GamesCom, Where All Your Console Rumors Come True

By  |  Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 6:36 pm

ps3slimSo, E3 didn’t really pan out as the place to announce price cuts for video game consoles. The rumored PS3 Slim/$100 price cut remains a rumor, and the Xbox 360 is holding steady at $200 for the Arcade model, $300 for the Pro and $400 for the Elite.

Things will reportedly change at GamesCom, a conference in Cologne, Germany, which starts a week from today. While nothing matches the pre-conference hype of E3, we’ve got two rumors that could shake up the holiday gaming season if they come true.

First, Hong Kong gaming magazine GameWave brings word (via Joystiq) that the PS3 Slim will be announced at Sony’s press conference on Tuesday. An earlier report from French media outlet JVN said the same thing, quoting a “dealer specializing in video games” who said a price cut would accompany the announcement. Additionally, MCV wrote that PS3 stocks are drying up in the U.K., signaling a price cut.

We also heard from Kotaku today that Microsoft will discontinue the Xbox 360 Pro, replacing it with the Elite model at the Pro’s old price of $300. The Elite console has double the hard drive capacity (120 GB) and includes an HDMI cable. This rumor also comes from two places: a Meijer catalog due on August 30 and photos sent by Gamestop employees.

Neither rumor comes out of the blue. In June, a reliable source told Ars Technica that the Pro would be discontinued, and said some killer game and console bundles would help move the console off shelves. As for the PS3 Slim, there are simply too many rumors to mention here. Check out Joystiq’s PS3 Slim category tag to see them all.

What does all of this chatter leave us with? Nothing, of course, but I like the idea of GamesCom as the launching point for lower-priced game consoles. The holiday game rush gets its first legs in September, making an end-of-August price cut attractive to fence-sitters, especially if they’re tempted by the latest blockbusters. I’m generally not a fan of these price cut rumors, because they mostly just inflate our expectations with hot air, but this seems like the best possible time to expect things to happen.

 
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3 Comments For This Post

  1. Seumas Says:
    August 12th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    My entire game collection was stolen along with about $20,000 worth of other home electronics in a home invasion a few months ago and I was putting off replacing the PS3 until either a price drop or a slim version came out. However, I finally decided to drop the $450 on a 160gb PS3.

    Why not wait? Well, I don’t care how “slim” a PS3 is. I have a 60″ television and a full set of 8xx series Bowers & Wilkins speakers (same setup they use at Abbey Road Studio). The last thing I care about is saving a whole inch of space from a thinner PS3.

    More, the slim PS3 will not be 160gb. I believe the rumor is it will be 80gb. And who knows what else you’ll be giving up on the slimmer version? The 160gb version is much easier to upgrade the drive on, but comes with no card reader and only half as many USB slots (the earlier iterations had a flip-up piece at the top where all the ports were hidden).

    It’ll probably use less power, too… but that’s not a significant reason to purchase.

    As for the 360 — the Elite is the only one I would consider buying these days even at the current $400 price point. Unless you’re planning to play on a standard definition television. Otherwise, having HDMI is very nice (I have nothing against component cables, though). And 120gb is nice for installing games when you’re playing them (to save on wear and tear on the optical drive which is an issue unlike with the PS3).

    The real question will be — what chipset will the new 360s have? A lot of places are selling the Elites as “the newest 360 you can get!” except they’re using the OLDER chipset that still has continued problems. Fewer red-rings, but plenty of E74 overheating graphic card issues. The only systems that seem to have the latest chipset are the Arcades, which are more or less useless for a lot of people since they don’t have HDMI or hard drives.

  2. Ricky Says:
    September 14th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    The new ps 3 slim is 120GB.

  3. Kennesawga Garage Door Opener Repair Says:
    January 10th, 2011 at 1:18 am

    Intriguing methodology. I’m suprised I would not notice this on the large news sites to start with. Nicely played!

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