E3 2010: Sony rules out PS3 price drop

The idea of announcing a PS3 drop at E3 has not even been discussed at Sony, SCE UK sales director Mark Howsen has told MCV.

Despite predictions earlier this year that E3 would bring with it price drops to potentially all three home consoles, as E3 has approached the chances of any price move announcements seems to have all but vanished… until now.

First off, Industry Gamers noticed that the Sony Style retail site in North America last night dropped the entry-level price of PS3 from $299 to $199.

Shortly afterwards Engadget spotted that two new PS3 models (CECH-2501A and CECH-2501B) had been registered with the Federal Communication Commission in the US. That two and two were immediately put together is no huge shock.

However, speaking to MCV last month, Mark Howsen denied all talk of a price drop: The bundling strategy will always continue. We offer free games now and that will continue. In terms of price drop, I have no idea. There’s been no discussion internally about that at all. At the moment we’re enjoying good year-on-year growth and as long as that continues we’ll keep on going I think.”

Sony has also since claimed that the Sony Style listing was an error – though whether that’s an ‘incorrect price’ style error or a ‘that shouldn’t have gone live until Tuesday’ type error is a matter of speculation.