Sony not cutting PS3 price in Europe
Sony will not be cutting prices of the PS3 or releasing the 80GB model in Europe at all. Our blood boils.
Well, now the silence has been lifted, though the news isn't good. Not good at all.
The BBC broke to story earlier, barely managing to keep the usual stiff upper lip or hide the tears as they told the world that they will be no price cut for Europe on the PlayStation 3. At all.
Instead, Sony is packaging up a 'Starter Bundle';
"In Europe gamers will get a "starter pack" at an unchanged price of £425 for the 60GB machine, with two games and two controllers included."
So, fair enough... kind of. We get a little bit more bang for our buck, though the amount of buck is utterly unchanged. After all, hardcore gamers will still be able to pick up the 80GB version of the PS3 to fulfill their fanboy needs, won't they?
Nope, they won't - Sony has also announced that they will not be releasing the improved 80GB version of the PS3 in Europe at all either.
Great, thanks Sony. So, all Europe gets is the oldest version of the PS3 which comes packaged with two games and two controllers which will, very soon, be out of date also when the force-feedback SixAxis is introduced.
Meanwhile, rumours and speculate abound in game developer circles that America and Japan will see a second price cut this year in preperation for the Christmas rush - during which everyone will be buying Wiis and nothing else.
The ironic thing is that here at bit-tech we finally got ourselves a PS3 for the office and, after some late-night console action, were fairly impressed with the stylish little device. Now, we just hate Sony.
How do you feel about the announcements and Sony's track record? Think Christmas will see better news for Europeans, or are we all doomed to be Nintendo fanboys eternally? Drop your comments below, or in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThey need their nose to be financially bloodied to get the message i think. ( and It's looking likely)
They seem to only give a darn about the US market. Europe and the UK are some poor cousin.
I'll stick to the Wii60 combo
Because, time after time, Sony disregards its European market, focussing completely on Japan and the US. Don't forget that the exchange rate across the world means the PS3 is incredibly expensive over here now, even with the added VAT. At £425 that means the console is the equivalent of over $850 in the US, and even without VAT that's still about $723, which is $124 more expensive than the 80GB version will be in the US.
As for Sony bending us over, remember the fiasco about the PS2 emulation hardware that we didn't get, but the rest of the world didn't? Remember how long we had to wait after the US and Japan when it was released? How about missing out on the 20GB and 80GB version?
I'm betting on a big price-cut over here before Christmas - they're just not selling over here, and at £425 I would still bet on tiny sales at Xmas considering a plentiful supply of Wii's and X360's...
Its not about it being cheaper, Its about it getting EVEN cheaper.... The US gets a price cut AND and improved spec console. the UK and EU get what? a soon to be infernior model controller and NO HDD upgrade. You can't see the one sidedness of this?
Its because there are enough suckers like you around that Sony can get away with these tricks.
I was going to buy for this reason too, I guess i'll bare without though :)
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=136149
Remember £425 is the RRP and not what good retailers sell for.
Another thing, we were 3 months behind in the release of the PS3 so I would expect a price cut in 3 months or so.
It does not help you get your point over when you finish your post by calling others fools
might get a wii instead :P
Of the twenty news stories currently on the home page, seven are about various Playstations or games exclusively for them, and several more are only of interest if you own an Xbox 360.
Please don't become so successful that you end up indistinguishable from the slippery junk I can pay £6 for in WH Smith.
Phil
On the front page, there is also a case review, how to etch, tons of PC related news ect.
You are reading the news section, not the main articles. They tend to be more in depth and less.... slippery.
Unfortunately, theres been very little PC content shown at E3 which isn't swamped over by console releases. This obviously dictates what content I can find, which we compensate for with main features which are ussually exclusively focused at E3.
I agree Sony is massive in the news here right now, but the reason for that is simple: Its E3 and Sony is massively in the news everywhere.
Don't worry, I have no wish to end up like PS2 official or anything of the sort. If I had a dream for the game coverage of bit-tech it would simply be to give it an equal audience to the hardware side of things; an open, rational and knowedgeable crowd of readers who can reasonably discuss their passion and love of games. Everyday when I come to work my head is buzzing with ideas of how to make this happen and I can promise without exageration or lie that making bit-tech a hub of PC based games news, features and review is the single largest concern of mine on a daily basis.
