We all know that the prices of consoles are quite high as they have only just been released. When do you think these prices will drop by a fair bit? Next year? 2 years? I have a PS3 at the moment and although I would love a PS3, I just can't justify spending that kind of money right now.
If you just buy the new consoles but under used condition, you'll save a fair amount of money. Look around on eBay you may find something extremely cheap but may have a small problem. If you're looking to save money, you should spend time to find these deals and keep looking until you do. Sometimes I would buy a very expensive new phone but it would be cracked so it would be nearly half or more than the usual cost. I would just research on how to fix it and ta-da! I save a ton of money by looking at the alternatives.
Activision actually predicted that the next gen console prices are going to drop faster than the last time around (with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) due to more efficient manufacturing. Last time Sony cut their prices first so keep monitoring the PlayStation!
I don't really see the PS4 becoming that much cheap. The price could drop by $50 at the most after the holidays but that is unlikely. I do see Microsoft releasing a version of their console without Kinect. Just from them removing that they can cut off $100 from the price.
I would not even bother buying any of these consoles personally. You know you will get a 500GB console version 1, and a slimmer version two that is more than twice as good at performance than the original hits the shelves not more than a year or two later. At that time, you can see if you need the newer shiny version, or a older model at a discounted price, because the spotlight will be mostly on that new version console. You will likely pay only 60% of the original purchase price for the old model after the inevitable arrival of a successor model. I have seen this happen many times, and I am much happier with my PS3 Slim than I would have been with the clunker model with all of its downs.
I would imagine that they might drop the prices slightly for next year's Christmas sales, but as for significant drop, I would bank on it happening in 2 years. I personally think it's okay to wait since they don't really have that many games for it now anyway. Also, I usually tend to buy the second version, usually a slim type, so you might want to look into doing the same. I think the PS3 will keep us entertained enough for a year more or two, I personally have a lot more games to catch up on it anyway.
Most probably next Christmas. The reception on both the Xbox and Playstation has been fantastic so I doubt they're going to drop their prices soon. Microsoft even increased the price of their digital games. Let the hype die down a bit, the sales will slow down and around holidays they will want to push sales.
I'm guessing that around 2 years after it's release, then the prices of those consoles will start to drop. They are just waiting for the sales to dwindle before they reduce the price bit by bit, just like what happens to cellphones.
