We're sure you've all heard the rumor of the $399 PS3 its been going around the web for awhile now lately but even way back in July predicted by a Microsoft employee. Rumors have pegged an official announcement in October. So doing a little searching and making a few calls and putting all the information together Real Deal Gaming has come up with a well informed/unconfirmed/educated guess of when this rumored $399 PS3 would finally hit store shelves. Read on for the evidence.
What we are going to do is show you some of the evidence that you can see with your own eyes so you can put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself. Our first piece of evidence is located HERE where you can see the release date for Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray is listed as Oct. 30th. One of the rumors around the net is that Sony will have the new 40GB released with a special Spider-man 3 bundle. This makes a lot of sense since Spider-man 3 is #15 on the list of highest grossing movies of all time and will sell very well once released on dvd and exclusively on Blu-ray. This move coupled with a lower priced PS3 and some heavy marketing and advertising would surely move quite a bit of PS3 consoles.
The next piece of evidence is located HERE at the official PlayStation Blog. You'll notice that Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction despite going gold is being delayed by one week to Oct 30th! Now pay close attention to what Greg Phillips Line Producer at SCEA says at the official PlayStation Blog he says "I’m happy to report that we’ve gone gold! The game is finished and will hit a store near you on October 30. As some of you know, this is a week later than the Oct 23rd date stated previously, but the extra wait will be worth it". Now the particular 8 words to note are "but the extra wait will be worth it". So a couple of things to take away from this is. Why would a game that has already gone gold be delayed by a week? Also why would a game in the gold status (meaning ready to be sent to the factory for the discs to be pressed) be worth the wait? They can't add anything else to it if the discs are already being pressed. So why the one week delay and why will it be worth it? Well Real Deal Gaming believes its because they want it released the same day as the 40GB $399 PS3. Also we've been told that their may actually be 3 types of 40GB $399 PS3's released between the 30th and the holiday season one being the stand alone console, one that comes with Spider-man 3 bundled in being dubbed "The PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Movie Bundle" (to help advertise and promote the Blu-ray and media side of the PS3 and one being bundled with Ratchet & Clank being dubbed "The PlayStaion 3 Gaming Bundle".(to help show the gaming side of the PS3) this would fall right in line with comments made by SCE President Kaz Harai in an aticle HERE at the Financial Times website. He is quoted saying "The PS3 is first and formost a videogames machine but we want to say - by the way, its a great Blu-ray player as well." Harai explained that the company would be working closely with Sony Pictures and Sony Entertainment, and that it was a "balancing act" to market the console as both a videogames machine and multimedia device.
Now I want you all to keep in mind that all this information is strictly still a rumor and that things can change between now and the 30th. But we here at Real Deal Gaming are pretty confident that this is close to the mark. With the Ratchet and Clank franchise being fairly popular and getting great reviews this would also be a great move for Sony and would also surely move many PS3's.
This strategy would appeal to those wanting to purchase the PS3 more for games and those wanting to purchase one more for Blu-ray and multimedia capabilities. And for the price of $399 this would be great strategy for Sony.
Also rumored is a PS3+PSP bundle for the holidays promoting already announced and unnannounced Remote Play abilities but we did not obtain any other details on this rumor.
Real Deal Gaming expects an official announcement to be on Oct. 29th the day before these 2 high profile releases. This would give Sony a great start going into the holidays especially with Black Friday a few weeks away from an Oct 30th release.
Real Deal Gaming wants to make it very clear that these things are still very much rumors though we believe the evidence speaks for it self. We still suggest you treat this as a rumor until an official announcement has been made.
