back to article Sony slashes PlayStation 3 prices

Sony today cut the cost of the PlayStation 3, saving precious gaming pennies in the build up to the Chrimble season. Announced at the annual Gamescom event in Germany, the cuts bring the PS3 into line with its Microsoft counterpart. The UK price reduction, of roughly 17 per cent brings the 160GB PS3 to £200. The 320GB version …

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  1. Alex Walsh

    Hardly a bargain

    You can pick a 4gig Xbox 360 up for around the £100 mark. If you don't do installs, that's just about adequate.

    1. Andy Jones

      Lol

      Well, that makes that XBox overpriced junk then! For an extra £100 you get a reliable 3D capable Blu-ray player/games machine and a hard drive to download games onto. If you don't like the size of the hard drive then you can easily upgrade (do that on the XBox! Lol).

      There is a reason the XBox is priced from about £100 - it is crap!

    2. Greg J Preece
      Holmes

      Shock, horror

      Inferior machine is cheaper! :-O Well I never!

    3. MJI Silver badge

      Add in compared to PS3

      Blu Ray

      156GB more space

      Won't go on any others such as processor

      And it won't play any of the exclusives a lot of us are looking forward to

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    10 year lifespan??

    I'd be surprised. Its pretty out of date already compared to current PC graphics cards and its only 5 years old. In 10 years time it'll look like something that should be in a museum.

    1. defiler

      Doesn't have to be their flagship for 10 years.

      Maybe they get another 2 years out of it before releasing PS4, and then maintain sales for 3 more years to catch the crowd that want a fairly posh console but don't want to blow the bank on the state-of-the-art device?

      They sold PSOnes for a while after the PS2 was launched, and I'm certain PS2s were available for a long time after PS3. Makes perfect sense.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You can still buy PS2's today

        PS3's will make the 10 year life span.

        Probably another slimming of the console in a year or two.

    2. Greg J Preece

      In fairness

      Consoles are behind PCs about 10 seconds after they're released, if they make it ahead at all. Thanks to the bloody X-box most games are still stuck on DirectX 9, while we're all sat on Windows 7 waiting for DirectX 11 games.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    less than £200

    Amazon are selling the 160GB for £192 with free delivery and £257 for the 320GB

    Bit of a billbargain for a very decent console and a very decent Blu-Ray player with very decent DVD upscaling abilities, a very decent on-demand TV service (BBC iPlayer, 4OD, ITV)...

  4. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Slow pace of change?

    So what's with the slower pace of change? In the 80s Atari released about three consoles in 9 years, 2600 (VCS), 5200 and 7800.

    I thought Moore's law was still true, so you would imagine the hardware is still improving. I guess it is the software holding things back? Writing a game is such a big project now that it takes a long time to get people up to speed with a new console.

    I would imagine this is why a lot of innovation (in terms of new characters and games) is happening on mobile device.

    1. Greg J Preece

      Though we wish they hadn't...

      ...the 5200 was an absolute piece of crap.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Lots of reasons

      Cost - can't buy a new one too often.

      Lead time - 2 years to write a AAA game.

      Investment - make good use of the R&D.

      Familiarity - change too often and people wil not change.

  5. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Go

    Finally!

    A sign of deflation. Praise be!

    Wait, what's that rustling sound? Did I wake up the money-printing dogs? DID I USHER IN THE GREEN APOCALYPSE?

  6. Lottie

    Interesting

    Now they're getting to the level I'm willing to consider. Especially as I was considering getting a BD player as well.

  7. Sir Smokesalot
    Thumb Up

    Tipping Point

    The magic number reached, £200 for a blue ray spinner with all the added "PS3" stuff I think is a bargain now. Been waiting for the price to get down to justify the final part of the 360/Wii/PS3 trinity.

    Now did I read somewhere I can use a 360 pad on the PS3, as my crippled fingers will not adapt to another controller design.....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    and me with a birthday coming up eh?

    But is there a compelling reason to buy this device over, say, a kissBox360? Other than, of course, the opportunity to provide reams of personal data to strangers?

