From engadget.com:
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Hot on the heels of the Circuit City circular rumors, we've gotten word that certain (read: not all) Target stores are offering the Sony game system for $499.99, although it appears that the reduction is making its way through the company's computers. Either Sony is headed towards a price drop, or Target is just being real generous.
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Full Story: engadget.com
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From next-gen.biz:
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Earlier this week, EA confirmed that Medal of Honor Airborne for PS3 would be arriving in November this year, as opposed to the August 28 release date for the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

Executive producer Patrick Gilmore said that the PS3 version is "looking good," but added, "We want to release on PS3 when we can deliver a much more polished and complete experience." Gilmore wants to make sure that Sixaxis functionality with the PS3 version is up to par, and said he doesn't want to "shortchange" PS3 owners.
"I think it's a great machine. We haven't had as long [on the PS3], but the Cell processor is very, very powerful, and the challenge for any developer is figuring out how to leverage all that extra power... We're a platform-agnostic company, so the challenge for Medal of Honor Airborne is always fully leveraging the platform, and not doing what some of our competitors do, which is cater to the lowest common denominator."
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Full Story: next-gen.biz
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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During the week ending July 1, PlayStation Portable sales rose by 5000 units to reach 38,305, while 16,316 PS2s were shifted - an increase of 26 per cent.

PlayStation 3 sales were also on the rise, up by 20 per cent to hit 11,914 units.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From kotaku.com:
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Today we've received word from moles at both Best Buy and Target that they too have word of a price drop. Our Target mole reports that the retail chain's inventory tracking program is listing retail for the 60GB PS3 at $499.99. And a mole at Best Buy tells us they just received their upcoming ads and that they all list the PS3 price at $499.99 as well.

Great conspiracy? Lots of lying moles? A fact-spinning Sony president? Only time will tell.
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Full Story: kotaku.com
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From reuters.com:
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Sony Corp. has no plans to cut the price of its PlayStation3 (PS3) at present to pep up demand and counter surging sales of Nintendo's rival game console Wii, Sony's president said on Friday.

"At present we have no plans," to cut the PS3 price, Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters in an interview.
Chubachi also said that Sony was on track to hit its target of a 5 percent operating margin for the year to March 2008.
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Full Story: reuters.com
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From gamedaily.com:
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Although Sony has yet to confirm a price drop officially, GameDaily BIZ has received confirmation from the retail sector that the PS3 will be dropped to $499 next week. Sony itself recently talked about "refining" the PS3 price. Now it appears to be happening.

A PS3 price cut rumor spread like wildfire across the Internet this afternoon when several sites spotted a new advertisement from Circuit City. The ad as seen on Kotaku lists the PS3 console at $499.99, $100 less than its current price.

As it turns out, a merchandising manager (who wished to remain anonymous) at one of the world's biggest retailers has confirmed to GameDaily BIZ that the price drop is indeed retail-wide and it's scheduled to take place on July 12, although the first wave of ads to promote the PS3's new price won't kick in until Sunday, July 15.
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Full Story: gamedaily.com | kotaku.com
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From ripten.com:
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Retailers estimate that one in every three Microsoft Xbox 360's sold fails leaving frustrated owners staring at the red ring of death, or worst a black screen that reads "disc unreadable". When compared to other systems, former EB games associate Matthiew G said...
"Failure rates for all other consoles were not high enough for EB to consider revising their policies. Most other console systems have a failure rate of less than one percent, including the PlayStation 3."
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Full Story: ripten.com | dailytech.com
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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High Street retailer GAME has reported that total group sales for the business were up 74.1 per cent for the first 22 weeks to June 30, with like-for-like group sales up 45.6 per cent.

Following the launch of PlayStation 3 last March, like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland have grown by 46.6 per cent. Without including PlayStation 3 hardware, software and associated peripherals, like-for-like sales for the region were only up 24.6 per cent.

International like-for-like sales were also boosted by Sony's next-generation console, climbing 42.6 per cent - or 20.1 per cent when not including PS3 stock.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From psu.com:
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Sony will indeed be bringing PS3 users up to date info via the PS3 Store. The company has put up a logo along the top of the PlayStation Store space advertising E3 coverage. As of now clicking the add does nothing but bring gamers to the home page so no official coverage announcement regarding dates, how the store will be updated, or how gamers will access the feature have been disclosed. Sadly since the pre-E3 event for Killzone is an invite-only closed showing, it probably won't be shown.
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Full Story: psu.com
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced a huge increase in European Blu-ray disc sales - attributing the rise to the release of PlayStation 3.

