Sony introduces lighter, smaller PS3 with a slimmer price at $299 to regain market share and potentially capture expand the blueray HD market.

It’s official. Sony today slashed the price of its PlayStation 3 game console by $100 to $299 in an effort to goose sales ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season. Sony also unveiled a sleeker, thinner model of the PS3 that packs an 120-gigabyte hard disk drive, 50% larger than the current model. The newer model is expected to hit store shelves by Sept. 1, said Peter Dille, Sony’s senior vice president of marketing.

"This is a game changing moment for us," Dille said in an interview. "There’s a lot of pent-up demand for the PS3. It’s been a tough economy, and a lot of people have been sitting on the fence waiting for the price cut."

The announcement, made at a Sony press conference in Cologne, Germany, was widely anticipated by a number of analysts who said a price cut would help the company gain momentum. Game publishers have also been pushing Sony for a price cut in order to broaden the base of console owners to whom they can hawk their software.

"A price cut is long overdue on the PS3," said Colin Sebastian at Lazard Capital Markets, who earlier  this year predicted a price cut. "We expect an uplift in unit sales, which is the typical pattern at retail when console prices are cut. But the question longer term for Sony is whether they can sustain market share gains, especially when competing platforms, such as the Xbox 360 lower their prices as well."

Sony’s cost for making the console has fallen 70% since introducing the device in November 2006, according to Daniel Ernst, an analyst with Hudson Square Research.

The PS3 currently lags behind in the three-way console race. Nintendo has sold slightly more than 50 million Wii consoles worldwide, while Microsoft has sold slightly more than 30 million Xbox 360s, according to Sebastian. Sony, meanwhile, has sold roughly 24 million PS3s as of June 30, according to Dille.

Besides the smaller price tag, Sony is hoping the sleeker PS3 will beckon reticent buyers this coming holiday. The new model, which will replace the existing version, is 36% smaller and weighs 7 pounds, or 32% lighter than its predecessor.

"Even in the tough economy, families have been reluctant to give up their at-home entertainment," Dille said. "For $299, you’re getting a game machine, a Blu-ray player and a 120-gig hard drive you can use to download movies. It’s a tremendous value."

Most gamers have to make do with a drab setup comprising couch and standard plasma TV. There’s nothing wrong with that but on the other hand, take a look at nine of these ultimate games rooms below.

These are some of the most elaborate and expensive, home gaming setups and video arcades ever. Playing PS3 or Xbox 360 at any one of these awesome gaming rooms would be like immersing yourself right into the game, rather than just playing it. You can literally feel like you’re in the cockpit, on the battlefield, or surrounded by zombies at any of these ridiculous game rooms.

“The Greatest Show On Earth”

What do millionaires do with all that money?…invest it?…travel?…give it away to charity? Well Jeremy Kipnis decided that he would build a home theater which he calls “the greatest show on earth” - and oh yeah…It only cost him a cool $6 million to build it. This amazing home theater features one of the largest screens ever installed in a home (18-feet wide), and also one of the greatest sound systems on the planet. The sound system consists of 16 subwoofers, 8 tower speakers, 10 tweeters, and 3 center channel speakers, all of which are powered by a group of 35 amps. It’s hard to even imagine what this theater would sound like during a movie or while playing video games. Speaking of video games, this in-home movie theater does include a Playstation 3, and it’s no doubt one of the most engaging video game experiences that any gamer could ever want. source

Three-Screen Theater

Are you kidding me!? This theater is ridiculous. Not only does it have a huge 109-inch Stewart Filmscreen with Runco VX-4000d DLP projector, but on each side of this screen are 2 more 50-inch NEC plasmas. What does this mean? Well…you can watch a movie, the big game, and play Xbox 360 all at the same time – talk about multitasking. The Xbox 360 is mounted right in the center console between two of the 11 comfortable recliners in the room, so you don’t even have to get up to change games. To add to the comfort of your gaming experience at this awesome media room, there is also a full wet-bar at the back of the room, so you can make yourself a drink to sip-on while you play. If you get tired of playing Xbox (why would you?), you can go shoot some pool at the adjacent game room or play on one of the arcade-style games. It’s a rough life! source

Dee Brown’s Game Room

Dee Brown is a former pro basketball player who played with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and the Orlando Magic. He has created what he calls “the ultimate game room” inside of his Orlando, Florida home. This game room is 1,000-square-feet in size, and it features not only multiple console video game systems, but also a nice collection of arcade games. Dee is able to easily switch between playing his Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo consoles since they are all connected to a 4-port switch hidden beneath the sofa. There’s a 61-inch plasma for surfing the web, watching a movie, or for playing video games. This room also has 2 other smaller TVs, surround sound with 2 subwooofers, and an AMX touch-panel to control everything. A row of arcade-style games lines one of the walls of the game room, and are connected to the Internet, so Dee is able to get updates and see other people’s records from around the world for each particular game. He can even download various games to play in his arcade, and he has well-over 2,500 of them including classics like Asteroids, Centipede, and Donkey Kong Jr. source

