Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut Sony has left its European PS3 fans bewildered (again) after over its decision to launch a 60GB PS3 Starter Pack bundle over here instead of cutting the console's price. There was no mention of a European 80GB model, either. The double-whammy was announced at an event in Venice Beach and is likely to anger European gamers who …
Wow! Thanks Sony! Now you're giving me more stuff you can't sell in the UK, I simply *must* rush out and buy a PS3 right now!
When are they going to learn that in order to sell more here, they have to stop screwing us for the price of the base unit. People like to buy bits at a time, not get charged more and get everything at once.
I'm going to single handedly point the finger of blame for our nation's credit card problems at Sony. They won't sell stuff in bits and only sell huge expensive packages, therefore forcing people to put it all on their credit card. Ha! If the government can force Sony to drop the price, our credit problem goes away. I'm a genius!
and this is encouraging me to buy into Blu-Ray why exactly?
The PS3 was supposed to be the golden ticket to getting Blu-Ray adopted. Fanboys and Sony everywhere said Blu-Ray would win because of the PS3. Hmm, not at these prices!
Sony, make up your mind. Blu-Ray or the PS3. Drop one (BR ideally and thus cut the price of the PS3. It doesn't really need BR for games anyway).
Why do companies seem to think that Britain will continue to accept overpriced bundles.
For far too long has the IT/Tech exchange rate been $1=£1. But when you add into the mix, movies being released far earlier. Music and movies being far cheaper. Technology being released in USA only, whereas its now a global market. This will soon infuriate customers whom will go elsewhere?
Take the PS3, in Europe it doesnt have the PS2 built-in, it's massively overpriced, and now bundled too. There is not the 80Gig version either.
Yes ok there are some circumstances where people beleive they are getting a bargain if its bundled. But I personally believe Sony would shift more aging units if they did a simple package being console and controller at a similar price point to its competition. Consumers will still go out an buy the additional accessories and games which they deem important, rather than those which Sony can flog cheaply. Bear in mind Sony yet have to shift a huge backlog of kit which is still piled high on the shelves in stores, and also rapidly requiring firmware updates etc.
Come on Sony ... fair play to the rest of the world.
Let's do a bit of fun Maths shall we;
Amazon.com Price for a PS3 (60GB) $499.99
Amazon.co.uk Price for a PS3 (60GB Premium) £399.99
Yes, that's $800 using an approximate conversion ...
Now let's look at the levels of sales tax ... USA 0% (for internet purchases, i.e. Amazon), UK 17.5%.
This makes Sonys price in the US $500, and Sonys price in the UK £340.
Now the difference is $180, or about £90 (26%).
Sure it might look better to say that the US version is ONLY £250 so we're being done by being charged £400 but it's very dishonest journalism (what next, "Princess Diana" articles on your front page?!)
It's the problem we've always faced in Europe; in North America Sony has one distribution company, one marketing company, and one language to deal with ... in Europe it has one distribution company per country, on language per country to arrange marketing programs in, and the same number of languages to box and release the product in.
And let's not forget that Sony will move it's money around, adjusting it's subsidy so that where it wants to gain market share the machine is a little cheaper, and where it isn't quite so bother it's more expensive (hence why French/ German prices, both in Euros, arn't identical).
I'd love to see an article that *really* looked at the costs instead of just making the same irrelevant comparrisons ... Maybe comparing the French and German PS3 costs, with marketing campaigns, etc.
Somehow i am not suprised by this, on the other hand i was never intending to get ps3 for many different reasons, One of those reasons though is this, the lack of love for euro citizens. We always get games last, we almost always "enjoy" heavy prices and much more... its like the gaming market is only US + Jap
They're being pathetic, and so should we.
They can (but should not be allowed to) get away with charging Europeans £180 more than Americans for the same product - oh, hang on, wasn't it downgraded so it wouldn't play most PS2 games?
Don't buy a Sony PS3 in Europe. When they see sales dropping, they'll soon do something to re-ignite interest. (But that might be to pull out of Europe altogether...)
WTF happened to this 'global market' thing we keep hearing about?
