Today Sony finally made the PS3 $399 price official in the United States. However, all is not well in Playstation land. The price cut comes at, well, a price. Not only have they slashed the price, but they’ve also slashed the features. The new $399 PS3 will have two less USB ports (leaving you with only two), no mutli-card reader (i.e. memory sticks, sd cards, etc.), a 40gb hard drive, and one of the biggest blows to the console, NO Backward Compatibility. That’s right, no more PS2 games on your PS3. Oh, and the “cheaper” PS3 won’t be on store shelves until November 2nd this year.

In addition to the 40gb PS3 at $399, Sony will be offering it’s 80gb PS3 at a reduced $499, and this model still offers backward compatibility (through software). This price cut should be effective immediately, although your mileage may vary.

These price drops finally bring the PS3 into the realm of the Xbox 360. I have to admit, while I’m not the biggest PS3 fan (where’s the games Sony?), this price drop is finally, maybe getting me interested in buying a PS3, even if it is just an over hyped Blue-Ray player. At least the online network is free.

Link: Save $100 on PLAYSTATION®3 (80GB). Now only $499.99.

Boom!