As we responsibly speculated last week, the PlayStation 2’s price has been cut by $20 from $149 to $129. The move comes a few weeks before E3 and a few weeks after their PlayStation Portable, struggling to compete with the Nintendo DS, saw a price cut as well. “While we continue to innovate and design groundbreaking new products, we remain dedicated to our long-term vision for the PlayStation 2 platform,” Kaz Hirai said, president and CEO of SCEA.
All of this comes in the context of a looming next-generation battle between the PlayStation 3 (coming this November), Nintendo Revolution (also coming out this fall) and Xbox 360. With over 100 million PS2’s sold worldwide, more than doubling the combined sales of both of their competitors (GCN at 21 million and Xbox at 24 million), Sony is positioning a slow transition into the next-generation, whereas Microsoft dove head-first. There is no word yet on whether Microsoft will respond with a price cut of their own on the original Xbox.
