1UP interviews Sony VP of Marketing about PS3 price drop

As most of you already know, Sony has confirmed plans to launch a low end PlayStation 3 with a 40GB hard drive priced at $399. This model sacrifices backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles in the hopes of sharpening the focus on PlayStation 3 titles instead. The high end 80 GB model will now sell for a price of $499 instead of the previous $599 price point. For those of you interested in the marketing side of things – check out this 1UP.com interview of Peter Dille, VP of Marketing for the PlayStation. What’s interesting to note is the following. Removing PS2 compatibility from the PS3 isn’t allowing Sony to reduce the price to $399 (sorry – but you can’t tell me PS2 compatibility is roughly $100 dollars in costs for Sony). This argument is really just a distraction point when you think about it. The real reason for the price reduction is simple – Sony needs to sell more PS3s. Without more PlayStation 3 consoles in the hands of consumers, it’s going to be tough getting game developers to commit to the platform. Reducing the price potentially opens up the PS3 to a wider audience of users as mentioned by Mr. Dille in the interview.