PS3 Price Cuts Just Rumors, Says Sony Pres

Those eager to get their hands on a cheap PS3 shouldn't get their hopes up. Early rumors of a $100 price drop turned out to be false despite convincing evidence to the contrary.

Although the Web was alight Friday morning with news of a $100 price drop on Sony’s PS3 console in the United States, Sony’s president, Ryoji Chubachi, later stepped in to squash the rumor. “We have no immediate plans as of now [for price cuts,]” he said in an interview on Friday, according to Bloomberg.

Rumors began to swirl over a price drop when members of the forums at DVD Talk uncovered a future Circuit City flier for the week of July 15 through 21, which had the price of the PS3 marked down to $499. The price drop seemed even more definite when gaming Web site Kotaku produced a scan of the flier in question. GameDaily BIZ later reported that an anonymous retail merchandising manager had confirmed that the PS3 price cut would be “retail-wide.”

It isn’t clear whether the ad was a hoax, a mistake on behalf of Circuit City, or whether the retailer really intends to drop its PS3 prices $100 below the competition. A spokesman for Circuit City declined to comment when approached by Bloomberg.