You might remember this line from our last article: "Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters that 'At present we have no plans' to cut the PS3 price, but our money is still on July 12/15". We don't like to gloat, but we were right.
To be honest, we do like to gloat and as we have stated several times before: no manufacturer would ever announce a price cut before it is effective since this would only mean hurting sales during the waiting period. We understand Sony's denial, but we don't condone it.
As of today, 60 GB Playstation 3 is priced at $499, a $100 less than its previous price. Sony has also announced a new 80 GB model priced at $599. Sony has confirmed that the only difference between the two models is the additional 20 Giga Bytes of hard disk space, which makes the $100 price difference look ridiculous. Sony is aware of that and so they threw in a copy of off-road racer "MotorStorm", but only for a limited time/quantity.
MotorStorm retails for $59.99.
According to Sony, the new 80 GB model is "designed to appeal to the online gaming and entertainment enthusiast, providing ample storage space to download more games and other entertainment content from PlayStation Network". But we can't help but believe that it is aimed towards the more technically challenged console buyers, since any gamer with simple hardware knowledge would be able to buy and install a 120 GB Western Digital hard disk for $104.99.
The 60 GB model price cut is currently effective in North America only and the 80 GB model is scheduled for release in August.
