the mini Blog

It looks like that CNN has made a mistake. They previously posted an article, which had an interview with the main man of Sony, Howard Stringer. It now appears that CNN has revoked this article. The article came from FORTUNE editor Peter Lewis and was published on the CNN Money website. It linked to a new interview with Stringer which has been published in Fortune magazine. It seems that in the original version of the article Lewis said that Stringer had told him that the PS3 would be priced between $300 and $400 (USD), and would launch in the middle of next year in Japan, followed by a US launch a couple of months later. It now seems that no such thing was mentioned in the original interview and CNN Money has now pulled the quotes, placing an addendum on the article which says that “Stringer has not commented publicly on how much the PS3 is expected to cost, or how soon it will appear in the US after the Japanese launch in spring 2006.”

So where did the information come from, then? The culprit appears to be a Hollywood Reporter article on another interview with Stringer, which appeared a few weeks ago and also appeared to attribute pricing and availability information to the Sony CEO. However, on closer inspection, the article was actually citing an anonymous source within Sony - a fine detail which the CNN article apparently missed, setting the whole rumour mill rolling once again.

To date, then, the only official comments on PS3 pricing have come in the form of admonishments from Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi that the new hardware will be expensive - although some commentators feel that these statements are more an indication of Sony’s desire to keep the PS2 selling strongly than any real indication of PS3’s price point.

So they made a mistake, and a big one as a lot of gamers will suffer a big blow. They expected not to spend much on the PS3 after this rumor, but will their pockets still run deep enough for them to splurge out on a PS3, when it is launched. Even the launch date is still a myth, but whenever it comes out there will still be huge fans that will go and buy it, whatever the cost.