Re: Wal-mart offers Playstation 3 with 10 free movies

I think what Tim is pointing out indirectly is that due to credit crunch and mortgage problems - people will be more worried about saving their homes than spending money during Christmas. In last 10 days (including today), the stock market has fallen 8 times. Signs are not good.. unless consumers go bonkers with shopping.. this christmas is a tough one. Forget about HD stuff!

Still, $499 is a lot of money for most people, regardless if some of them are stupid enough to spend it and put theirselves in debt. It would be wiser to teach little Johnny the ethics of living by your means and not spoiling them by teaching them the art of wreckless spending.

Exactly right. I think that any parent going to buy their kids a PlayStation 3 for the holidays, especially parents that don't make a lot of money, will always opt for the $399 version if they don't have to pay the extra $100.

Yeah, look at last year. Get a Wii at $250 or a PS3 at $500, and what happened? I guess it really goes to show you that "price" does drive the consumer market. I'm sure we'll see the same results this year as the Wii is much more reachable across the board for the average family.

I'm in the market for a game console this year and it looks like I'm going to go with the Wii. It comes with the Wii sports and it seems to be a lotta fun for the family. My brother has all three consoles (XBOX 360, PS3 and the Wii) and he tells me they play the Wii the most, then the 360, then the PS3. In fact he RARELY uses the PS3 cause there just aren't any games for it still.

Yes, price is a factor, but the bigger factor for me, as a parent, would be that the Wii system requires some degree of physical activity, which is why it would be the only system I would buy. PS3 is below Wii sales for that reason as much as price, and will stay above PS3 sales until Sony develops something comparable.

Whats going to happen when little Johnny puts in one of his ps2 games and it doesn't work?
I don't understand if this is such a great game system why all the free movies? Are they trying to tell us their games suck so just buy movies? Sounds like the PS3 has an idenity crisses. Doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up.

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Just like people waited in line to buy them at $600 last year others will buy them at $400 this year.

The way they buy them this year, as gift or as a personal indulgence, will be nothing like the way they bought them last year, which would have been as a personal indulgence supposing they were unable to make some money off of them on eBay.

The "gift-of-the-year" thing died with Tickle Me Elmo, which oddly enough was THE toy that got most people thinking "I'm going to make sure I get whatever the hot toy is next year to sell". Sony was very wise to this...they actually knew that all 400,000 units would be bought if not by those wanting them, then by those wanting to sell them - the sad thing for those who jumped on them is they didn't stop to think if people really wanted a six hundred dollar video game system. Had they only looked back to the Neo Geo, they would have recalled "oh yeah...this is only for people who really love their elite video game consoles.

Anyway, I sip wine on occasion and I drive a Prius, not a Hummer. But when it comes to spending $399 on the Spidey 3 pack it's still too much. I was considering it until they took off the backwards compatibility and the extras...ten free movies with the 40GB system would get me to do it, although I shouldn't...but there's no way in hades I'll do it for the 80GB system at that price.

It's looking as though by the time Sony does make it affordable, Intel's next generation of multicore processors as well as AMD's Phenom processors will be out and they'll be much more affordable and far more versatile [for me] than a dedicated gaming console [slash BD player] and I simply will no longer be interested despite my being very tempted by the PS3 since day one. I will always want one, but I will never own one...that I can ALMOST guarantee.

The PS3 is too expensive, even though I can afford one.

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I'm in the market for a game console this year and it looks like I'm going to go with the Wii. It comes with the Wii sports and it seems to be a lotta fun for the family.

It really comes down to which gamer you are. The Wii is as you say great for the family but lacks killer titles for the more mature gamer. Personally I love the XBOX 360. It has the most impressive line-up of games this fall with titles like:

Halo 3
Call of Duty 4
Project Gotham Racing 4
Forza Motorsport 2
Mass Effect
Lego Star Wars
Scene It
Entire EA Sports Series

And many more with some of the good once exclusive.

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[Post edited by Henning on Nov 21, 2007]

Wow this reacks of desperation, the question is, is it to promote Blu ray or the PS3 gamers side.? Sony is already taking a loss on the console and I know Wal-Mart is not doing this out of the kindness of their heart, i mean wallet. Happy thanksgiving all.

Kilgard