Sony has dropped the price on the PS4 in India permanently. The PS4 Slim 1TB now has a Rs. 29,990 price tag instead of Rs. 33,650. What’s more is, the PS4 Slim 1TB also gets three new pack-in games. These are God of War, Uncharted 4, and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition. You also get a three month PS Plus subscription that grants access to online multiplayer, cloud saves, and two new games each month.

Stocks of new PS4 Slim 1TB bundle are slated to hit stores such as Games The Shop, Amazon India, and Flipkart in addition to outlets such as Croma and Reliance Digital as well by the second week of September. As for the PS4 Slim 500GB? Well, as The Mako Reactor was the first to report, it’s been discontinued in India. No surprise when you consider that its MRP of Rs. 28,580 is in striking distance of what the PS4 Slim 1TB price is at the moment. With more storage and a better variety of games, the PS4 1TB variant is the one to buy if you’re looking to get a console in India right now.

PS4 Pro India price and availability

This makes the PS4 Slim 1TB and PS4 Pro the only two consoles from Sony available officially. And speaking of the PS4 Pro, sources in the supply chain tell us that it should be regularly available from the first week of October. There’s no price drop on the PS4 Pro though, it will still retain the Rs. 38,710 tag.

With a difference of almost Rs. 9,000 between both the PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim 1TB before counting the value the latter has thanks to three great pack-in games, it’s pretty obvious that Sony’s aiming for as mass an audience as it can garner. Perhaps this aggressive approach combined with the usual discounts seen around Diwali could see Sony India grow its PS4 install base to over half a million.

PS4 versus Xbox One India install base

At the moment, the PS4 install base in India sits at around 400,000 versus the Xbox One’s 50,000 as per industry, retail, and supply chain estimates. Sony’s announcement on the India price cut seems timed to counter any potential offers from Microsoft what with the Redmond-based company launching Gears 5 this week, more so with Xbox One bundles for the upcoming shooter hitting retail in India shortly.

Though the pricing is competitive what with the 1TB Xbox One S Gears 5 bundle slated to retail for Rs. 30,990, the lack of distribution is a major hurdle Microsoft is yet to solve.

The Nintendo Switch isn’t available officially in India just yet, though it’s been gaining traction through grey and parallel imports.

PS4 Slim India price to be even cheaper

With the market left dry for the last two months thanks to irregular PS4 stocks, retailers have welcomed the move. It allows for even lower prices in-store offline, which is still a substantial part of the business with industry insiders pegging offline sales to be around 60 to 70 percent of the overall pie.

“While we expected a bigger price difference between the Pro and the Slim, we didn’t expect the games on offer to be as good as what’s been revealed,” a retailer of a Mumbai-based games store tells us on condition of anonymity. “Despite an MRP of Rs. 29,990, we’ll be able to sell it for less if we remove the three games and PS Plus sub, probably hitting a Rs. 23,000 price for end users if they want a lower price. We can always sell those bundled games and subs separately.”

PS4 at retail in India

Thanks to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox One X being non-entities at retail and Nintendo’s presence restricted to parallel imports, how Sony solidifies its presence in a market that’s been its for the taking could give the Indian games market a much needed boost. At many outlets, the PS4, and first-party exclusive games published by Sony constitute excess of 40 percent of revenue and shelf-space in India.

Though in an age of free-to-play and subscriptions, Sony’s distribution strength in India may allow it to take advantage of the disruptions we’ve seen this generation due to how gamers purchase and consume content.

“Consoles have embraced multiple business models this generation that previously weren’t possible on last gen,” said Daniel Ahmad, Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, to The Mako Reactor previously. “We’ve also seen consumers embrace these models as they provide more value over a standard $60 game purchase. F2P with Fortnite, subscriptions with Game Pass and other models have helped grow the industry and we are using a higher revenue per user number this gen as console gamers spend spend more over the generation/lifecycle.”

After all, we doubt that it’s just this price drop that will happen in a vacuum with sources confirming to us that the company does plan to be more aggressive with its marketing and visibility in the country. And with Death Stranding on the way and Ghost of Tsushima yet to come, how Sony operates from a position of relative strength, will be of interest.