I have a theory on when the price drop will occur and it has quite a few points to back it up as well. The date will be January 3rd 2002. If you want to know why, read ahead, if not, just skip it all and be a lazy ass.
1. Final Fantasy X is the PS2\'s ultimate killer app. MGS2 is great, but no one will line up for an mgs2 event at the metreon and dress up like their favorite metal gear chracter like they do for Final Fantasy at the Metreon. It\'s just a much better game sales wise with an incredibly broad appeal. Additionaly, 500,000 copies will be preliminarily released for the PS2 before it\'s official January 3rd release date. 500,000 FFX copies with a PS2 at 299... I think Sony will sell an extra 10,000 PS2 units with that game easily thanks to the massive FF fan base.
2. Sony has already said multiple times that it will not drop the price of its hardware until after the Holiday season and January 3rd is beyond that season, but still in time for Sony\'s Fiscal earnings.
3. Sony production has been ramped up recently supplying retialers with tons of hardware and acessories. It\'s hard going anywhere without seeing the PS2 nowadays when a year ago, it was hard going anywhere and seeing a PS2 period.
4. FFX is their bread and butter and any good console manufacturer knows to put their eggs into one huge basket made of money when it comes to big high petentiol (READ:certainty) releases. Dupe a few thousand suckers who love FF too much to wait with the limited release and get them to buy it at 299 and then treat the rest of your loyal fans properly with a reduced price at 249 or 199 and sell a massive amount of hardware and software units.
This is just my theory and I could be wrong, but there\'s just too much evidence to ignore.