As reported by Tech Digest, more than 180,000 SPHE films have now been sold in Europe. According to Sony, sales have soared by over 1000 per cent since the PS3 launched in March.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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SCEA boss Jack Tretton has criticised what he described as the "different approach" of rival platform holders, stating that Sony won't "bribe" developers to make PS3 exclusives.

Speaking in the latest issue of PSM magazine Tretton said, "Microsoft is too dependent upon the third-party community, and Nintendo is too dependent upon first-party. We like to feel that we got a pretty good mix.

"We have a very different approach to exclusives than some of our competitors," he continued.

"We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform."
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From blog.wired.com:
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Having spent a lot of time this afternoon thinking about all the exclusives that PlayStation 3 has lost over the last tumultuous year, we here at Game|Life decided to catalog them in the runup to E3.
* Grand Theft Auto IV
* Assassin's Creed
* Devil May Cry IV
* Virtua Fighter 5
* Beautiful Katamari
* Fatal Inertia

What's Next? -- The two major remaining third-party exclusives for PlayStation 3 are Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. Konami has certainly never been resistant to putting Metal Gear titles on different hardware; witness Twin Snakes on GameCube and Substance on Xbox. And Microsoft is likely gunning hard for the game. Also, Konami probably prefers making money to losing truckloads of it. All things considered, I'm pretty sure it's already a done deal, given the fact that we hear very credible rumors about it once a week or so.

So that really only leaves Final Fantasy XIII. We know that Square Enix is not blind to the changes in the market. Last Remnant, their latest RPG franchise, will be released simultaneously on both platforms.
Also, Final Fantasy XIII's release is a long, long way off. The EGM crew says that they will miss their stated goal of having a playable demo ready for E3. And Square Enix says the game won't hit until after March 2008.
So does that mean it'll end up on 360? Ehhhhh no. Maybe. Possibly. No. It could remain PlayStation 3 exclusive, although Square Enix would make way more money if it wasn't. But it's not one of those no-brainers like Metal Gear. We'll see where E3 takes us. Maybe the FFXIII logo will be tattooed on Peter Moore's chest.
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Full Story: blog.wired.com
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From next-gen.biz:
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Sony Computer Entertainment America has signed up with research firm Nielsen to measure the effectiveness of in-game advertising, but it's just one of the first steps in a much broader goal, Nielsen told Next-Gen today.

Today's new partnership with Sony will enable more in-depth examination of PlayStation gamers' habits with the ultimate goal of making videogames a more viable advertising platform.

Nielsen rep Karen Gyimesi told Next-Gen in a phone interview that the firm will be plugging into its National People Meter to compile the videogame data for Sony. The 12,000-household U.S. National People Meter is the same base where Nielsen draws its popular TV ratings stats.
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Full Story: next-gen.biz
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From next-gen.biz:
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Sony has again stated that PS3 supply problems are a thing of the past, with full production capacity now ensuring that all core markets are adequately catered for.

Sony's production capacity has been boosted to the extent that it is now manufacturing 1.7 million blue lasers, key components in PS3s and Blu-ray players, per month. The figure should mean that the company will ship 11 million PS3s to market in the 12 months to April 2008.
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Full Story: next-gen.biz
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From news.spong.com:
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Kazunori Yamauchi, head of Polyphony Digital and the genius petrolhead behind the mighty Gran Turismo series, has gone on record to state that Gran Turismo 5 may not be released until late 2008. He's also gone on record to state that the game will NOT contain crash damage on launch.

Yamauchi also reveals that for GT1, one car was one day's work for one man, for GT3 it was one man's work for 30 days, and for GT5 one car is one man's work for 180 days!

Additional cars, content and game upgrades will also be made available as downloads following the game's release. One of the most revealing things here is that crash damage - while not being included in the game initially - may well be made available as a future downloadable upgrade.
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Full Story: news.spong.com
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From reuters.com:
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An executive of Sega Sammy Holdings' game unit said Sony Corp. will likely need to substantially cut the price of its game console PlayStation 3 by the end of the year to stimulate low demand.

Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii outsold the PS3 by a ratio of over six to one in June in Japan, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain, solidifying its leading position.

"Since it's getting difficult to make software availability a differentiating factor, superior marketing and pricing strategy will be the key for Sony," Maeda said.

Game software publishers are increasingly offering new titles for multiple consoles to maximize sales and to recoup hefty development costs in a timely manner.
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Full Story: reuters.com
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