Of course, to do this I need help from readers occasionally, so as always feel free to email me at joe.martin@bit-tech.net and give me your feedback, tips and ideas. Together we can make the games coverage here something to be even more proud of.
Rant over.;)
For the average gamer the PS3 costs too much.
For me as a tech enthusiast and who has the other two consoles, this is disappointing and will put me off buying one :(
What you guys are demanding from Sony is a PS3 that only plays games the way the Nintendo 64 did. Otherwise, (sorry I have to say this, mates) shut up and embrace the reality that game consoles no longer take only game discs up their slot. Alright, you guys have an authentic argument in that it is expensive for gamers, but you are not paying for gaming alone. Buy the crude equivalent of what the Playstation 3 offers and come back to me with a receipt.
No one here is arguing that the PS3 doesn't need those things... (I don't think anyway.. I'm not, and that's all that matters) We're just saying that the very very simple fact is that not many people are willing to or used to spending £400 for a games console. I know, its not just a games console any more. Its pretty much a media PC. But they still use the playstation name and they still market it primarily for games. So all people see is £400 games console. People that know different are people such as ourselves that hang around on the internets and the majority of us are clued up enough to know that a PC does most of those things, and we've already got one of those.
In all that I've failed to insert a sarky ultra obvious, panty bunching comment so I'll just call you a numpty instead.
Then they need to stop marketting it as a games console and more as a media center. They can start by changing the name and making the PLAYstation a system for gamers, which is what it originally was and was billed to be.
I also think that most people will agree that the current games console market has 3 pricing tiers and you pick the one you want (or can afford).
Wii on the lower end, based in game play.
360 in the middle for good graphics an a host of games at the moment.
The PS3 for the most power and a possible future of great games (I know, I know the 360 has a better GPU, but then there's the blueray... symantics really...)
The major point and what is ruffling the tails of people in Europe is that Sony are not treating each economic area fairly. The price to me is fine (although I'm personally not willing to spend that much on a console), but the price must be the same everywhere. The hardware is great, but again, this must be the same everywhere. Waiting awhile for a release is ok, but please make it the same everywhere. This way nobody feels as if they're being taken for a ride and judgements on whether the cost is worthwhile can be made later.
(and by the same everywhere... I understand the UK pays more and exchange rates etc. - I mean a reasonable difference. I also understand the difficulties in universal release dates - but make it weeks not months and all will be smiling)
The only thing that's clever about it is the Blu-Ray drive, and you'd be insane to be suckered into buying before this preposterous HD video format squabble is over.
Oh, and the £45 games.
Phil
I think thats pushing it a little, but it's not too much more nowerdays to get a PC that's roughly the same power as a PS3. The only problem is a console can do a lot more with it's hardware than a PC can since a PS3 game is tailored for it's hardware, whereas a PC game has to to compatible with many different types. A console also doesn't have a massive OS running in the background.
Come on anyone who pays that much is a muppet but even so at least you can take it home and be sure it will run, not requires 3 patches, a new driver and what ever else it might take to get it running, most PS3 games are <£33 from a number of online stores.
I do agree that PC games are priced much better and over the course of ownership the PC could probably end up cheaper, if it wasn't for the fact you'd need an upgrade of some description in 12-18months just to support the latest game engines etc, it might just be true.
I think you will find it most certainly does.
Phil
"This just in, Sony killed your father and raped your mother!"
Frickin' Sony. I don't think I'm gonna defend them anymore.
When I read the article about the 60GB model getting killed off the first thing that came to mind was "I bet there's gonna be another price drop soon" Interesting that there's a link to just that in this article.
Yes please, hard.
I'm not a fan of Sony, but then nor am I a fan of Microsoft (or anyone for that matter), but surely that doesn't add up?
Us europeans get screwed time and time again :/
P.S. kempez, please prove to me what you could buy with the same amount of money you could get the PS3 bundle for, because I'm seriously anticipating this list of components....
(meaning "QFT" in my dialect)
Already you can do everything PS3 does, but have a larger library of this-gen games,
As to the bundle, I think what annoys people is probably that they are making out they are adding a lot of value to it instead of a price cut, but that only holds true if you would have bought both games and another controller in the first place, if you didn't you are left effectively paying more for less choice.
Give it a few months and i'm sure copies of both games will be flooding ebay because of it, as people try and claw back the cash (but probably fail because you won't be able to buy the console without them anyway..)
