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PS3 gets an upgrade and price drop in Japan

Oh, Sony. Not even out of the gate yet, and you're already having to drop MSRP to make your product relevant.

The Tokyo Game Show took place last week, and during Sony's keynote, Ken Kutaragi dropped two last-minute changes. First item: Upgrade. HDMI is in now, for real, on both models of PS3. No, you probably don't have a TV that supports HDMI yet, but it's nice to know that Sony is preparing for the long haul, expecting that the PS3 is going to be around long enough that HDMI might be useful within it's lifetime. Second item: Price Drop. The 20 GB model was slated to ship for 62,790¥. That price has been dropped to 49,980¥, a price drop of around $110.

The price drop appears to be an attempt to closely match the price of the Xbox 360 Core System + HD-DVD addon (which will run 48,800¥ when they're both released in November). The price of the HD-DVD addon hasn't been announced yet for the States, so we can't really come up with an estimate combo price Sony might try to drop it near here. Adding HDMI to the 20GB US model seems logical enough, since it wouldn't make sense for Sony to produce three different models of PS3. If a price drop is coming here, Sony better announce it soon.

Ok, with that good news out of the way, time for some weird stuff. First, the undisputed most hilarious PS3 rumor I have heard to date: There will be two versions of Gran Turismo HD, and one will ship with no actual content. You heard me. No cars, no tracks, no nothing. And on top of that the game is just a 1080p port of GT4. The idea is instead to go for the long-ago-foretold micro-transaction worst-case-scenario. All content for the game will be bought online, one piece at a time. This is purely extrapolation based on the epic amount of content in GT4 and the preliminary prices mentioned in a few reviews, but the estimated total cost to get all available content is anywhere between $426 and $950, probably somewhere closer to $750. All for a port. No actually new content. Is it true? Is it really going to happen? Does Sony really think this kind of stuff will fly? Probably not, but you have to admit that it's the kind of crazy that completely falls in line with the kind of stuff Sony has been spouting off recently. As insane as it sounds, I can't consider anything "beyond" Sony at this point.

And in even more weird news, apparently Sony had a "tech demo" showcasing the PSP / PS3 interaction at TGS 2006. It was less than convincing. Apparently the "tech demo" consisted of a PS3 and a PSP and a model who pointed at them. The PSP was pre-loaded with a demo of Loco Roco and RIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER. . . and that was it. A tech demo showing interaction with . . no actual interaction. Great job, guys. Just great. I want to know who Sony thought would be impressed by this. And if the answer is "no one", then why display it at all?

Thanks, Sony! Keep up the good work!

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