Blu-ray price drop backs PS3 slash rumors

A fall in Blu-ray production costs has spurred Sony to drop the price of its latest Blu-ray player, which in turn has thrown fresh fuel on PS3 price drop speculation fires.

The drop in production costs has allowed Sony to sell its flashy new player (model BDP-S300) $100 cheaper than expected, reports Next-Gen.biz, with the $499 price tag being less than half the asking price of Sony's Blu-ray players launched six months ago.

A PS3 price cut has been both predicted by industry analysts, and openly called forby major publisher and developer Ubisoft.

Arvind Bhatia, financial analyst from Sterne Agee & Leach, says: "If the cost of Blu-ray is coming down, you can drop the price of anything with Blu-ray in it."

However, Sony has previously denied outrightall plans to cut the cost of the shiny box anytime soon. But that won't stop you hoping, will it?

June 5, 2007