Article doesn't say anything about blu-ray, but I assume these players will still play blu-ray content ...

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/18/technology/ps3.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

I would assume it would still play blue ray since from everything I have read, the games are now blue ray discs. The only thing that I am bummed about is the inability to play PS2 games. I don't think that was a good move, but typical for Sony these days. One of the largest and greatest selling/purchasing points to me as a person that has owned every playstation created was the ability to play previous games. I haven't purchased a PS3 because I have issues with my PS2's and this is the fourth I have owned.

The lower priced one definately gets my attention, however, thinking about it, I probably would take this as an indication that Blue Ray players and burners are or should begin dropping in price also. With this in mind, I will probably hold out for this as the only game I am really interested in would be Resident Evil 5 anyhow.

However, I guess some good news is just that.

It seems the prices of both blu-ray and HD-DVD players have been dropping rapidly in recent months ... by the holidays they should be very reasonably priced.

Damon Gaskin,

I feel the same way about the 400 dollar model but al least you can pick up either a 60 gig with full PS2 game playback or the 80 gig one that comes with Motor Storm for free, although the 80 gig model only plays back around 80% of PS2 games. I will gladly pay an extra 100 dollars for the 80 gig model.

400 dollars may finally be a sweet spot for some Parents that have kids who want a PS3 but I can predict a lot of them complaining to Sony right after Christmas, saying that they have a broken PS3 because it doesn’t play PS2 games. Hopefully the retailers explains the differences to Parents who plans on buying the 400 dollar model.

Hello Paulo!

To be honest, the main function of it for me would pretty much be the blue ray for the large part. I still have maybe 5 games for my PS2 that I am not even half way through, and probably never will finish, so to be honest, I don't care too much this round as IMHO Sony has gotten enough of my gamers money and those days are pretty much gone. It just seems that it would be the cheapest way to get into Blue Ray because of the little silly format war.

But the other thing I noticed after reading this is that Harry Potter, Shrek 3 and I already have Transformers are all going to be on HD DVD, so with that in mind, it sort of negates even the need to buy a Blue Ray player. I have Encore CS3, which only authors to Blue Ray, but my downconverts for the moment are looking good enough for what I am doing these days. So Sony may really have lost a customer on their "entertainment and gaming system" this round. I am sure if they drop it low enough I will probably buy one, but for all the money I have put into Sony, I got nothing back the last round. So I may sit this one out.

And as for retailers advising parents... LOL HA! With the economy the way it is, and also the "lack" of knowledge I have experienced with what I call the "loco yoko's" at most of the retail stores(I will say that thus far Circuit City has been pretty good), they probably will either not know the difference or simply not tell consumers in the desire to spur sales. Unethical yes, but would not suprise me one bit these days.

If we can just keep the format wars going for another couple of months, prices will keep going down. Then we can declare a victor!

i dont think there will be a 'victor'. Not untill one format brings us recordable media... at RESPECTABLE prices. 35-40AUD for a single layer blank blu-ray. OUCH! htey'll want to cut that into 3rd's before people will actually buy them. And i wont even mention the price of HD-DVD blanks :P

Just give us dual-format players. Then it won't matter which format any particular publisher chooses for their production line, and sales will take off. Until then, we're all waiting...

Just give us dual-format players.With full 1080p support under each format. For under $200.

400 dollars may finally be a sweet spot for some Parents that have kids who want a PS3 but I can predict a lot of them complaining to Sony right after Christmas, saying that they have a broken PS3 because it doesn’t play PS2 games. Hopefully the retailers explains the differences to Parents who plans on buying the 400 dollar model.
I never wanted to say this before but I was a little worried that the new cheaper PS3 might end up being as defective as older XBOX 360s and surprisingly a store in Belgian reported that about 40% of the people who bought the 40GB PS3 returned it claiming that it was defective in certain areas but Sony responded by saying that the 40GB PS3 is just as reliable as their earlier models. It could have been started by a person who is sick and tired of hearing about defective 360’s so they wanted to swift the news to the PS3 or maybe I ended up being right about people thinking that it was supposed to play PS2 games.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/28819/Sony-rubbishes-PS3-40GB-failure-claims

After waiting for about a year, I finally decided to take the plunge and bought a PS3 today. I applied for the Sony Visa card several days ago specifically to get 100 dollars off and I don’t have to worry about interest as long as it’s paid off in 12 months. I was going to get the 80GB model anyway but if I was originally planning to get the 40GB model, that story would have made me think twice. At least their have been no other stores reporting such a high failure rate. It’s a remarkable value getting the top PS3 for 400 dollars with the MotorStorm game and 5 free Blu-Ray movies on top of that but looking at the list of movies to choose from, I am not impressed at all. I would rather get 2 to 3 titles if they allowed me to choose between every Blu-Ray film that is out. In the bright side, I can sell them for maybe 10 bucks each.

Keep in mind that to get the 100 dollar credit, at least $300 worth has to be on the same receipt from SonyStyle and you have to purchase stuff within 45 days of being issued the card to get 12 month no interest.

For you Canadians out there that want a good PS3 deal without applying for a card, I suggest you look at this link. I don’t know if Dell will ever offer similar packages to U.S. customers.
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&category_id=6674&~ck=bt
Unless there is some sort of collaboration with Sony, they must be loosing a lot of money doing this. Well that’s one way to get people to your site.

Kmart is offering 20% off everything in the stores and there are reports on a few sites of people using this for the PS3 but it should also work for HD-DVD players.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=23347
Just don’t blame me if it doesn’t work for you guys. I don’t know the whole story.

To be safe, it’s better to use the coupons in the store rather than printing it out.