I know we always get the short straw, but its getting to be a bit of a joke. I couldn't really care much less about the PS3, but Sony really aren't giving it a chance over here. I know they're trying not to lose too much money on each sale, but why do they accept a much lower price elsewhere? Do they think we're just retarded and don't notice?
Also, is an 80 gig PS3 that much to be bothered about? Its not loads more storage, and from what I've seen its not too hard to put in whatever size one you want. It'd probably be about £700 anyway...
I must thank Eminem for providing me with the perfect title for my comment, almost :)
I used to really respect Sony. For a time they made gaming actually cool, they appeared to respect their consumers all over the world, they turned gaming into major global industry. But it appears somewhere along the way they got arrogant, self-absorbed. They believed they could do no wrong and to this day still believe that. Unfortunately the truth is goes to kick them in the nuts repeatedly until they collapse into a pile of quivering jelly. And its a very simple truth - you fuck with your consumers, they'll go else where. You treat your consumers like third class citizens, they'll go elsewhere. You show an obvious bias in your "global strategy", the one's at the bottom of the pile will go elsewhere.
Europeans already pay the highest prices IN THE WORLD for these slabs of tech and no bleating on about taxes and exchange rates will make ANYONE think that we aren't being ripped off. Every. Single. Day. And now to compound it by this so called "exceptional value" pack AND not even bothering to give us the option of the 80 GB version? It would be quicker if Sony just called us all c***s to our faces and be done with it.
What's really galling is that i was just starting to come round to the idea of getting a PS3, ome of the vids from E3 are mightily impressive. But Sony can fuck right off if they think i'm gonna pay twice as much as anyone else on the planet.
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Myself and several friends had all waited patiently for the PS3, ignoring the Wii and Xbox360. However when the PS3 finially did appear at £425 only one of us went out and got one, and believe me he didn't rush either, instead it took a few weeks before finally giving in.
Since then, the rest of us (all 30somthing years old) have bought Xbox360's and Wii's due to cost and the lack of a price drop on the PS3 (a couple of us felt sure a price drop won't come until nearer xmas and after this report it looks about right)
Now thats what just people I know have done, Sony have given away at least 6 sales and worse still, sent them to another console camp. I guess they are shifting enough boxes to not worry though, if they couldn't actually produce them any faster they have lost nothing assuming that is the case at least. Mind you, at a lower price people would no doubt be hanging on until they finially got one even if it meant a wait for production to catch up.
With Wii availability improving and the XBox 360's lower price the PS3 is doomed to be the 3rd place console.
The only factor against the 360 is the unreliability of the console. The Wii is underpowered if you value graphics more than gameplay.
Sony would clean up if the PS3 was the same price as the 360 or Wii.
I've given up trying to work out Sony's reasoning behind the things they do. They're as baffling as a PS3 marketing campaign. (Did anyone ever find out what the TV & cinema adverts were intending to say?)
Why do Sony continue to regionalise its hardware? Do they think we don't see what they're doing? Do they think we're all stupid?
Luckily I have an X360 in addition to the PS3, and at least MS seem to have a clear vision
For every fatuous US/EU price comparison, there's always some feckless idiot who bangs on about the multiple languages in Europe and the translation costs yada yada yada.
The last time I checked, UK citizens spoke substantially the same language as those in the US, and the character sets in the whole of Europe are within the same ASCII range.
So, on the basis that neither of these is the case in a comparison with US & Japan, the argument is fallacious.
This is particularly galling in Adobe's case, where they charge us for a "European" version, and then insist we install it in "English (US)".
How quickly we all seem to have forgiven Sony for the root kit fiasco
I saw we - but in fact I haven't forgotten, nor have I forgiven.
I *will-never* buy another Sony product - not a thing. Not a memory stick, nor a plasma TV nor anything in between.
And now they continue to screw the pooch with the PS3 pricing.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Sony makes a loss on each PS3 they sell.
Sony makes a profit on each game sold for the PS3 from the licensing
So, why would you sell lots of consoles before you have the killer games in the market place to cover the loss?
