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[thinkjose1]

I mean, even though they sold a DVD-player-containing PS2 for $300 (when the average player was $400), the gap now is a lot bigger.

Also, Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 price five months before release. Sony has yet to do that. They're lying about a Spring 06 release date?

 

[Teddman]

The short answer is that these are the two questions Sony is asking themselves right now. They are masters of promise big, figure out how to deliver later...

 

[xsarien]

How is Sony putting a $1000-1800 component in a sub$500 console?

Because initially selling consoles at a loss has been the model for the industry for over 10 years.

 

[thinkjose1]

Yes, but that is one component. That isn't including the Cell, expensive ram, Nvidia graphics chip, etc. the loss has never been that big.

 

[urk]

Speculation puts the cost of the Blu-Ray drive at around $100 for Sony. It doesn't cost them anywhere near $1,000.

 

[Redbeard]

Maybe it won't be $500...

 

[Beer Monkey]

First of all, they only have to include the transport, the rest is done by cheap software. A stand alone Blu-Ray player has it's own power supply, remote control, and a bunch of pretty powerful dedicated circuitry to decode the discs, execute the menus, etc.

Second of all, the transport in the PS3 will be a cheap piece of crap compared to what they put in a $1000 dedicated player.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

No one said the PS3 would be sub-$500...

 

[gofreak]

I mean, even though they sold a DVD-player-containing PS2 for $300 (when the average player was $400), the gap now is a lot bigger.

There were DVD players out there for $1000-$1800 when PS2 was released

You can't draw a line between these prices and the cost for Sony to put a drive into PS3.

Yes, but that is one component. That isn't including the Cell, expensive ram, Nvidia graphics chip, etc. the loss has never been that big.

These things also allow them to cut out a lot of stuff that's in the Blu-ray players you're comparing PS3 to.

I'm sure Sony's pleased you're making the comparison, though

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Transport?

 

[LakeEarth]

Because initially selling consoles at a loss has been the model for the industry for over 10 years.

Yeah, but by $100, $150 maximum.

 

[BioFan]

as a consumer and a gamer, I dont care how much Sony is gonna lose, as long as I get my PS3 at the cheapest price possible...
come on sony, shock us...

 

[Wario64]

No one said the PS3 would be sub-$500...

Right, people said it would be $299-$399

 

[truffleshuffle83]

since cell/rsx do the decoding, all your paying for is the drive itself

 

[Elios83]

Because the CE companies simply rape their early adopters with prices much higher than the value of their product.

 

[Oblivion]

Yeah, but by $100, $150 maximum.

Didn't MS lose over $200 for each Xbox?

 

[Lambtron]

This "$400 for a DVD player when PS2 launched" stuff is absurd. My family bought a DVD player in December, 1999, with two DVDs, for $249. And the prices were falling like CRAZY shortly after that.

Anyway, it'll probably launch at $400, and people will go HOLY SHIT WHAT A BARGAIN and buy it based on perceived value. They pay a lot less than "retail" for their components, so $1400 worth of stuff is probably largely off base.

Whatever, if the games are good, I'll buy it. I don't forsee owning a 1080P TV for many, many years, so super high def movies is of little interest to me.

 

[Borys]

As I said countless times before (and I'm a "Sfag" if you will): nothing is set in stone for the PLAYSTATION 3 yet.

That means price and that means (IMO only) including or not the BR player. I can see Sony dropping it to keep the costs low though that wouldn't be the smartest move to make.

My guess (wish): $399 without the HDD but with Wi-Fi and BR player.

 

[madara]

Part of that price has to be early adoptor raping, you know the usual for HT gear so dont panic too much yet.

 

[qirex]

Because it's not $800-1000 worth of hardware? Remember, Sony makes this stuff for themselves. The actual Blu-Ray disc and laser mechanism probably isn't that expensive at all and they have the Cell and RSX to do all the decoding and scaling. They have a single-chip solution for network, wi-fi and Bluetooth. They don't have to pay license fees for Blu-Ray and they also get a discount on the DVD license because they're part of the DVD consortium. Plus when you buy things from outside vendors in lots of 5 million+ you usually get a pretty kicking discount.

