AfterTek

For months Sony has been able to use the price on their Playstation 3 by stating that it was the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market at the time. But all that is about to change. Sony has decided to create its second generation BDP-S300, which always had a value of $599 and decrease that down to $499 for Father’s Day.

At $499 the player now officially bests the 60GB, $550 to $599.99 (depending where you look) 60 GB PS3 (the 20GBer having been culled). The smarts of such a move have to be questioned however since while Sony cannot afford to fall any further behind HD DVD in the pricing war, the ‘cheapest Blu-ray player on the market’ label certainly helped bulk up the PS3’s sales.

Interestingly, Sony’s official explanation is that demand for Blu-ray products has increased (as production costs have reduced) but it could be argued, for once, that such a cut was not in the company’s best long-term interests. Either way, the situation is suddenly that Blu-ray movie buffs on a budget no longer need to buy a PS3. What difference that makes to the console as a whole remains to be seen.