To me at the moment slow consistent sales works quite well for Sony.
Keeping the PS3 in the mind but not causing an even bigger loss.
Also, as has already been seen they are already making savings in the build cost of the console.
So, assuming they know what they are doing I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a hardware revision change later this year just as the killer games come out and also as the holiday season comes along. (I used holiday season on purpose to mean the US Thanks Giving and also Christmas…)
"For every fatuous US/EU price comparison, there's always some feckless idiot who bangs on about the multiple languages in Europe and the translation costs yada yada yada."
It's called "the cost of doing business". It's why PS3's don't cost the same as penny sweets, and the same reason why when you see something in a retail store at £20 and spot it on a website at £20 you know the website isn't offering you a good deal.
"It costs more to sell 1 PS3 in the UK that it does to sell 1 PS3 in the the US" - I'm not saying it's right, but it's the way it is. Bitching about the realities of doing business isn't going to fix anything.
Let's assume that a company released a product that costs exactly the same in the UK as it does in the US. Don't you think the people in the US would be getting a raw deal given the size of their market compared to ours?
Whats the problem with people on here? The US had $100 and we get $200 worth of goodies for the same price we were paying last week.
For £425 a month ago you got a PS3 and 1 controller.
Now for the same money you get a PS3, 2 controllers, 2 games and 5 Blu Ray films.
Some people are never happy.
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Yes, the PS3 does need Blu-Ray. All this crap about "drop blu-ray" etc is so annoying. I know I've commented on it on here before. MGS4 - PS3's exclusive groundbreaking title that took the E3 by storm yesterday, can only fit on a Blu-Ray disc. Kojima has already confirmed this. It wont appear on 360 coz it requires Blu-Ray. That's the FIRST big game for the PS3 (excluding GTA IV, because I still feel Rockstar will be using it as a tester for the real PS3's GTA's) and it cannot possibly be squeezed down to a DVD disc, Kojima says. So, if Sony were to drop it, games would be stuck at their current state, for the console's life-span, 6/7 years. Which is why I'm not getting a 360, I feel there's not enough room for evolution (and I'm not paying for online).
I completely agree that Sony not offering the EU a price drop is rediculous, and after a very impressive E3 performence, a price drop in the US, a new remodelled PSP at a very cheap US price and an 80gb (pointless but kool) being announced, Sony seemed like they were finally starting to put out 'good vibes' through the industry this week and win over some flamers, and a confirmed EU price drop to £300-350 would've sealed this, and so I find this defiance very dissapointing. Really felt like they had an open goal to shoot at, and have just skied it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, NO console is worth £425.
Yes those of us in the UK speak english natively, but the rest of europe really doesn't (though that doesn't stop half of them speaking better english than most of us).
The split between the US/Japan and Europe historically has less to do with language than display frequency. With the Region 1 (US/Japan) areas adopting a 60HZ refresh rate, and the Region 2 areas (Europe) adopting a 50HZ refresh rate. For that reason both the consoles and the games need to be different. So it is not just the cost of translating games into different languages, there is a significant cost implication for redesigning the console to work at 50HZ (rather than 60) purely for us europeans and our crappy TV's.
One would have hoped that now HDTV's are available this problem would disappear, however some b@stards out there still haven't bought themselves new TV's, so the split endures.
Maybe by the time the next console generation comes around everyone will have HDTVs (or whatever standard comes after) and a single console will work everywhere in the world (providing a power adapter is provided). At that time only those who don't speak english (or chinese/indian) will have to wait for their games to get translated at extra cost!... Maybe pigs will fly too!
Even then I'm sure europe will still get screwed because were now used to getting screwed... and so we do!!!
"Yes, the PS3 does need Blu-Ray. All this crap about "drop blu-ray" etc is so annoying. I know I've commented on it on here before. MGS4 - PS3's exclusive groundbreaking title that took the E3 by storm yesterday, can only fit on a Blu-Ray disc"
Because God forbid that a game is released on 2 disks. That's why Final Fantasy VII on PS1 was such a dismal failure worldwide, right?