Jerry Rice’s Home Theater


San Francisco 49er’s ex-wide receiver great Jerry Rice, and his 3 kids, play their video games in this awesome home theater custom built inside of his 20,000-square-foot home. Playing video games in this 30 by 25-foot, $200,000 home theater is about as good as it gets. The screen is an incredible 123-inches, and the 10,000 watt sound system is supposedly better than THX quality. The entire system is controlled by a 10-inch AMX touch-panel screen, which controls lighting, temperature, audio, video, and video games – it also controls the 80 hidden speakers placed throughout the entire house. What’s great about this game room is that it even has a snack bar for when you get hungry, which includes popcorn, drinks, and tons of candy. source

CinemaScope Theater


Stepping in to this home theater in Anniston, Alabama is almost like stepping into an actual movie theater, and in many ways, the technology used here is as good as a movie theater’s. This 28 by 35-foot theater/game room features an awesome 13-foot wide screen that is just slightly curved in order to provide the most accurate picture possible. This theater will play DVDs and games in CinemaScope format, which is the ultra-wide format that the large movie theaters use – it’s even wider than the widest plasmas and LCDs out there. What this means is that there are no more annoying black bars on the screen during movies. When he’s not watching a movie in his incredible home theater, William Wesson (the owner) likes to play his Xbox here, and what an experience it is. He describes it best by saying, “you really feel like you’re in there. A couple of fighter pilot games are awesome. In “Ghost Recon,” you’re actually out in the field, and you have the 360-degree field of sound, and you can hear and feel people approaching from behind you in the game.” source

Waterfall Home Theater

Inside of this 9,000-square-foot home in Danville, Pennsylvania, an amazing home theater will provide you with one of the best gaming experiences of your life. This media room was inspired by the homeowner’s award-winning backyard waterfalls and water garden. They decided to give this room a feeling of “the outdoors”, and they created one of the most unique home theaters in the United States. This theater has just about every feature that you can imagine, and on-top of being an incredible room to watch a movie, it also has dedicated hook-ups for their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This 16 by 26-foot media room features 3-tiers of seating, plus a unique 3-bench rounded seating area in the rear of the theater. Playing video games on the 95 by 54-inch screen, along with the $17,000 Runco VX-1000ci projector and 7.1 surround sound system, would be the experience of a lifetime for any true gamer out there. source

Luna City Arcade

This backyard arcade has to be one of the best game rooms in the world. This incredible game room was created by Peter Hirschberg, and it’s located in Linden, Virginia. He constructed a 2-story building for the arcade that’ about 2400-square-feet in size – bigger than many houses! Right now, Luna City Arcade houses over 60 arcade-style machines, along with some awesome video game memorabilia, and sweet lighting. Despite Luna City Arcade looking like a public arcade, it’s not, so don’t just show-up there and expect to play. Peter does host “game days” every few months, though, where people can come and play in the arcade – there’s even a dollar bill change machine, so you don’t have to bring a pocket full of quarters. If you’re unfortunate enough to not be able to check this place out in person, you can at least drool over the pictures. source

Gamer’s Paradise

This guy’s set-up would make any true gamer proud. This fully-equipped gaming station features a huge 58-inch Panasonic 1080p plasma TV, and just about every gaming console you can think of from the original Nintendo to the Wii. What good would this game room be without a good surround sound system? This one has got it with a Klipsch 5.1 surround, powered by a Harmon Kardon receiver. He’s even got 4 Guitar Hero axes that are ready to rock whenever you are, as well as the Rock Band drumset and mic (not shown). The only problem with this game room is being able to actually put down the controller at some point, which should be difficult considering there’s no shortage of gaming pleasure here. source

Backyard Arcade
If you’re looking for the ultimate game room, this one created by Barry Evans may just be it. He constructed a huge climate-controlled building in his own backyard that would put some professional video arcades to shame. This awesome game “room” features hundreds of video game consoles, tens of thousands of games, and tons of video game collectibles. Barry estimates his video game collection to be worth over $500,000. Just goes to show you that it pays to be a video game geek.

If you are inspired to improve your home gaming setup, you don’t need to spend as much as some of the above to get the results you want. Explore your options for tv cables, projector screens and vogels wall mounts for your existing flat screen TV.

“Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams” Exclusive Discount for Sanriotown Members!

Sanriotown is offering an exclusive discount for its members if they avail of “Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams”, available on Autumn 2008 exclusively on the Nintendo DS. Simply spend 1,000 of your Kitty Points and you get 15% discount when you purchase the game! You’ll even automatically get an open beta account for the much-anticipated MMORPG, Hello Kitty Online!

For more information about this great deal, please click here.

Transcript of a conference call by Gaming Angels…

Hello Kitty Big City Dreams, a Nintendo DS game on offer by the good folks at sanrio it would seem.

Hello Kitty Big City Dreams is a fun, exciting and cute mini game based adventure for the Nintendo DS, featuring the popular Hello Kitty character.

The story finds our heroine, Kitty White leaving her home in Sanrio Town to try to make her mark in The Big City. Kitty moves into a simple apartment downtown adjacent to The Big City. Although she lives on the bottom floor now, she dreams of the day she can move up to the luxurious penthouse. Help Hello Kitty explore her new home and finds all sorts of people to make friends with! Perhaps by helping others and working hard, Hello Kitty will finally say Hello to her dream suite in the sky!

In full glorious 3D!