Why are PS3's still so damn expensive?

[Genx87]

I bought a PS3, didnt play a game on it, used it sparingly as a blu ray player. Sold it.

 

[lamedude]

I've never understood why the hardware emu is 99% instead of 100%.

PS3 doesn't read subchannel data off PSX CDs which break some games like FF8-EU that use it for copy protection. IOP&SPU2 are emulated for the PS2.

 

[ibex333]

The console's almost 5 years old, yet it's still hard to find one under 200 bucks. Am I missing something? I'm trying to find one under $100. Am I crazy, or is this realistic?

You are nuts... You cant even get a 360 under $100 unless it's a piece of crap Xenon with no HDMI or broken/RROD. A PS3 is a quality machine, although it may not have certain things that the Xbox has, it still have a capable Blu-Ray player inside, and that alone is worth $50 at least. Add gaming capability to that, and tell me how you expect to get this console under $100....


Having said that, I honestly feel that anyone trying t sell their PS3 with a hard drive less than 320Gb for $200+ is completely nuts. The PS3 itself should be worth no more than $100-120 depending on model(backward compatible or not, etc) add a hard drive to it... Say... I can get a 160Gb 7200 RPM used for $35 EASY!!! So I cant understand how some people get off trying to sell their 120Gb PS3s for $200+. I always laugh when I see this.

It makes me laugh just like when I see someone try to sell a non HDMI Xbox360 for $80-100. Dude.. Yor Xbox is worth $30-50 TOPS. And that's shipped.

 

[lokiju]

If I could get one around $200 bare I'd get a 2nd one. Don't NEED a second one but would be handy at times to have another one in my master bedroom when I have people like my in-laws staying for the weeks at a time stretch that they do. Sometimes I just want to play so damn games and not watch the 50th episode of some crime detective medical mystery show...

I jest, mostly. I'm to cheap to pay for getting another Dish Network box in my guest room as most of the year it's empty so they can only watch TV in the living room. More my fault than theirs and don't want to deny my guest from being entertained.

 

[Tom]

The OP has a good point. The PS3 is poorly designed to scale in price after it's been on the market for years. The reliance on Blu-ray is a handicap in that regard, although there's no real reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than the dvd drive in an xbox 360.

 

[American Gunner]

The OP has a good point. The PS3 is poorly designed to scale in price after it's been on the market for years. The reliance on Blu-ray is a handicap in that regard, although there's no real reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than the dvd drive in an xbox 360.

And there is no reason to take you seriously after this.

 

[jpiniero]

If anything, it's the hard drive. The PS3 has been the same price as the 360 with a HD for a while now.

 

[JD50]

The OP has a good point. The PS3 is poorly designed to scale in price after it's been on the market for years. The reliance on Blu-ray is a handicap in that regard, although there's no real reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than the dvd drive in an xbox 360.

What?

 

[Tom]

What?

I mean as a component part there's no manufacturing reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than a dvd drive.

If there's a difference, it's license fee, which I believe goes to Sony so it wouldn't affect PS3 cost to build.

And then there's the necessity for a hard drive.

Which is my point, the PS3 can't compete at the low end with the xbox and Wii because of its design.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I mean as a component part there's no manufacturing reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than a dvd drive.

If there's a difference, it's license fee, which I believe goes to Sony so it wouldn't affect PS3 cost to build.

And then there's the necessity for a hard drive.

Which is my point, the PS3 can't compete at the low end with the xbox and Wii because of its design.

Uh...hard drive should always be standard anyway. Memory cards are the past. At least in your PS3 you can upgrade the HDD to any size you want but with the Xbox you're stuck with overpriced MS only ones. Hacks don't count because then you're banned from XBL.

Show me one Blu-Ray drive that is as cheap as a DVD drive. You can't because it uses a more expensive laser to read the media. For the record, Sony isn't the sole company get royalties from Blu-Ray technology. They own probably less than 30% overall and the rest of the board members I know of are below.

Apple Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett-Packard
Hitachi, Ltd.
Intel Corporation
LG Electronics
Mitsubishi Electric
Panasonic Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Sharp Corporation
Sun Microsystems
TDK Corporation
Technicolor SA
20th Century Fox
Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group
Warner Bros. Entertainment



Further the following companies are contributors
Acer Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Almedio Inc.
Alticast
ArcSoft
AudioDev AB
BluFocus Inc.
Broadcom Corporation
Canon Inc.
CESI Technology Co. Ltd.
China Hualu group Co., Ltd.
CMC Magnetics Corporation
Corel Corporation
Cryptography Research Inc.
CyberLink
DCA Inc.
Deluxe Digital Studios, Inc.
Dolby Laboratories Inc.
Dreamer Co., Ltd.
DTS, Inc.
Eclipse Data Technologies
Fraunhofer IIS
Fujifilm
Fujitsu Ltd.
Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Lionsgate Entertainment
Lite-On IT Corporation
Macrovision Corp.
Marvell International Ltd.
MediaTek Inc
Meridian Audio, Ltd.
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co.Ltd.
Monster Cable Products
Moser Baer India Limited
NEC Electronics Corporation
Nero AG
nVidia Corporation
Osmosys SA
Paramount Pictures Corporation
Pulstec Industrial Co., Ltd.
RealD
Ritek
Sensio Technologies Inc.
ShibaSoku Co. Ltd.
Sigma Designs
Singulus Technologies
Sonic Solutions
ST Microelectronics
Sunext
Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.,
Testronic Laboratories, Inc.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC)
Visionare Corporation
Warner Music Group
Zoran Corporation