"I completely agree that Sony not offering the EU a price drop is rediculous, and after a very impressive E3 performence, a price drop in the US"
rediculous ??? y not yellow-iculous ?
if PS3 was really so good, y the price drop !! blu-ray ? who wants blu-ray anyway ! people are way too happy with good'ol DVDs. Offering a "better experience" via Blu-ray which translates into a Rip-Off will never work.
The console is doomed ... !
those few Euro gamers buying a PS3 in the near future will be getting an inch-thick layer of dust "free" with it.
At this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if they just gave up on the Euro market entirely. At least the PS3 is region-free (yes?), so the unlucky European owners will still be able to get their games from the US and Japan.
Ok bought PS1 release date and bought 57 games... PS2 on release day and bought 42 games... and wait for it... PS3 on release date and already have 8 disc games and all the PSN games (Which ALL SuK), this is besides all the other sony hardware that I own.
Do you think sony look after their customers... all they have given me is an inferior PS3 to the state side sister... no PS1 games playable, very few of my PS2 games playable and I paid a ridiculous price for it! In fairness 80 gigs doesn't matter to me nor the fact i've been ripped off... I want other people i know to be able to afford this so I have someone to play against! Please don't quit your jibber jabber and sort your act out and look after your loyal customers and new customers alike...
I'm going to give till christmas... if it is not under 400 euro by then i'm buying a 360.
Simple solution - don't buy a PS3. All Sony (and any other company) cares about is volume and profits. Less PS3's sold will mean less profitable games sold.
I wouldn't hang around for a price drop anytime soon, do you think Sony care about their customers? Buy an xbox360 or Wii and teach Sony a lession...
Don't give me crap about US/Euro price comparisons. Europe's more expensive, well what about consumer forces? Regardless of price, if customers don't pay it and then it doesn't sell, then the producer will have to drop the price/make it more appealing ,until it does sell, no matter what it is, its price, size or status. A little bit of restraint and resistance, will get you that sub-300 quid price you crave!
Unfortunately as the person at the top of the forum said, little Johnny screams, mummy and daddy whip out Mr Credit-Card, Sony have slapped down another bi-atch, ready for a "roasting"!
I've owned a PS, PSOne, and PS2.
I bought the PS2, infact I pre-ordered the PS2, and paid alot for it when it came out.
I've never owned any Nintendo equipment in my life, untill the DS appeared, and now I own a Wii, the Wii being a fantastic console @ the right price.
I am fed up that us in the UK getting ripped off all the time with any product.
Buy a Wii its much more fun!!
By AlexPosted Friday 13th July 2007 15:39 GMT "Yes, the PS3 does need Blu-Ray. All this crap about "drop blu-ray" etc is so annoying. I know I've commented on it on here before. MGS4 - PS3's exclusive groundbreaking title that took the E3 by storm yesterday, can only fit on a Blu-Ray disc"
**
Because God forbid that a game is released on 2 disks. That's why Final Fantasy VII on PS1 was such a dismal failure worldwide, right?
**
Lol, very good, but technology moves on mate, get over it. All this b*llocks about Blu-Ray being expensive and needless space etc etc is exactly what the DVD Bashers said back in 2000, and these are the same people that are now defending DVD. Let's say MGS4 took up a full 50gb, it's 8.5gb per dual layer dvd, so that's gonna be 6 discs. Even if it isn't a full 50gb, it'd still more than likely take up 4 or so, and that's the first MGS. It's just the way technology works! Every single PS2 game on CD wouldn't have worked and neither would every single PS3 game being on DVD!
Once again, having said that, the PS3 is still over-priced. Oh well, still got a few more PS2 & Xbox games to tick me over for now.
Right, that's it. After putting up with a tempermental PS2 for months hoping PS3 would come down to a price that reflects some concept of value, I'm just going to buy another PS2.
