With Microsoft Xbox 360 being a hit during the holiday seasons at a price tag of $399, rumors and speculation are now surrounding Sony on how much will they tag their upcoming PS3.

Sony hasn’t commented on specific pricing figures, though Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Consumer Entertainment, reportedly told attendees of a 2005 corporate meeting “it’ll be expensive.” Analysts and many video game developers, though, suspect the system may debut with a price tag reaching nearly $500.

Speculators and Researchers has predicted that the debut price may range around $399 to $499, with the $499 price point more likely. Sony, as you might guess, didn’t have much to say about that.

“We haven’t made an official announcement about pricing yet,” said Ryan Bowling, PR manager for Sony. “At this point, that’s all speculation.”

The strongest argument behind the $499 price point is the PS3’s inclusion of a Blu-Ray drive. This bleeding edge technology will give Sony significant bragging rights, but it comes at a cost. The Blu-Ray player unveiled by Pioneer at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) cost $1,800. Obviously, Pioneer’s earning some profit there – and Sony will almost certainly subsidize the cost of the drives, but you’re still looking at an expensive bit of hardware. The PS3 will also feature other pricey items, such as a hard drive, the Cell processor and a new graphics chip from nVidia.

There wasn’t universal consensus, though. Some predicted the price would be closer to $450, others said they wouldn’t be surprised if it was as high as $600. $700 was mentioned by a couple of developers, though even they said the number seemed unreasonable. And one game maker felt Sony would try to stay in line with Microsoft, offering the PS3 for just $399.

Keep in mind though, Sony PSP was expected to debut with a price tag of $500 (Atari’s CEO even publicly proclaimed he expected the PSP to sell for $500). And guess what? It launched at $249, still incredibly expensive by handheld standards, but lower than some consumers were expecting.

We’re seeing much the same thing with the PS3. After an onslaught of information last May, the company hasn’t released any information of substance. Even at CES, there were no new information announced for the device.

Whatever Sony decides, we should start to get some sort of clarification in the next few months – almost certainly by E3 in May.