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Square Enix: PS3 still too expensive
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 11th July 2007
Metal Gear Solid 4 may not be a PlayStation 3 exclusive for long if prices on the console don't fall a bit more.
The US price for the console now stands at $500, with no price cut in Europe announced yet - though rumours hint it may happen later in the week.
Still, the PlayStation 3 is still too expensive for some and, as just a regular consumer at heart, John Yamamoto is one of the furious. That wouldn't normally count for much of course, but Yamamoto also happens to be Square Enix's head-honcho in America and Europe and is responsible for flooding the market with Final Fantasy remakes and spin-offs.
"I think USD $500 for PS3 is still a bit expensive for most gamers. Most of them think that price is still high." Yamamoto said to the press recently.
Harsh words, eh Sony?
Of course, Yamamoto isn't alone. Kazumi Kituae, who's the European and American face of Konami and is in charge of games like Metal Gear Solid 4, echoed those concerns just yesterday.
"I wonder if Sony can win back user support by the price cut of just $100... I don't expect a substantial impact ... With $500, you can buy a personal computer."
Yes, you can and should because PCs are way better than consoles.
Konami goes even further than Square Enix though, indicating it may change the exclusivity of Metal Gear Solid 4 if things don't change. "Since Metal Gear Solid was born for the PlayStation, we would like to keep it a PlayStation game. But we might have to take some steps."
Can't blame Konami though, can you? It's not like Sony will have paid anything for that exclusive - Sony earns its exclusives instead, apparently. Of course, that just makes this threat more of a damnation for Sony. That said, the PlayStation 3 is still an undeniably powerful piece of kit and probably won't keep breaking like the Xbox 360 does.
So, let's put it to a community poll, shall we? Hands up if you think the PlayStation 3 is still too expensive. No, not yet you crazies - go to the discussion forum first.
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Comments (39)
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edit: the biggest problem for the PS3 is that its consumer base is small compared to other consoles.....
I think they have priced it well, you can't even get a good GPU for that let alone a whole machine thats going to play quality games and movies for the next 5-10years, its also a machine that will probably last out the period unlike its competition.
The price of it in the EU of $807 (this affects me), the UK is getting it for $852 and the price of it in Brazil of $1,870 ().
Yeah, it might be priced well for the hardware (I disagree - what moron puts seven cores in something and pairs it with a half-gig of RAM?), but that doesn't matter. 95% of people don't care what's in the box so long as it works and looks pretty, and the other 5% have already made up their minds either way.
Having said that, I also think that the other consoles are fairly overpriced for the game library currently available. I've yet to have anything pique my interest on my Wii since Zelda, and the 360 is going to need more than GoW and Halo3 to get me to bite. Of course, I'm sure there's more in there, but I've probably been subconsciously intentionally avoiding it so I can avoid spending even more money on games or another console.
Great bias! :D
Sure most people will have to save a bit of money to buy one. But if you really wanna compare it with the price of the xbox 360 you should add the hddvd player. The 360 will still be a bit cheaper, but the gap will be a lot smaller.
Then again, the 360 does have more games (and did on the release?)
I'm sorely tempted by a 360 because it's at that "right price" but I'm put off by the red ring of death and disc scratching problems. Again, I'd need an HDTV to really enjoy it to its fullest potential, too.
I think that's a bit harsh, isn't it? To be frank, we hadn't actually seen the Killzone 2 news until you actually just mentioned it - we'd moved onto writing content for the rest of the week, but since you've highlighted an interesting story, we're writing it up. We're not out at E3 so we're not reporting live and to suggest that we're giving the PS3 the rough end of the stick is a little unfair.
We didn't choose to release the PS3 almost six months later, with less functionality at a higher price in our region (Europe). To be left out of the price cuts this time around is a tad annoying too, don't you think? Based on this, Sony's hardly doing itself any favours in Europe.
Having written up these stories, I better defend myself methinks.
Basically, I am posting negative Sony things - but only because Sony is messing a few things up which = news. I post just as many things about the 360 repeatedly breaking and not being supported, but at least Microsoft are tackling this with extended warranties.
When Sony do good things, I report it. I always add a little of my own voice and opinion in, thats just the way I roll.
As for Killzone, bear in mind that we are predominantly a hardware, modding and PC gaming site. I've since written up the story as soon as I spotted it, but as Tim points out I can't spend the whole time taking news off other sites. Not unless I want to work for Kotaku, which I don't. I do my morning news and move on to other main articles and features - however with E3 on today I've been spending more time on news than usual and simply missed the Killzone 2 news.
Hope that puts your mind at rest, but if you want to talk about it any further then please just drop me a PM or an email at joe.martin@bit-tech.net and we can talk about it some more.
C'mon SE, just do it. Don't wanna buy the (expensive) PS3 just to play MGS4.
PS3 is cheap and you dont have to worry if a game that comes out is going to run on your PS3 as they all will.
I have upgraded my pc 4 times in the last 4 years and must have spent over £4k and I still have a pants PC that cant run games over 1200 x 1024. Ps3 will last much longer and dont have to worry if my games will run.
Same goes for the 360, the price is great for what you get.
i mean, every game ive seen on the PS3 looks pretty damn good, wheras the 360 looks ok
This has been said time after time
PS3- Powerfull Cpu, poor graphics
Xbox- Slow cpu, brilliant unified graphics.
Its pretty much a Tie.
What separates the two is the games and the online ability which the 360 wins hands down.
edit:
the content makers also say this.
Capcom join the fray of whiners about PS3 price.
Consoles are the most profitable to develop for because they only require one hardware setup and they have a massive user base.
Consoles have had a massive user base because traditionally they were only around £100-£200, the recent consoles that have gone notably above this have had slower takeup (relatively)
If the PS3 has a much smaller user base, developers won't want to develop for it, which leaves them trying to move to other consoles/platforms that may not be as profitable, and will particularly annoy them if they already have games too far in development to easily (&/ cheaply) switch.
So they whine, to try and force sony to massively cut the console price so that there will be enough users to make lots of money from when they release games.
It may also be that sony will pull/not renew the contracts allowing development for PS2 and/or try and hold people to contracts saying they would make a game for PS3/sony which again and because of the above will leave them very prone to whining if they don't see the console doing well.
tbh, I'm not that bothered with Racing games that much and it's not a title I would buy, so I would rather have it cheaper without the game.
However, as is apparent by sales, HD content just isn't as popular as DVD, so the fact is has a BR drive wont push as many units and the DVD did for the PS2
That said, when you do consider you get a BR drive, plus the gaming console, plus it will play videos and stuff, its better value then a standalone player, and you can play games also
However, i agree, its still too expensive, and to make use of HD content you need a HD screen which is even more money to spend, in all ill just stick with my PC kthx (and i think that's the smart move for anyone, consoles have never been great value for money tbh)
Wii60 for now
You bet.
49er is right, its a great system, etc etc, but the PC, the original gaming console, still cannot be beat for versatility and usability. PLUS YOU CAN ADD STUFF TO IT! How sweet is that? When was the last time you could upgrade your memory on a console... N64s RAM expansion pack?!? Consoles could learn a thing or two from the PC.