    Genuine question btw.. as I would like a console once again.. but I don't know which one to buy..

    1. MJI Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Lots of reasons

      Uncharted series

      Motorstorm series

      Gran Turismo 5

      Ratchet & Clank series

      Little Big Planet series

      Killzone series

      Resistance series

      Infamous series

      Wipeout series

      The ability to use a gun holding controllers on a few shooters

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Online or not?

      If you want to go online and play with lots of friends, go for an XBOX360 as XBOX live is much better than Sony's offering.

      If not, follow the advice given and get a PS3 - it's also a BluRay player and may run cooler and quieter than an XBOX360 (which is, after all, mostly a compact PC with graphics card).

      1. MJI Silver badge

        PS3 online is fine

        Comes down simply to games.

        How do you like your FPS space marines? Killzone or Halo?

        What sort of TPS shooter do you like? Uncharted, SOCOM, MAG or Gears of War?

        What sort of racer? GT5, Motorstorm, Modnation Racers or Forza?

        Creative games? Little Big Planet or (sorry no idea)?

    3. Filippo Silver badge

      about personal data

      Getting into PSN now is probably the safest thing you can do. Everyone strives to look sharp and attentive *after* a burglary.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mystic Meg....

    .....predicts at least one "Sony are evil" outburst in the comments regardless of the content of the article.

  10. thefutureboy
    WTF?

    What?

    No one posting a comment about how much better the Xbox360/Gaming PC/Wii/iPhone/Amiga/ZX81* is? I am disappointed.

    *Delete as applicable

  11. Wize

    €249=$249?

    Bit of a poor exchange rate there. Shame on you Sony.

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Might be taxes

      US quote without

      UK with

      Not sure on Earoles

    2. Lottie

      I dunno

      If this was the US price INCLUDING sales taxes, it might be a bit poor, but I thought they usually didn't add them on to the RRP on press releases due to each state having different amounts of sales tax (I could be wrong though).

      Then once we factor in that it's probably a lot lower to buy in the EU, but the price creeps back up when we add import taxes and other duties.

      Seems roughly fair to me.

  12. Stewart Knight

    Tax tax tax!

    @wize you forget that after the $$$ rate, yanks have to add sales tax, where our price includes import tax & VAT.

    Still sucks though, blame the Con-Dem alliance!

  13. Miek

    so ...

    Sony have now set their PS3 RRP to Amazon's pricing. The very same price I paid for my 250GB console nearly two years ago.

  14. satnam99

    How on earth is that price point in line with the Xbox?

    As others have already posted, it is still way off isn't it?

    1. chr0m4t1c

      Eh?

      XBox360 S 250Gb RRP ~£200

      Sony PS3 160Gb RRP ~£200

      I'd say that was more or less in line, you're swapping 90Gb in storage for a DVD->BluRay drive upgrade.

      You'll probably get better bundles or deeper discounts on the XBox on the interwebs, but I'd expect that anyway from console that's a year older (and probably a year closer to refresh).

  15. darklord

    nearly tempted

    Might buy one then if its dvd region free. else stick with me ps2 for what i play games.

    1. darklord
      Unhappy

      nope

      After an exhaustive investigation I discovered it aint DVD region free so ill just buy a cheap DVD player and forget a three in one Games machine and save $150 for beer tokens. and stick with me PS2 I only play ratchet and clank anyway.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Ratchet & Clank

        Call your self a fan and not have Tools of Destruction and Crack in Time.

        MY R&C loving 11 year old has access to 9 different R&C games

  16. P. Lee
    Flame

    Nice cheap console!

    Shame about the price of the games.

    Steam anyone?

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Get Platinum ones

      Loads of cheaper games.

      eg both Uncharted in a pack for £25 on line

      That said a lot are a bargain even at £40 or so if the game is good and you make use of it.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Psh.

    I'd be happier if they slashed the import restrictions on UK/Europe which were put in place because people were importing PS3s/PSPs before they were released [here.]

    There's a lot of Japanese games I'd like to import and buy and their stupid attitude prevents me from doing so.

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