Following the Sony PlayStation 3 price cut rumors is like watching a soap opera sometimes. Will they or won’t they cut the price? If so, how much? Who do you believe?

Well it appears the wait and the rumors can finally end folks. Sony has officially rejiggered it’s price structure effectively cutting the price of the 60GB PS3 to $499 – down from $599. Interesting enough, Sony decided to take the moment to also announce a new high PS3 model featuring the 80GB hard drive for $599. This system will also include a free copy of MotorStorm. The new 80GB PS3 will be available starting in August.

The PS3 had been suffering from all sorts of problems ever since the North American launch last November. At first Sony had supply problems at launch time causing prices for PS3′s to jump into the thousands on eBay. Once supply caught up, the demand diminished as people wanted to get their hands on the ever fun Nintendo Wii console. The problem thus far? The PS3 quite frankly was too expensive and the content just wasn’t there to justify the purchase of the system. Sure it had Blu-ray but how many people actually looked at the PS3 as a Blu-ray player? Not a whole lot (except for the A/V oriented folks out there).

Thus in short – the price cut is designed to spur demand for the console. The hope is – at $499, people will view the console as a much more attractive option – especially when compared to the Xbox 360 (and in light of their recent problems too!). If console demand shoots up, then content makers will have further reason to create games for the platform because at the end of the day, they need to make money also! Finally, if console sales do increase, this could be the boom that Blu-ray needs to finally win the high definition market over HD DVD.

Personally, a $499 Sony PS3 is a much more attractive option that purchasing a standalone $499 Sony Blu-ray player.

The one disappointment is in the $599 80GB system. Sure it comes with MotorStorm but really folks – Sony could have thrown in a much larger hard drive to spice up the deal. To me – it amounts to 20GB for 50 dollars more. That’s right up there in saying please pay 100 dollars more for 4GB of flash memory on the iPhone. No thanks. I’ll wait for the 120GB or 160GB version of the PS3.

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