Well, we’re in the home stretch! A new format for E3 brought a new look and feel, a few challenges and most importantly a great opportunity to show off our wares for all PlayStation platforms. All the planning, preparations and hard work has paid off into what was a great E3 for SCEA. Congratulations to everyone involved in making that happen! And a thanks to all of you guys for your positive comments regarding the press conference and what we showed there. I know Jack was checking out all the comments on his post and really appreciated your feedback. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing our games via the trailers on PlayStation Network. I just wanted to also let you know that yes, we hear you, and we are working to make those great games you saw into more interactive content and demos.
One quick thing before I head to the show for the last day. I just wanted to clarify something. I’ve seen a lot of posts this morning related to the 60GB SKU and the comments by SCEE President David Reeves. As we announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future.
Talk to you again soon, once we get back from Santa Monica.
[…] to be produced so that way this statement never becones ‘wrong’ when they change their tune. PlayStation.Blog ? Another E3 Winding Down, Plus a Quick Clarification […]
Good news. Thanks for posting this Mr. Karraker.
It’s been a great E3, future is looking good.
You guys are crazy if you think Sony would sell a 80gb model with a game for the rest of this generation.
Kaz said the ”$599 sku” because at the moment in time, that’s how much it costs for the bundle.
They are NOT going to replace the 60gb model with a more expensive one. The $599 price on the bundle is temporary until they start selling it without the extra game and controller.
Damn it, you guys are going to make the casual panic.
I repeat, once the 60gb model has sold out, there will still be a $499 model on the market, because there won’t be a limited edition bundle this whole gen.
I thought you guys were smarter than this. =)
@ leetfoo,
You make a good point…Bundles have ALWAYS been more than a stand alone unit. I think people are forgetting that. Remember all the different color PS2 slims packed in with a game for more than $149? I sure do.
When at the time you could buy a stand alone PS2 for $129.
derick, ignoring your complete disregard for factual information regarind the 360’s defect rate (nowhere near 30%, let alont 70%), you asked a very prudent question that I will happily answer.
You asked why is this happening. This is happening because Sony can manufacture the 80gb PS3 for cheaper than the 60gb PS3. Why? Because the 80gb hard drives are far more common among computer companies to put into their products as well as other electronics. Since it is more common, buying the 80gb hard drives in bulk is far cheaper than Sony than buying the tougher to find 60gb versions.
Also, they removed the Emotion Engine, effectively cutting up their backwards compatibility options. That chip was expensive and losing it makes a huge impact on cutting manufacturing costs fo the PS3 unit.
And instead of passing the saving onto you, their devoted if a bit deluded customers, they NEED to keep the prices high and overpriced because their main corporate branches are so over the top in debt right now on the PS3, they HAVE to cut losses the best they can.
Sony is doing this because they need your money. It is why they’ve done all sorts of childish and desperate actions lately (see: claiming Madded, COD 4, etc were PS3 exclusives).
Hope this helps clear up the foggy Sonyland universer you occupy for the time being.
Your truly,
-TGC
Its fine if you’re phasing out the 60GB PS3. BUT you MUST release an 80GB version at $499 without the Motorstorm bundle.
Otherwise I think we might be in trouble.
Look, I like Sony as much as the next guy, but I’m not going to put on rose-colored glasses and skip around humming the theme for “The Smurfs” like everything is okay when it’s clearly not.
Sony has got to make a move, and they’ve got to do it soon. The press conference was great (and why exactly can I not DL that off of PSN?), but this whole 60GB PS3 things just killed that for a lot of people.
@TheHeartlessHero
Well, thats why I am going to wait for a official answer and wait for the holidays. If the panorama is not good by holidays then I am out of this next-gen war. The wii is too familiar and the 360 fails too much.
@thechosenfew88
Glad to hear someone thinks like me, besides my bag humor today.
@derrickgott007
Can you change your hard disk??? No way! You are lying! So I can get so much hard drive and not buying 100 dollars on top? Good to know. *pure sarcasm xD*
As long as there is a $499 or cheaper Sku that includes the 60GB or better model then I wion’t really have any complaints.
Just the current statement seems to lend to not having a $499 SKU after the 60gb SKU runs out and will go back to the $599 structure… Just would like clarification that the pricepoint will stand with a $499 option available even after the 60gb SKU has been wiped clean.
“That having been said, the current 60GB model is vastly superior to the 80GB model anyway because of the EE chip.”
This is just BS. BC on the PAL edition is excellent, you will NEVER notice the difference.
I agree totally with SevenDesigns. Read his post.
SevenDesigns, Sony isn’t in the giving mood. They are getting their asses handed to them on every front of the gaming industry and are losing money on PS3 hand over fist. Their “limited edition” bundle is going to be a lot elss limted than you imagine. Look at Reeves’ other statements to see what Sony plans to do. They will just change the pack in game and leave it at $599.
