Hot on the heels of the “no plans to cut the price of the PlayStation 3” stance by Sony President Ryoji Chubachi, comes a rumor that the console will indeed be lowered to $499 starting next week. The rumor was based on a new Circuit City advertisement that’s been making the rounds on the Internet showing the next generation console selling for $499 – $100 dollars less than the normal price of $599. It wasn’t initially clear whether this was just a specific to Circuit City or whether this was retail-wide but GameDaily BIZ is reporting that a source has confirmed that the price drop is indeed retail wide. Supposedly, the price drop to $499 will occur on July 12th although you won’t see ads for this until July 15th. We’ll believe it when we actually see it but that ad above sure is convincing.

[Check it out via SlashGear]

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