Myself I guess if I was buying one I'd want the second controller, definetely not motorstorm because I'm not into driving games and resistance would be a harder decision - I have yet to see anything much past a 70%/average review for it and it seems like the PC isn't exactly lacking in those already.
mind you the trade in price is likely to deminish for those 2 games.
The xbox 360 can be found for RRP £280 with an extra controller and a bunch of games easily these days, the HD-dvd player seems to be about £99,
Fair enough no Wi-fi, but Wifi is slower than Wired anyway.
~£450 will get you a reasonable pc if your building your self and even if you spend 200 quid more whats that 20 games over 5 years and you've made a massive saving. Seems like a much better deal to me. And lets face it the cost of games is a biggy cause none of us want to anger the god Sony and pirate games do we now! Coupled with the fact that in five years your "sweet piece of kit" will be an out of date paper weight with an obsolete optical drive its suddenly not such a great deal is it.
Not only was it fan boy nonsence though, he came out a total jerk while spewing that rubbish.
Whatever PC you build for £450 won't last a fifth of the lifespan of the PS3 and lets be honest probably won't last out the current PS2, the next big PC title will come out and it will no doubt croak or require compromised gameplay.
And to be honest i have a £300 4 yr old pc i still use every day, much more than i used my £300 PS2.
a challenge!!!! i think i will take it as soon as i have time.... maybe tomorrow.... any rules? can i get parts from other countries? FPS lower limit? OS?
besides if 1920 x 1080p is a big deal, A 1080p capable HDTV needed for the PS3 must also be taken into consideration.
Correct. So unless your counting the PS3 as £1400 or something, its not really a fair comparison for price, unless we're talking Standard Def PS3 here :)
YES, Sony are being lame when it comes to EU pricing etc. Slapped wrists for them, but we're surely used to being shafted in this way by now?
Though the PS3 is WAAAY out of my price range at the mo, I'm not sure it's necessarily overpriced, as such:
So... I bought my original PS2 when it first came out, and paid about £330 with some DVDs, a cheap 2nd controller and a game. This is when DVD players themselves cost about £200-£250, so it seemed like a fair enough deal at the time.
As a reference point, I also bought a new 28" TV for £280 at the time, so the freakin' PS2 cost more than the TV!
A PS3 costs £399 now, with 2 official controllers and 2 games.
Obviously, to take full advantage of it, a 1080p TV is required. (Only a complete moron would buy it for use on an SD TV)
- That'll be another £800 investment then!
Basically, it's the cutting edge. Who the hell expects reasonable prices for the latest, most powerful stuff?
- If you can afford a decent HiDef LCD/Plasma TV, then why complain about paying half that again for a PS3 (or whatever) that can actually make good use of that screen?
- Just how much is the cutting edge of PC graphics at the mo?
An 8800 Ultra is like £350 for a graphics card. That's what I call unreasonable, ffs.
Things have moved on. Your Goodmans CRT TV no longer cuts it.
Three choices:
1> Coerce Mummy and Daddy into buying you the latest HDTV and PS3
2> Save up for it
3> Resign yourself to waiting for a price drop that won't come for another year, because you're too skint at the mo. (like me)
Whichever way you take it, get a grip.:(
/end pi$hed rantings
The rules are simple.
It must be capable of playing games but does not require a screen.
If I cannot play a game exactly the same on a PS3 and this PC then it is not fit for purpose. An OS must be used which can produce effects the same way legally (i.e. if the effects require DX10 then an operating system which can use DX10 officially must be used).
It must allow me to use it for other uses as well (like the PS3), have bluetooth, a memory card reader, a blu-ray or HD-DVD drive and wireless.
Input method is optional (i.e. keyboard and mouse are acceptable).
As for the price, in the UK the console has been £400 on it's own for a while, I've seen it at £425 but that's with a game and accessories.
You can go over budget, but (for people that say PCs are cheaper because they are upgradeable) you must take into account the cost of upgrading a PC after 10 years.
The price cuts will eventually hit these shores. Until then I don't think there will be any significant effect on sales. People who want a PS3 will still buy it. People who think about specs and compare price drops to US are in the minority.
Taking Play.com for an example, its a rare PC game that launches at more than £24.99, while mid-range games often launch at £17.99 and they drop reasonably quickly (a lot of AAA games can be picked up for £9.99 or £14.99 within 6-9 months or so). Meanwhile 360 and PS3 games for the most part are costing £39.99, with the cheapest ones mostly launching at £29.99 and they aren't dropping much/at all. Wii ones sit somewhere in the middle at £34.99 - £24.99.