That is what they are going to do. If you think they are going to just magically do another price drop just because they enjoy losing tons of cash and pissing off their shareholders, you are as delusional as Karraker.
Toodles,
-TGC
@The Giant Crab,
You obviously a Xbox FanBoy, and you wait with baited breath for someone to mispeak a word or two (COD 4, MADDEN)… Do a little research on the Failure rate of the 360. Thats why Microshaft has extended their warrenty to 3 years, to stop a class action lawsuit DUE to the above 30% failure rate of FIRST SALE units…. That is NOT including REFURBS.
http://atvs.vg.no/player/?id=10235
Thanks for clearing this up. And this ‘slip’ was possibly to gauge public reaction. They see that we *WANT* the 60GB and the $499 price tag so we’ll see…
@SevenDesigns
Yes, but people are now going to wait until the $600 SKU is cheaper, thus not buying a console in the meantime. Thus, making it a waste of time.
As a business you just shouldn’t make this kind of thing public. Even if you intend to lower the price of the 80 gig to $500 in the future. BASIC business skills would prevent it.
Sony PR ****ed up, fashion style.
If it’s true that you are discontinuing the 60gb model once current stock is sold, well… you just threw away any good will you got from the price cut, and a good showing at E3.
Re-think this. Lie if you have to, say the guy made a mistake, but take away that 60GB and your hopes and for Playstation may as well be forgotten.
I’m definitely not buying one until this is cleared up.
[…] have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future. PlayStation.Blog ? Another E3 Winding Down, Plus a Quick Clarification […]
@Kraken (160)
According to Sony’s EU bc list, the EE-less models have serious issues with a lot of the games I play on a regular basis i.e. “Should play with noticeable issues”, -that is assuming they are able to launch the games at all.
I have a huge library of ps1/2 games that all run flawlessly on my EE-enabled PS3 today.
I’ll reiterate. Dropping EE is a terrible idea. You’ll find Americans will be much less forgiving than the EU customers when their games don’t work.
give us nsome demos god dam it
@SevenDesigns
Yes, you know. I believe we all think about that. After the 60 model is out, then the 80 model will go down.
So, what is the point on having a 80 gb model that costs 100 more? The game is 60 and the difference between a 60 and a 80 gb hard drive is not 40. Think about the price for Sony. Not for us. At the scale they buy, those items cost them a lot less. It is just a marketing move to earn money.
If they at least say that the price will never go up to 600 and that the no-bundle PS3 will be at 500 or less, I would be happy.
But since they all they do right now is confuse us, I am pissed.
That´s it.
@leetfoo
Ok, fair enough.
I wouldn’t have noticed anyway cause all my PS2 games work great.
what about interactivity with the PSP and Home? If cell phones can do it shouldn’t the PSP????
thanks
The answer is still ambigious. Especially the end. Let’s clarify that part again please.
and I’ll add the Demo. I know it’s not like a direct answer when you say you are working on it. It’s demo’s. Those Weekly Updates with nothing but Trailers? IT’s not appealing because last time I check I can’t “Play” a trailer except to press to Start or pause or Circle to quit.
And Finally, When will you talk more about the Video Download Service? I read someone online SOMEONE from SCE confirmed it’s coming. “Soon” Is like from now until whenever. That’s not the best answer.
@zaku
This would probably be one of the [DELETED] stupidest ways to “guage” public reaction. If you’ve even been reading the news outside of this blog it’s a firestorm out there and it’s Sony getting fried alive. If they really wanted to guage something they’d probably do polling. I will however agree with you though that Sony will see that we want a $500 PS3 as the [DELETED] that’s been flying around should make it painfully clear…
derrick, this wans’t the first time that idiot Tretton “mispoke”. He did the exact same thing last year with multiplatform games. Furthermore, the moron is well known for being the driving force behind the biggest, most utterly blatent lie the gaming biz has ever witness with his claimes that the CGI Killzone trailer from 2 years ago was “real time, in-game, gameplay”.
Sony doesn’t jsut say little freudian slips. They lie as often as their mouths open. And let me educate you on business savvy. If your consoles are 70% defective, the last thing your investors will allow you to do is hand out a 3 year warranty and full back compensation.
I’ve done my research on the defect rate. There are no official figures regarding the defect rate. Not the 30% figure morons online keep throwing around and certinaly only a 9 year old kid with Down syndrome would imagine it was at 70%.
