A reliable Japanese gaming blog, claims to have information that suggests that the Playstation 3 console will not sell for more than 40,000 Yen in Japan. Considering that at current exchange rates 40,000 Yen translates to just over 345 USD the news becomes extremely interesting.
The site claims to have comments made by a very important Sony insider that have quoted the under 40,000 Yen launch price for the PS3. This would bring the entire Sony pricing policy in line with comments made a while back by a company rep who also used the 40,000 Yen figure. The same article also suggests that the 70,000 Yen figure mentioned earlier by the press was pure speculation brought about by the rather odd comments, regarding the console's price, made by Mr. Kutaragi.
During E3 many Sony sources had claimed that the company was planning to match the price of the PS2 at launch, which was also 40,000 Yen. With the PS2, the U.S. launch price was 100 USD below the Japanese launch price (USD 299) but there was a considerable delay between the U.S. and Japanese launches of the console. The timing of the PS3 launch will, most likely, determine the final price of the console for U.S. gamers.
CoolGamer, the Japanese Blog that brought us this news, is considered a reliable source of information and in the past has produced dependable exclusives. One possibility of a mistake is if a Sony source is trying to mislead the website in order to cause Microsoft's X360 launch some grief.
