PS3 Weighs in at £425 in UK - Officially Confirmed!

[Zeus]

UK Sony Boss Ray Maguire has officially revealed that the PS3 will hit the UK market at a staggering £425 ($800). Once again Sony are pushing that the price is well justified due to the 'technology' you are getting out of the box...


Eurogamer TV in an exclusive video interview to be broadcast in the next few days, Maguire gave the first official word on specific pricing plans for the UK, following Sony's confirmation of a 499/599 Euro figure for the 20Gb and 60Gb SKUs during its pre-E3 media briefing.

"I don't think it's an expensive machine; I think actually, it's probably a cheap machine," he commented. "If you think a Blu-Ray player by itself might be GBP 600-700, and we're coming in at just GBP 425 - it's a bargain."

A straight Euros-to-Sterling conversion of the top spec SKU gives a price of around GBp 405. Many in the trade had been expecting this to translate to an SRP in the region of GBP 399-410.

With well-informed retail sources suggesting Sony may not release the lower spec model in the UK at all, a single GBP 425 model would see PlayStation 3 launching in the UK a massive GBP 140 more expensive than its nearest rival, the Xbox 360. Microsoft representatives have reportedly told UK retailers this week that the Xbox 360 and its add-on HD-DVD peripheral will retail together for less than the PS3's price point at Christmas.

"GBP 425 is definitely not a mass-market price, no," Maguire conceded. "But you think about the price, think about the price of just a Blu-Ray player. It will be cheaper than a Blu-Ray player just by itself. So fundamentally we're going to be great value just from that point of view without even looking at the games side."

However, Maguire acknowledged that Sony faces an uphill struggle in communicating this message to consumers with little or no knowledge of next-generation disc formats.


News Source: <a href="http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=17105" target="_blank">Gamesindustry.biz</a>

[whackawookie]

WOW, now that is a rip off for you eurogamers.

[shangrula]

but to fight back and buy 4 Wiis just seems excessive :D

[Retroboy]

WOW, now that is a rip off for you eurogamers.

Well no not really, forget the fact that its a sony ps3 lets say a no brand console.

with this your getting next gen games, online play, media machine and a blu ray dvd player.

when home blu ray dvd players come out you can expect them to be either same price or higher than the cost of this console.

now back to calling it a sony ps3, all this for £425 is not bad, my 360 cost me £390 with a 11gb hd and that is only a next gen game machine, online play, media machine and dvd player.

the sony has to pluses here, a standard 20GB HD and the blu ray dvd drive.

so basically your ill be paying £35 for the extra HD room and the Blu Ray.

[whackawookie]

the problem is sony is still insisting everybody wants a blu ray dvd player but to be honest alot of people aren't ready for that transistion. instead of optionally offering it they force you into it. Its really not fair to the gamer who saves every penny he has to buy the ps3 so he can play it in his room on his 19in standard tubed tv who still watches dvd's on his a/v cabled connection through a modulator.

[SONIC]

Jesus christ, Europe is in for a treat again!
I will deffo not get one at that price! Will most likely wait 3 or 4 years, it's most likely modded by then too, so that's a good thing :D
And btw, I don't think the next gen dvd standard is set, is it? What if HD-DVD get's to be the next standard? :D

[crono]

If you look at psx(and sega saturn) and ps2,they where also trade for alot of money,like 400 euro for a psx and 625 euro for a ps2 at launch.

But i never did get my sony ones at release day,like i did whit snes,n64,dreamcast,gba,xbox,xbox360,nds and oh... i did get one sony produkt at release day................my psp.

But i think i gonna wait til the ps3 is somewhat cheaper or when there's a killergame for it.

[A7mag3ddon]

I for one, will NOT be getting the ps3 at launch, i may get one when that price is halved (if ever) but £425 for a games console ( with or without B/Ray ) is a complete rip off.

[BirthFromFire]

the problem is sony is still insisting everybody wants a blu ray dvd player but to be honest alot of people aren't ready for that transistion. instead of optionally offering it they force you into it. Its really not fair to the gamer who saves every penny he has to buy the ps3 so he can play it in his room on his 19in standard tubed tv who still watches dvd's on his a/v cabled connection through a modulator.
I couldn't say it better!

[Zeus]

They are right considering what you're getting, but it's not as if they are making some super insane bundle deal - it was their choice to develop it and at a high cost it seems, now this is being passed onto the consumer who won't really benefit from it, not for some years I believe.

From their point, yes' its good value for money once you consider all the development costs but from a gamers point of view, not some super media enthusiast then it's a horrible price. It's high, but if you love the PS brand, you'll buy it even at £499. :)

[shangrula]

i'm sure my ps1 was in the mid> high range of £300 when brought & that wasn't even at launch but it was with Riiiidge Racer & I did buy it from a Sony Shop :o madness.

I think people are maybe forgetting that to buy hardware when it first comes out isn't a right, it's a privalige. If you feel you deserve it then you should pay some premium on that sometimes, especially if the hardware is subsidised on the premise that they'll sell them @ staggered tierd prices thoughout the years.

Simply put, think of plasmas. How much were they at launch and for nearly a year after? in the range of £5.000 minimum and upwards of £15,000...I'm sure people were bitching about that too but not as much becuase the following would've been a little more neiche. But think about the fact that they were marking a life-span of them for 5 - 8 years. People still brought them. That sums most things up to me.

[Cyclone57]

Cmon, this is great value considering consoles like the 3DO debuting for 700 big ones. And the 3DO was nothing like the PS3 is going to be.

[whackawookie]

Cmon, this is great value considering consoles like the 3DO debuting for 700 big ones. And the 3DO was nothing like the PS3 is going to be.

besides jaguar 3d0 was the biggest failure in gaming history. If your going to compare prices atleast go with the neo geo gold edition, that was kind of a success and costed about 650

[confused_dude]

Sony are so arrogant to think that UK gamers are gonna go for this. £425 for a bloody console is excessive I can have an xbox360 and a Wii plus games and another controller for that. They obviously think that we are total muggs in UK Sony can go shove it I wont be buying one for a very very long time.

[Retroboy]

the problem is sony is still insisting everybody wants a blu ray dvd player but to be honest alot of people aren't ready for that transistion. instead of optionally offering it they force you into it. Its really not fair to the gamer who saves every penny he has to buy the ps3 so he can play it in his room on his 19in standard tubed tv who still watches dvd's on his a/v cabled connection through a modulator.

lol sony arent forcing us into anything lets not forget here the ps3 games will also be blu ray.

its like with the ps2 with dvd, dvd players where rather expensive back in 2000 and people liked the ps2 coz it was a combination of a console and a dvd player.

the main fact is ps3 will have blu ray games which are hell of alot bigger than anyother dvd on earth and this should make games alot better.

it also been a blu ray dvd player is i class a extra, it would be crap if the ps3 had blu ray and couldnt play blu ray dvds