So, a PC compared to a 360/PS3, buying one new game per month for 3 years, saves £540 (£792 for mid-range games), giving us a PC budget or more like £750-£950 (£1,000-£1,250 for mid-range games).
If the PC user can stand to wait a little buying the games instead of rushing right out, can basically double that and anyone who buys games at a greater rate will save more, of course if you only buy a couple games a year, the console is hard to beat, but still I'm not sure you'd want to spend £400 if you only want to play a couple games ?
And you don't have to include a big or fast hard drive, no screen, hardly any cables, but for good measure you should probably invest in a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. But if you can, get one without any trimmings.. Literally the basic model with no extras at all.
If sony really think this is the way to treat the whole of europe then they are more stupid than I thought, firstly we wait too long for it to arrive on our shores, then we get a highly priced piece of kit with blue ray, when over the pond they are getting it for less even before the price cuts, then this we get to be the idiots (not me) who take the stock of crap controllers in bundles, while the american or japanese will be annouced a new better controller, along with a couple of the first batch of games (which to add insult will have NOT FOR RESALE on em I bet)....
I remember microsoft did this to me with the original xbox console, I payed £299 on release day, and insultingly a week later it dropped £100, and microsoft gave me a god afwul second duke (the worlds worst controller), and 2 microsoft studio games, I had bought PGR, and Halo at the time of console and was left with crap choices....
I really am in hope sony fail at this point.:(
Ah well contributing in these posts has been fun at least I can get free postage on my new GPUs
No official price drop but places like boots like to sell the premo for £230 and the core fro £150 :)
Why dont we talk about MS f**king us and screwing us all over with games for windows forgeting people are still using XP. Means my 2 year old machine that cost £1,300 wont be able to play any new PC games and I have not bought any games on PC since HL2, DOOM 3, BF2, 2143. Games I want to play now are Games for windows which means I got to spend crap loads more money on a new PC and OS.
£280 for my 360 and I dont have to worry about upgrading or seeing a preview of new games out in the next year and dont even need to think or worry about if it will work. Same goes for the PS3, when I get one I know all games for it will work and will not cost me more money.
Therefore I see it value for Money.
Im married and can no longer spend hundreds of £'s on upgrading my PC to keep it Elite so that I can play the latest games. Now my gaming days are almost over for PC as I have new prioritys and responsibilities.
Console is now for me, like back in the good old days before I started working and buying my first PC. Cheaper to buy a £400 Console that has a 10 year life span than a £1K PC that has 1-2 years.
wow so I make a simple statement and ur all over me like a rash...hmm yes. Seeing as I can "take advantage of a PS3" as you put it that point just comes down to a personal insult, not that it surprises me of course. When it comes to consoles people do seem to get very upset if their favourite isn't someone else's cup of tea.
I have a gaming computer right now (well 2 actually) and it can definitely out-perform the PS3 in pretty much every department. Granted it didn't cost £400, but then hell it didn't cost me anything at all so....
I also did not say it was out of my budget, just that it is more than I reasonably expect to pay for either a console OR a high-def media player - and I will wait until the price comes down (and of course a game I actually want to play on it comes out) before even thinking about buying a PS3. I actually bought a 360 at release and yep it broke...then MS replaced it (FOC) and it's been fine since. So let's recap - I've been playing on my 360 for well over a year and a half and bought it at a cheaper price than the PS3 is now. I think the 360 is decent but if some games come out I actually want to play I am not discounting the PS3 won't also be a great console.
Well I'm glad to hear it :) aside from the Blu-Ray drive you can get a PC that plays games at 1280 x 1024 with some AA and good numbers for around £400, and you'll also be able to edit your photo's, have full use of downloading/web facilities from all websites, run pretty much any application/program you like, play the huge catalogue of PC games and do much more...which is a lot of value for money for your average person and gamer :) Hell just hit up www.dell.co.uk
Anyway in sum: the PS3 is a nice bit of kit, just over-priced right now and Sony have the worst marketing department in the entire world
Do they? all the ones ive looked at say Vista only. oh well.
The PS3 is overpriced as a gaming console but as a computer it's cheap as chips. I have said since the first PS3 news that Sony have ****ed up their marketing.