 

[White Man]

This "$400 for a DVD player when PS2 launched" stuff is absurd. My family bought a DVD player in December, 1999, with two DVDs, for $249. And the prices were falling like CRAZY shortly after that.

I got my DVD player in early 2000 for 99 bucks. It wasn't a super awesome one, but it had a healthy number of features, and it's still used to this day.

 

[Deg]

Remember these first players are high end products. Right now the Blu ray companies want to get this because Blu ray has the best specs. Its a high profit segment and also the ost cutting edge segment. There will be people paying a fortune for the equipment. The $1600 Player has a ton of extras to go with it too like 1080p dvd and media networking, it will be marketed alongside their 50" 1080p plasma. Many of these products arent even intended to sold to home users yet. Its early days.

 

[Y2Kev]

Sony, in their own format battle, cannot afford to drop BR from PS3.

 

[element]

I mean, even though they sold a DVD-player-containing PS2 for $300 (when the average player was $400), the gap now is a lot bigger.

I bought my DVD player in 1998 and it was only $300. Your numbers are off.

 

[gofreak]

Remember these first players are high end products. Right now the Blu ray companies want to get this because Blu ray has the best specs. Its a high profit segment and also the ost cutting edge segment. There will be people paying a fortune for the equipment. The $1600 Player has a ton of extras to go with it too like 1080p dvd and media networking, it will be marketed alongside their 50" 1080p plasma. Many of these products arent even intended to sold to home users yet. Its early days.

I agree with all that you say - there's certainly a market there right now that's more than willing to pay these prices starting off - but about spec, PS3 does offer 1080p playback. These players do offer extras, of course, but one's gotta think the Samsung player will drop in price for example (offers 720p/1080i out).

 

[kaching]

Also, Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 price five months before release. Sony has yet to do that. They're lying about a Spring 06 release date?

Check your facts. MS announced Xbox 360 price mid-August, 2005, only 3 months before release. And Sony has a track record of cutting it much closer in terms of pricing announcements.

 

[norinrad21]

Just get the extra job like Ken said and quit ya bitchin

 

[Joe]

$70 games, $30 movies?

is there any word on how much blu-ray and/or hd-dvd movies will cost?

 

[teepo]

This "$400 for a DVD player when PS2 launched" stuff is absurd. My family bought a DVD player in December, 1999, with two DVDs, for $249. And the prices were falling like CRAZY shortly after that.

no, you must have bought a divx player.

 

[koam]

The real question is why would someone buy a standalone instead of getting a PS3 and waiting for pricedrops?

 

[gofreak]

$70 games, $30 movies?

is there any word on how much blu-ray and/or hd-dvd movies will cost?

Not yet, except that for Blu-ray at least there'll be a premium over DVD, which is to be expected. Apparently we'll get Blu-ray pricing in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Deg]

I agree with all that you say - there's certainly a market there right now that's more than willing to pay these prices starting off - but about spec, PS3 does offer 1080p playback. These players do offer extras, of course, but one's gotta think the Samsung player will drop in price for example (offers 720p/1080i out).

Yeah companies like Samsung and Panasonic will be doing the most reasonable prices. Panasonic and Philips are rather quiet so far. As is Sharp. Pc drives will be here by March.

 

[Kasra]

I got my first DVD player shortly after the Dreamcast came out and it was less than 100 bucks.

So no, it didn't cost Sony a lot to put a DVD player into the PS2.

If I can buy a new stand alone Blu Ray player at retail for 100 bucks on the day the PS3 launches, I'll eat my shoe.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

no, you must have bought a divx player.

Probably not. I bought my first DVD player (not a divx) back in October of '98 at Circuit City for around 200 bucks. It was a Sony too.