 

[alent1234]

It was established in the Xbox 720 thread that Sony gets most of the money from Blu ray royaltIes

 

[cmdrdredd]

It was established in the Xbox 720 thread that Sony gets most of the money from Blu ray royaltIes

Established how?

Over on AVS forum and other tech forums I visit it's been widely noted that MEI (aka Panasonic) owns the largest share of IP in BD.

Sony basically came to MEI with the idea and MEI had a working cartridge based prototype. Not long after Sony approached them with the idea, Panasonic developed the first actual media and Sony made the first commercially available recorder in Japan.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I mean as a component part there's no manufacturing reason for a blu-ray drive to cost more than a dvd drive.

If there's a difference, it's license fee, which I believe goes to Sony so it wouldn't affect PS3 cost to build.

And then there's the necessity for a hard drive.

Which is my point, the PS3 can't compete at the low end with the xbox and Wii because of its design.

Aside from needing a more expensive laser diode and more focusing options, no difference at all

Blue lasers, they're not red lasers! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_laser

"And wii" ? Of course it's always going to cost more than a duct-taped Gamecube with only standard-def graphics.

 

[Tom]

Aside from needing a more expensive laser diode and more focusing options, no difference at all

Blue lasers, they're not red lasers! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_laser

"And wii" ? Of course it's always going to cost more than a duct-taped Gamecube with only standard-def graphics.

Yea, the diode is more expensive because they don't make as many because Blu-ray didn't replace dvds because most people didn't think it was worth the extra cost that mostly Sony decided to price it at.

Not for technological reasons. If Blu-rays were 70% of the market instead of 20%(guessing), they would cost less than dvd drives.

Hardly anything is driven more by economies of scale than electronic components.

Anyway, the reliance of the PS3 on Blu-Ray and a hard drive are design decisions that mean there's no PS3 that competes for the customers of $125 Wiis and $150 xbox 360s.

 

[Sonikku]

For that matter, how is it the 360 that is the oldest of the bunch and has no blu ray drive still manage to be the most expensive and the best console seller 14 months running?

People keep buying it.

 

[Joepublic2]

Yeah, if $200 is a lot of cash to you I don't see how you can afford to game on the platform when most of the games are north of $40.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

I bought my PS3 bundle on black Friday for $200 and sold LBP2 and Ratchet and Clank for $50 combined. Great dead for a 160GB PS3.

 

[RoboChobo]

It's gonna be hard to find a $100 ps3 new.

I think your best bet is to go to kijiji or craigslist to see if someone is selling their ps3 ( probably used) If you are gonna buy one used, please make sure you do all the testing like powering it up/ able to connect to internet and not banned and of course it being able to play the disc, etc.

the cheapest one i saw brand new was back in christmas/boxing day and it was $199 with a game or two.

I bought mine when it was first release a 60GB one for $599, still works to date with no problems.

 

[Todd33]

For that matter, how is it the 360 that is the oldest of the bunch and has no blu ray drive still manage to be the most expensive and the best console seller 14 months running?

People keep buying it.

And re-buying it.

 

[alent1234]

Established how?

Over on AVS forum and other tech forums I visit it's been widely noted that MEI (aka Panasonic) owns the largest share of IP in BD.

Sony basically came to MEI with the idea and MEI had a working cartridge based prototype. Not long after Sony approached them with the idea, Panasonic developed the first actual media and Sony made the first commercially available recorder in Japan.

humor

someone in that thread was convinced that sony rules blu ray based on some internet rumors from the last decade

 

[dlock13]

I purchased a used one for $150 and I sold that same for $140. You should be able to find someone selling it for $150.

 

[magomago]

OP do you have a job?

 

[shortylickens]

 

[richaron]

as far as i can recall ps3s sold at a loss until recently. At release it was worth the BluRay hardware alone, let alone the rest of it. They (in theory) make money from the licensing, but since they are going down the shitter perhaps they decided to make a little money on it for once...

on a side not, the Cell chip was one of the awesomest processors ever. It's still more than capable these days, but it seems programmers had issues from day one.

[hard to code] -> [less games rollling out] -> [Sony needs money] -> [OP does his thing]

 

[jacqg]

I think you can find one on CL for $100 but it may be a lot shot. And it may be the fat one if you're concerned with which version it is.