, and given that Sony likely buys that 80 Gb HD for under $20 in mass quantities, that isn't exactly doing you any favors, but yet another way Sony can give you less for more.
Mike report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

New PS3 owner

Jul 24, 2007 14:10     

Count me in as part of the statistics - but I think another reason for the increase is my reason for purchasing now - The model being discontinued is the last one with the emotion engine, so the new systems not be able to play as many of the older games. Once the 60GB are gone, sales will probably fall to less than the current sales.
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It's not only the fence sitters

Jul 24, 2007 14:19     

It's the people that have watched the specs and details on the new 80GB model. IE not having the emotion engine which will lessen the backwards compatibility. I've come close to purchasing a PS3 because I want be certain I can a better chance to be able to play my PS One and 2 games on the PS3 with up conversion. I however, have decided to wait for awhile and purchase a 60GB model off of Ebay at a later time, and then just add in an expanded hard drive if I find that I need it.

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Jerks

Jul 24, 2007 15:07     

Yeah, and the 80GB model uses the PAL system of making previous games playable, http://faq.eu.playstation.com/...cale=en_GB That's what's in store for US now people, look at that crap! Freaking jerks, keeping the damned price point and reducing cost to screw us over. And after all that backwards compatibility touting over the Xbox 360. Pricks!
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Mike

Jul 24, 2007 15:15     

$100 gets you 20GB more and Motorstorm (which is a sweet game btw), and it's not like you still can't play 80% of all PS1/PS2 games still, but I must admit $599 is still way too high. You would think that Sony would take this "sales increase" into consideration because maybe the public DOESN'T want to pay $599 for a console. Either way they should be cutting the price by Xmas, or so I've heard.....

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2 BD movies, and other comments

Jul 24, 2007 19:30     

out here the 60GB version comes with your choice of 2 BD movies, which would make it a steal of a deal if I didnt have to buy a better TV with it. Also, I believe (and I may be wrong on this) that the PS3 comes with a laptop hard drive in it, which does make it a little more expensive for them. Besides, they are still loosing money with these things. It will be a few more revisions before they streamline the parts enough to make a profit at $600, so be happy with what your buying and enjoy 1080P.

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Price Drop free movies.

Jul 25, 2007 00:00     

I picked my PS3 because of the price drop and 5 free movies. Alot of people tote the 20 gig as not selling well even though it was cheaper. Not only was it a lesser hard drive but it didn't have all of the ports and networking abilities. As for the hard drive If you need to tt is easy to upgrade yourself. Otto
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% free Movie Link

Jul 25, 2007 00:02     

In my previous post I forgot the link for the 5 free Blu-ray movies. http://www.bluraysavings.com/ Otto
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80GB cheaper than emotion engine -> price drop

Jul 30, 2007 20:07     

60GB model is the last to feature hardware emotion engine.
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