I'm not a hardcore gamer and if my kids get bored of the games they've got we can go to the shops and buy several zillion 2ndhand PS2 ganes for the price of 1 PS3 one. Sorted
"Lol, very good, but technology moves on mate, get over it. All this b*llocks about Blu-Ray being expensive and needless space etc etc is exactly what the DVD Bashers said back in 2000, and these are the same people that are now defending DVD. Let's say MGS4 took up a full 50gb, it's 8.5gb per dual layer dvd, so that's gonna be 6 discs. Even if it isn't a full 50gb, it'd still more than likely take up 4 or so, and that's the first MGS. It's just the way technology works! Every single PS2 game on CD wouldn't have worked and neither would every single PS3 game being on DVD!
Once again, having said that, the PS3 is still over-priced. Oh well, still got a few more PS2 & Xbox games to tick me over for now."
Well, I'm not saying MGS4 could be on DVD any more than I'm saying it could be on 3.5" floppies. It could theoretically still fit on 2x HD DVDs though and one more disk would hardly ruin the experience.
MGS4 may take up 50GB but what's the betting it's 45GB of HD video clips, trailers and other wastes of space and 5GB of actual HD game play.
Provide space and it can be filled, but valid content is another matter.
Xbox 360 seems to manage quite well without the need for HD-DVD for games.
Point is though, the Blu-Ray requirement held back the PS3 and has crippled it in terms of sales. In terms of games it's nothing at present more than a tarted up PS2. They should have gone for something more radical like the Wii but in HD and held off with playing Blu-Ray movies, but of course Sony wanted to use the PS3 to win the HD format war so wouldn't let go.
Working as I do near a behemoth of an ASDA supermarket (that's a Wal-mart for you US and non-UK types - only smaller) whilst wandering aroung during my lunch break last thursday I noticed a flock of 8 60Gb PS3s sat in the security cupboard priced at £399... so maybe it's the retaliers that will really take this war to Sony on our behalf as I'm sure they are non-plussed with this pricing situation either.
What is more telling though is that flanking these 8 PS3s last Thursday was a school of 10 Nintendo Wiis all shimmering and fresh in from the plant that very day. I have just been over to get my lunch today and lo and behold - all of the Wiis have been sold but the 8 PS3s are still sitting on the shelf gathering dust... and personally I hope that's where the PS3 will be consigned to very soon unless we start to get a fair deal.
"Well, I'm not saying MGS4 could be on DVD any more than I'm saying it could be on 3.5" floppies. It could theoretically still fit on 2x HD DVDs though and one more disk would hardly ruin the experience."
True, but don't you think implementing HD-DVD would be almost as pricey as Blu-Ray?
And Tim, I agree about the 45gb being Cut-scenes etc, but that's why we love MGS isn't it?! :-S
"Well, I'm not saying MGS4 could be on DVD any more than I'm saying it could be on 3.5" floppies. It could theoretically still fit on 2x HD DVDs though and one more disk would hardly ruin the experience.
True, but don't you think implementing HD-DVD would be almost as pricey as Blu-Ray?"
I'm not so sure.
Cheapest HD-DVD player I could find after a quick search on amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-HD-E1-High-Definition-Player/dp/B000I7IHHI/ref=sr_1_1/203-0838246-8372761?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1184618479&sr=1-1
Same search for blu ray:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-BD-P1000-Blu-1080P-Player/dp/B000ICKB2C/ref=sr_1_2/203-0838246-8372761?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1184618540&sr=1-2
...but it's capable. I am looking to get one as a fairly comprehensive one-stop-shop media solution. It is soon to get some fantastic games (MGS4, GTA:IV, Colin McRae: Dirt) and there are some good games out there already (despite my scepticism, virtua tennis is actually good fun), it has a blu-ray player, it will play and upscale your DVDs, it can be used as a music jukebox, it is able to surf the internet, it will play SACDs (admittedly pointless as nobody bought into that), it has a compact flash slot with which I will be able display my photographs and if you are an audiophile I have been reliably informed by a Meridian employee that it makes a startlingly good CD transport. When I take into account all of this, I find myself at the (I think) not too unreasonable conclusion that actually this isn't BAD value for money. Sure we're getting bent over again on the price compared to the US, but can you remember a time when we weren't? At least this is not a case where the cost has been translated 1:1 GBP for USD
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