Curmudgeon Gamer put together this above inflationary chart graphing the price of all major consoles according to relative prices. So how bad is the PS3? As you can see above, the only consoles in the last twenty years more expensive than it are the Neo-Geo and 3DO... two consoles that obviously never controlled the market. Goping back to the late 70's and early 80's, there are a few consoles that were more expensive... but that's back in the days when video game consoles were still being built out of the shattered femurs of neolithic monkey men. Also note that, despite Sony's claims, the PS2 was a good 250 bucks cheaper in inflationary dollars.

History of Console Prices (or: $500 Ain't The Worse) [Curmudgeon Gamer]