Well friends, the
moment many of you have been waiting for has finally arrived: Sony's just lifted the
months-long veil of secrecy that's been shrouding the PlayStation 3's impending European launch. The good news -- and there's not much of it here, folks -- is that March 23rd is indeed the date you need to circle on your calendars; all that
talk of an April release turned out to be bullplop. However, there will only be a million consoles available for the entire continent, and as we mentioned before, each and every one of those will be of the pricier 60GB variety. Now, will they cost the same $600 that consumers have been paying in the US? Hardly; expect to drop a cool £425 (that's over 840 freakin' bucks) for the privilege of getting your PS3 on -- assuming that you can even procure one without looting or rioting, that is. We'll have more on the launch as this story develops, but we're thinking that you might wanna stop wasting your time here in favor of securing a place in line at your local gaming retailer -- as we know all too well, things are gonna start getting
pretty hairy pretty quick.
Update: Several details need to be clarified (sorry, but this has been a bit confusing;
Bloomberg's already on its fifth update). As some helpful readers pointed out, the £425 figure is a UK-only price, and it includes the VAT. The rest of Europe will be paying €599 ($776) for their little slices of gaming heaven, while the folks down under will be shelling out A$999.95 ($780) and NZ$1,199.95 ($840) in Australia and New Zealand, respectively.
posted January 24th 2007 8:05PM
Why does Sony think everyone needs 60gb HDD, wi-fi and memory card reader? I surely have no need for either. Microsoft can thank Sony a lot.
I personally loved the PS and PS2 but I am not that stupid to be posting negative opinions around the web.
It is REALLY STUPID and too soon to judge the PS3 and compare it to the XBOX360.
I really don't care that so many STUPID people bought it in Japan and in the US without checking first for available games and game-quality.
Regarding to this matter, I am really happy to be living in Europe.
I am not buying any console, just to say to my friends that I bought it.
There must be great games first.
I agree the XBOX360 is Great and has Super games!
...but it is out for more than a year so NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO COMPARE IT TO THE PS3.
It will be wise to decide which console to buy, around July or August.
If the REAL PS3 games are nice (and better than xbox's) then I will buy the PS3.
If the REAL PS3 games suck, then I will REALLY buy the XBOX360.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
The Euro price is not that bad.$776 is $647 if you take out 20%VAT (+/- depending on contry). So you pay $47 but you get a 2year warranty vs. a 1year warranty (or less) in the US. Europeans are basically being forced to pay for a 2year warranty.
The UK (and NZ) is different. There you have the usual rip off since the UK doesn't have the mandatory 2year warranty for Consumer Electronics that is law in most European Union countries.
I paid about 520 euro (1150 guilders) for a PS2 a year after launch. We are more or less used to pay these amounts of money for consumer electronics.
A PS3 is $600 + 17.5% VAT = $705.
Sony is charging $840 in the UK (£425) thats $135 more than in the US
I think, regardless of what has been said, there are going to be a lot of a) curious, b) wealthy i-want-one-for-the-props, c) game fans in general and d) sony fanboy types in Europe who will make the first million units disappear quite quickly.
I'm a combination of a) and c) out of the above list, and even without much money, i'll still be trying to get one any way i can. may turn out to be stupid, but i bet i aint the only one.
i doubt sony will have any trouble selling these. £425 would seem a lot for a games console, but we all know it's more than that
I doubt that very much... the first million in the US still havent dissapeared and its not because of lack of supply...
That's not what the BBC says
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6295359.stm
and I quote:
"Since then, Sony has successfully launched the console in Japan and America, shipping more than one million units in each country to date."
they could be wrong of course
that's not what the BBC say:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6295359.stm
Quote: "Since then, Sony has successfully launched the console in Japan and America, shipping more than one million units in each country to date."
they could of course still be wrong
Dax wrote:"You'd think that with all that money you'd be able to afford a basic education. Your spelling and grammar is disgusting"
Did it ever occur to you that not everyones primary language is English? Id like to see you write something in French, Spanish or any other language, you dolt.
As far as the topic goes, in my country it will be around 600 euro, a bit pricey for our standards (considering the average pay is around 300 euro) but I'm willing to pay that for a great device. Sure there aren't many great games now but I'm sure a bunch of them will come out in the next year. I have patience.
WOW! Another European WAr is about to come up! AND OVER SOMTHING THAT IS SO CRAPPY!
Dax said:
"You'd think that with all that money you'd be able to afford a basic education. Your spelling and grammar is disgusting." Is? Talk about irony. Give Shiver a break; he is in all likelihood Dutch.
I will be buying a PS3, but I'd also agree with others here that a lot of the lustre has come off the Sony brand of late. My personal experience with their products that I have owned has not been positive of late. I have had three dead PS2 drives, a glorious CRT monitor whose tube went after two and a half years, a Sony/Erikson phone whose keypad became unresponsive after a year and a bookshelf cd/radio whose left speaker now takes twenty to thirty minutes to wake up from stand-by (admitedly, it is over three years old). I have not had similar disappointments with other brands in the same price range.