 

[DSN2K]

PS3 will have BR and will be under $400 come the end of 2006.

BELIEVE.

 

[Bebpo]

As has already been said. Unlike with dvd, Blu-Ray IS SONY. They don't have to pay tons of royalties on the parts and they can make everything in-house for cheap. Also as has been said, those $1000 players probably cost like $50 to manufacture and are just $1000 to recoup on R&D and royalties.

 

[Zen]

$70 games, $30 movies?

is there any word on how much blu-ray and/or hd-dvd movies will cost?

If the price of the single disc upped the price of movies and games by that much, frankly the technology would never have been adopted. There's no real expense difference between and HD-DVD and a BR-DVD, it essentially amounts to cents, and both companuies are well on track to attaining DVD level costs of production.

 

[Mashing]

The real question is why would someone buy a standalone instead of getting a PS3 and waiting for pricedrops?

Because the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is probalby going to be half-assed (i.e. PS2/Xbox dvd drive). A standalone player will ALWAYS outperform an integrated one.

 

[Bebpo]

Standalone will probably have:
--Better remote
--More features (FF/RW speeds, zoom, slo-mo, etc....)
--Recordability (big feature)

But since they're both using HDMI output the image quality should be identical.

 

[Deg]

But since they're both using HDMI output the image quality should be identical.

I doubt it. But it depends on RSX. The best will probably be the Pioneer out of the ones announced so far.

 

[turtle553]

Because the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is probalby going to be half-assed (i.e. PS2/Xbox dvd drive). A standalone player will ALWAYS outperform an integrated one.

But a big reason the PS2 DVD wasn't as good is because of the digital-analog converter. If everything is all digital, there should be less/no difference in quality.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I really don't think GAF has talked about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD enough in the last 48 hours.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Ummmm...if you really think it costs $1000-$1800 to manufacture a Blu Ray player.....

 

[Miguel]

DVD Players were around the 200-300 range when PS2 launched IIRC... I'm sure there were some cheaper, I'm sure there were some more expensive, but the average DVD player was around the price of PS3. I almost had my dad convinced of getting a 2nd PS2 for the living room because the DVD player prices were pretty similar. I failed, as he didn't see a need for a DVD player (3 months later he went out and bought a 550 dollar 5 DISC DVD player (only uses it to play music CDs...*confused*).

Anyway, early adoptors ftw! I'll probably buy one BRD movie at launch (Probably the Matrix Trilogy or something), just to have something to show off .

HDD or not, 399 I think will be the price.

 

[Mashing]

But a big reason the PS2 DVD wasn't as good is because of the digital-analog converter. If everything is all digital, there should be less/no difference in quality.

I hope that is the case here... I really do. I hate having to buy a standalone device if I already have one thats integrated (I'm willing to stand for "good enough"... it doesn't have to be outstanding).

 

[BlueTsunami]

I hope that is the case here... I really do. I hate having to buy a standalone device if I already have one thats integrated (I'm willing to stand for "good enough"... it doesn't have to be outstanding).

Fully Software-Decoded BD Player Driven by Cell Processor

High Quality Image Processing Driven by RSX Graphics Processor

1080p/60 12bit Color HDMI Output

32bit Floating Point Color Processing

32bit Floating Point Audio Processing

 

[gofreak]

I wonder if with managed copy it'll be possible to copy movies onto a PS3 HDD - and then, for example, allow one person to watch a movie on one screen while another plays a game on another. I doubt that'd be a feature right off the bat, but it might be nice at some point, (for some anyway!)..

 

[SKOPE]

Just like Microsoft with the original Xbox, expect Sony to take huge losses on the PS3 in an attempt to establish Blu-ray as the successor to DVD.

 

[golem]

I'm thinking Sony told the other manufacturers, hey dont bother making any entry level players, because the PS3 will rule that market. I bet if you want cheap Blu Ray you're going to have to buy PS3.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Underworld!