Peter, I don't think I'd lump Blizzard and their franchises in with the rest of the bunch. Nobody else has managed to even come close to the success of WoW in the MMO space (or in any space for that matter)...and the Starcraft 2 trailers and gameplay footage looks pretty impressive.

But perhaps you were only referring to Activision franchises pre-Blizzard merger.

Developers are watching the PS3 hardware sales numbers quite closely right now. Sony may indeed be willing to drop the price by $100 to gain some much needed momentum in 2009. If the Sony numbers don't start to close the gap on the 360 numbers, certain developers will decide to stay away from the console altogether. Sony is currently offering decent money and incentives (dev. kits; marketing) to developers for the prospect of an exclusive (even if it's only for 6 months) but it won't be enough to get developers into bed if they don't see the console race start to favor the PS3.

Sony, please...please....please, drop your price by $100!!!

And on a side note, DC Online is not coming out until 2010...and I doubt it will be a system seller.

And my wife got swindled by their in-store duplicate Best Buy website. She had checked the price online, and then went into the store to buy the product. The product was priced higher than online, so she asked if she could have the internet price. The sales person said "Sure, let's check the website". He then popped onto their false in-store only duplicate Best Buy website that has all the same content, but with higher prices. My wife was disappointed and then purchased it for the higher price. When she got home she checked online and found out that she had been swindled. She went back to the store and returned the item...and then sent out an email describing the process to her entire email contact list.

During a recession (especially one like this one), Best Buy is going to feel the pinch. And business practices like those listed above are just going to make it all the more difficult for them to stay afloat.

I'd rather buy from Amazon any day of the week.

I don't know why, but I enjoy reading these threads the best. It's like watching a great college basketball game live...the fans make the experience all the more sweet.

Anyhow, I wonder if the release of this comparison is an indication that Sony will NOT be announcing a price cut at CES. It would seem a bit odd to come out with a chart like this, right before you changed the price on the console.

Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that the different departments of a major manufacturer failed to communicate with one another.

No point in lying about numbers when NPD (and other independent tracking companies worldwide) will confirm or deny the numbers when they release their report.