I’m not a fanboy, I’m what you call educated. When you get old enough to drive a car and learn to read up on this whole magical wrold the rest of us call “reality”, we will give a damn what your deluded and fanatical opinion is. Until then, enjoy your 3 week price cut kiddo. Maybe witha little luck PS3 sales in the US can hope to top that mythical 100k mark this month. lawl
Warm Regards,
-TGC
guys, buy a 60 GB PS3, and with the extra 100 you saved go buy a 250 GB 2.5″ sata harddrive from new egg for 150
First of all i must say that I LOVE SONY and all of their products, but I have a complain: Its fabolous to read that price cut of $100, but I live in Mexico and the price of the 60 Gig version its $9600 pesos (price from Walmart), thats around 900 US dollars, so please do something to regulate your prices in Mexico and Latino America, We are Americans too!!!! and i think we are a important part of your users/customers.
I really hope you read this, and if you, please post so we latinoamerican-sony-lovers know that you are really listen to us.
thanks.
NOTE: I posted this before, in the Jack Tretton post “We’re Just Getting Started…” and im glad to see that you read the comments, but please, let us know to latinoamerican user that you are aware of the SUPER HIGH PRICE in latinoamerica, I think you could sell lots and lost of PS3 if you regulate the price around $6000 mexican pesos (equal to $570 US dollars more or less), that would be an awesome price for us (and note that still high)
then again, thanks for making all those GREAT games, and for open this space for us to tell you what we want =D
You guys need to ship alot of 60 gb ps3’s they are starting to sell out in certain stores.
thanks for the clarification, but this is still one confusing mess. i already own a 60 gig so i’m not really concerned, but this is really hard to swallow no matter how you look at it.
@ The Giant Crab,
Why do you even read these boards if all you want to do is bash sony?? I don’t like Mariah Carey, and you don’t see me reading her blog….
I’m not going to waste my time on you any more.
After an excellent E3, achieved by your great sofwtware developers, the least you needed was one of your execs messing up this bad, this is really a big screw up, first David Reeves and later even Kaz Hirai.
http://atvs.vg.no/player/?id=10235
it’s sad for us here in europe. I already own a Ps3 for sure.. what I speak about is…
MR Average people is quite dumb.. they understand only one thing, and it’s PRICE.. not “value you got for price”..
it’s why the Wii is so succesfful while being such a swindle (an overclocked gamecube, a wiimote, that’ is whoo hoo).
..sad
no stop for all the “blabla the wii is soooo much cheaper”
“the PS3 is sooo much expensive”..
really sad
I hope it proves me I’m wrong.
if not, please you can’t engage me as Marketing strategy ^^^
Thank you again for all the work, the best e3, best console (I hope the Wii won’t make you do a cheap last-gen Ps4)
EBE
@blizzard
I agree with you that certain information would be better served if the consumers knew about it, but the fact of the matter is (if we are to believe what the execs say) that Sony has to sell off their remaining 60gig systems. If they tell the consumer that they are selling this one for less because they have a newer and better one coming out, then they will never sell the ones that they have in stock.
Plus, some people (like the general public) will not care about the 80gig version, and take the less expensive 60gig. This is the same as cars being sold each and every year. A new model, with slightly better features comes out, and they discount the previous years models to clear out inventory to move in the new ones. Not saying that PS3’s and cars are oranges to oranges, but we had to figure (and Sony has said that they would likely be releasing a higher end model sooner or later), so this move is not so out of left field.
Either way, Reeves really did screw over everyone by blabbing. 3 months from now, Sony could have said, “well, no more 60gigs, but we’re discounting the 80gigs” and everyone would have been fine with that. Now, the only thing that will satisfy consumers is that they make that announcement now – the only problem is that many many people will likely wait for the 80gig to drop, knowing that they will get a higher end product for the same price.
Sadly, this looks like a lose-lose situation for Sony. They are trying to cover up, but lots of people are still skeptical. Conversely, they can announce their future plans (very unlikely) and screw themselves just the same.
Regardless, I’m a little shocked at this news, but it won’t stop me from enjoying the games that will be coming out in the near future. I will reserve full judgment until Tretton or someone comes out addressing everything (Reeves, and Hirai) have said.
I’m not sure what “foreseeable future” means, but if you guys ARE going to discontinue the 60GB SKU, PLEASE RECONSIDER! I
I don’t mean to be rude, but isn’t foreseeable future business speak for: until supplies run out? His quote of until the end of supply was drastic, but are you continuing production of the 60gig? I’ve heard it cost more, and shouldn’t it be phased out with its lack of the EE?
Am I the only one to believe Mr average People understand only Price.. nothing else. ?
believe me, it’s mission impossible to try educate Mr Average John.
What we (in fact, you beloved Sony) needed here was the same as there in the State.. -> A price drop which make people speaking about it..
Really, I’m sad.
With this announce those rumors are now shut it for good.
Surprise surprise. Multiple SKUs cause massive confusion and/or anger… It happened on the 20GB SKU, it happened on the EU SKU, and now on the 80GB SKU. When will Sony learn?