If Sony wants to make money, then they either drop prices and sell games OR do something about it, I mean look at the 360 your able to play with your PC friends, what have Sony done? Come on Sony if you want to not be known for a high priced System that didn't get enough sales to make a Sequel... then you know... listen!!
Enough at the criticism, tbh I love the PC and would rather spend more money on it than a console that has 1 or 2 exclusives when PC has about 100.
If the price doesn't drop by next year, the PSwii isn't going to work.
Also, regarding your statement about how a PC offers the user the ability to "edit your photo's, have full use of downloading/web facilities from all websites, run pretty much any application/program you like, play the huge catalogue of PC games and do much more...", you can run Linux on the PS3 which will allow you to do all of this AND with a mouse and keyboard, so what does a computer offer that a PS3 doesn't in terms of usability on that stage?, but tbh I do not own a PS3, I have not installed Linux on it, and I have not tried using the operating system or have I tried editing photos or listened to music, etc., so I can't tell you if the experience would anywhere close to the same as it would be on a PC.
I also agree that Sony's PS3 marketing team ****ed up their marketing on the console and that it is biting them in the butt and also that more original games need to debut before the PS3 worth the money as a gaming console
Currently browsing via my PS3 ;)
You made the PS3 sound so good up until you said that lol :p
A breakdown of the cause-effect relationship Sony has had with their Playstation 3:
- None of the promised titles were anywhere to be found upon release; cause: all of the involved developers and publishers who strictly prioritized presenting us with distantly future titles at conventions--did you ever hear about Killzone 2 or Final Fantasy VII since then?
- Blu-ray Disc (alongside its competitor) was having difficulties in establishing itself as a popular format; cause: we, the consumers, could not make up our minds and still can't
- Sony's online Playstation Network was effectively functionless due to the above two shortcomings; cause: feature titles were pushed back indefinitely
- games that were available at the release date were generally poorly developed and too few; cause: developers did not commit to their projects and Sony's engineers did not create a satisfactory developer's kit
- the console was delayed far too long to remain in the competitive bracket wherein the Xbox 360 stood, forcing the Playstation 3 to seat itself in a higher-end niche at launch--though this has changed over the past year; cause: IBM et al could not finalize the consumer version of the Cell in time
The console's computing power was ultimately left unused for the most part. Recall the endless barrage of trailers and 'tech demos' immediately preceding the system's launch. There were the occasional realistic production titles at E3, but the main attraction was the Cell Broadband Engine--which performed flawlessly--but that did not accomplish anything with respect to achievable launch titles. In hindsight, Sony's only marketing slip-up that I can conjure is their lack of promotional material... and promoting all of the wrong things in their vague press releases--Cell's power does not immediately translate into malleable video game satisfaction. It was a cascade of failure from just about every other source out there connected upon which the Playstation 3 relied that resulted in an abysmal first breath and continuing struggle.Holy crap, you write as if I was reading from a LORD novel; perfect grammar, no mis-spellings. Tbh I love it! Anyways, I should've zoned-in on what I thought they messed up at. What I feel Sony's Marketing has failed to explain about the PS3 to the consumer IS: What the PS3 offered/offers over the competition because people only see it as an expensive/polished 360 with a brother-to-HDDVD media drive. It's amazing how much is involved with producing a console, let alone what it takes to launch one, so I understand why the PS3's path so far has been rocky, but they are making up for it, and this Xmas will really be the deciding factor on whether the console is what consumers want or whether it's a failing/overly expensive console, because of course to a niche market the console is a great value, but to the average consumer it may be over-priced and with no games it's probably just plain not worth it (especially in the UK/EU). Either way, I love the console and if good games debut I will have a reason to buy it; not only because it would have good games, but also decent-to-great BC on some of my PS1/friend's PS2 games, it can upscale my library of DVDs to 1080i, I won't have to drag a cord 800 feet from our modem to our basement (of couse the 360 can do it, but you gotta spend another $60), rumble should be back, and I might just be able to pick up a used 60GB for $350, but of course I'm just hoping), as for the 360 my best friend already owns one and he will be getting any games I myself would want, so I don't see a reason to buy it. ok enough rambling
Hehe glad to hear I just hate typing on this crappy IBM keyboard because the key size and layout is much different that what I use at home; so my typed words per minuted is honestly 10. :( I keep messing up every single word!