Gamertell

Sony recently announced that it has reduced the price of the Playstation 3 development kit in an effort to stimulate growth in its gaming library. The kit, called the Reference Tool by Sony, will be available for $10,250 in North America, $8,600 in Japan and $11,250 in Europe. Sony will also begin to integrate additional tools into the kit such as the ProDG development suite by SN Systems. The reduction will almost halve the original cost of the kit and likely encourage smaller or budding developers to embrace the Playstation 3 and its powerful hardware.

The price cut marks a continuation of numerous price cuts involving the Playstation 3 that may be the forced outcome of Nintendo Wii’s overwhelming success. While Nintendo enjoys an extensive library of high-selling exclusives and a net gain per Wii sold, the Playstation 3’s lack of exclusive blockbusters leaves gamers flocking to the less expensive Xbox 360 for many multiplatform releases while leaving Sony to sell its failing console at a net loss.

Interest seems to be stirring, however. Sony recently reported increased sales in response to its new 40 GB Playstation 3. Retailing at $399, the new model finds itself $50 cheaper than the Xbox 360 Elite and only $50 more than the Xbox 360 Premium. Although the 40 GB model has fewer USB ports and no backwards compatibility with the expansive PS1 and PS2 libraries, it still offers Blue-Ray Disc playback. Considering the current prices of standalone Blue-Ray Disc players, the 40 GB model may be the value that casual gamers or movie fanatics have been waiting for.

Read [International Herald Tribune] Also Read [Information Week]