I hope we can get real clarification by the end of the day. Not some vague ‘flippant’ comments that directly conflict clear video evidence.
http://WWW.PS3FANBOY.COM makes a good point…
Dave Karraker has updated the PlayStation.Blog today with a clarification about today’s “60GB phase out” murmurings. The post begins with a “thanks to the fans” for their E3 support and ends with a explanation about the current situation regarding the 60GB PS3 and its place in the US lineup. Karraker states that there are “ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future.” Nowhere in his post does he deny that the 60GB is being phased out, though his post does infer that what David Reeves said was incorrect. The 60GBs won’t sell out for the foreseeable future.
This makes sightly more sense than the 80GB being introduced just as the 60GB is removed, as Reeves suggested was the case. Instead, the 80GB system can retail for the higher price, allowing the 60GBs to sell out (which we hope to see happening at the end of the year, at the latest, as a result of the Christmas rush). We would then like to see the 80GB model having its price lowered to fill the gap that the 60GB leaves behind. We could say that we “expect” this to happen but the fact is that, with Sony, you never know what they’re going to do.
We have faith in Sony’s pricing strategy. Making such a big deal about a price drop, then removing it three weeks later would be ridiculous. These “ample supplies” should last for a couple of months, at least. We’ll keep you updated as and when developments occur.
The blog works! They got our feedback about demos, thank goodness. I’m relieved you aren’t getting rid of the 60 gig version, that would have been 1 step forward 10 steps back.
@themaninthebox
Of course you need to do something to take your model out of circulation, but I would rather have a 60G model and then buy a new hard drive.
What happens if the people thinks like me and they all just go out and buy a 60GB and then it runs out? Hey, they have the 80GB. But is 600. The same reason why they did not buy the 80 model last season, so they won´t buy it.
If the hard drive would be like 120 GB or 160 I would totally buy the new model.
I think I could have been better to educate the people that they can exchange the disk of the PS3 since it seems like most of the people dont realize that.
I buy one of the first PS3 so I think my EE is still on. I dont mind that. THE FUTURE is the problem.
Well… at least they’re not pulling a Microsoft with so many different pricepoints………… oh… wait…. hmm… that’s rather troublesome isn’t it?
@Fonze,
At least I know that my PS3 will last…
No Red Ring of Death thank god!
Dave Karraker do you know when the Sony E3 2007 Press Conference will be on the US Playstation Store for download?
@THE_Giant_Crab | July 13th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
MS would telle “we have 30% deffective xbox360” that you still would defend it :-)
EA told around 50% of their xbox died in the 6 first months (first generation before MS changing some partner)..
Big commercial saying incredible deffective Rate..
Web site saying incredible deffective rate..
Dumb peolpe (as you like to tell) around the world suffering of incredible deffective rate..
YOU, owning a good XBox360, as YOU don’t had a defective one, YOU Know there isn’t any problem with the XBOX360..
sorry but you’r funny, and pretensious (educated.. lol, and you can attack me on my bad english, I’m stupide I know)
what can we add.. MS returned console with an additional Heat dissipator..but no no, no problem at all :-)
arf, fanboys..
@blizzard
Don’t get me wrong, all this speculation leaves me worried about the future of this system, because I think Sony is right now in a scary hole with how the public is taking this.
And you’re absolutely right – how are you going to have a 10 year life span when the system is killed by bad marketing and exec decisions within its first year?
@ Derrick
Hmm… from a PR and pricing standpoint, Sony really isn’t better off than Microsoft even if Microsofts consoles are failing. Big whup, both companies are in the mudpit and they are absolutely covered in Sh*t.
@themaninthebox,
Sony is only in this “Scary Hole” due to “Chicken Littles” out there.
The PS3 is going to sell like hot cakes due to the $499 price tag. Just look at Amazon.com for proof. 2800% increase in sales the day the price drop was announced.
Another problem is that this seemed so rushed that this price drop (which indeed a price drop) does not look like it.
Why? Because there is still a model for 600 and it gives me more. But what more?
– More disk? I could buy that any day.
– MotorStorm? … I can buy that. What if I don´t like it but I want the EE
– EE? If I don´t have can I still play the PS2 games? well, not all of them, but firmware updates exist right? And the chances are that you will want to play the most known games, which are likely to have a firmware update so the people who does not have the EE could play it.
So, where is the gain of the 80 GB again? I don´t see it.
I have both and i have a launch xbox360 and it still runs great. The only time i ever got red lights on it was because i didn’t have the video cable plugged in all the way witch i think is most peoples problem with the xbox360 is there so afriad that when those red light come on that theres something terriabley wrong by never bother to check if eveything is plugged in properly.