Anyway, given my recent track record with their gear, a $50 premium for the two-year warranty is probably no bad thing.
Sorry, but what’s wrong with my comment?
Don't blame me, blame Microsoft’s grammar check. And my Dutch probably is way better than yours ;)
Welcome to europe PS€!
No good deed goes unpunished, does it? :)
I have no problem with your grammar. The irony was in Dax calling you to task on yours in a grammatically incorrect sentence. He should have written that your spelling and grammar ARE disgusting.
You folks in England have a 17.5% sales tax?!! Holy hell, when exactly did you turn the country over to communists?
@Deuce.
Here in Holland we have 19% consumer tax, but also: better healtcare, social security, much lower criminal rates etc. etc.
And offcourse a far better understanding of the world around us. :)
When you have a higher income in Holland, you also pay more than 50% income taxes! That must really blow your mind :D
@Dax, thought you were refering to my comment. Sorry to start the ball.
@DB, I understood your good deed but was just wondering if it was really written so badly, because I could'nt find what was wrong with it.
shipped != sold...they may have shipped a million to the US but probably 1/3 of those are sitting on the shelves...
Good point I guess, but what makes you so sure they haven't been sold? They say "shipped OVER a million units", meaning there is a possibility (no matter how slim) a million have indeed been sold and those over the million mark still languish on the shelves, collecting dust and basically looking sorry for themselves
Well, hmm, I'd completely forgotten to factor VAT into the price, that DOES clear up a part of the difference, but there's still 50 or so dollars unaccounted for here... I don't like this. The videogame companies systematically charge us extra for everything (don't even get me started on the poor sods in britain) without adding anything worth a premium.
What an american pays 1$ a european (well, at least a french, though i'm pretty sure this applies everywhere) will pay 1€ (which is ~1.25$), so though we may be a bit richer than americans (not quite sure of that, and not gonna bother looking it up) we compensate for it by paying more for stuff.
*notices how badly he wrote* Oh, and sorry about the way I write :p
Sony's past success has made them arrogant.
PS1 success + PS2 success = PS3 at any price plus easy win for Blu-ray
Especially since:
My cell is bigger than your....
What people outside of the UK dont realise is. That us English. Are a bunch of yobbish boastful idiots, that will buy anything our mates have got coz it 'got blood and guns and all that in it'. And we'll put it in our houses and play hard to get with it. It's literally furniture in the UK, and talk. We'll pay £425 for anythign thats 'cool'.
Does anyone know the deal with ps3 and regions?
Can I as a european get an American ps3 and still play european games and movies?
Blu-ray games are region free, which means games bought anywhere can be played on any PS3. However, blu-ray movies are divided into three (3) regions: Americas/Japan, Europe, and Asia(not including Japan obviously). As with previous region settings, you cannot play BD discs from other regions. Standard DVD region still apply, which is why people didn't want to buy a japanese PS3 on ebay because they can't play US DVDs.
"Does anyone know the deal with ps3 and regions?
Can I as a european get an American ps3 and still play european games and movies?"
Okay, basically for Blu-ray disc (both games and movies), the PlayStation 3 is region free. However, using DVDs (PlayStation 2 format discs and movies) will be region-locked like previous iterations.
DVD I'm using my HTPC for so that won't be a problem.
That's actually great info for me, so basicly the industry came to their senses?
Well, on THAT particular issue at least...
TO HELL WITH THE PS3!
I don't pay €599... Hah no way..
Oh man, the dipshit domino effect continues. READ THE ORIGINAL POST, MORON.
Infact, no, that might be asking too much of someone with such limited intellect, so I'll quote the original post (the one I blatently replied to, as you should have noticed) below, just for you.
"What is the big deal, I spend well over $2000 each year for my gaming computer upgrades and that not include the monitors that I buy, sounds like you guys can't afford to get a Playstation 3. Thats OK with me, all I can say that I glad its expensive so you guys can't get one :D. I bought the 60Gig PS3 with the built-in Blu-ray. I would have to pay $700 for a Blu-ray player. NO. NO the PS3 is a good deal and it can also play older ps games titles that is a deal I can live with. It may be expensive to some, but its cheap for me!"
As fun as it is flaming random kids over the internet, I'm not supposed to be using work's connection for such acts of amusement, so don't expect to hear from me again. (I don't bother posting when I'm at home; I only do so when work isn't too busy - as a result, I become bored.)
Ciao!
I'm with Mr Who. He seems like a reasonable individual. I will buy it too and so will many, many other people I know. This is because to this day my PS2 is still the sh*t as was my PS1 before it. If you want a mini buy a Wii; if you want a smoother ride then pay for it. You get what you pay for. I must say though the Xbox 360 is a good prospect and I was tempted. Also Europe will have a proper launch with a good number of decent games. And to the price in the UK - ever heard of Rip Off Britain? Oh Well, I guess that's what happens when you have the most powerful currency in the world.
Hehe, I live in Denmark, and I'm happy to know that I can afford my PS3, even at around $850. You see, I earn quite a bit of money although I don't work very much - that's called high minimum wages. I also get free healthcare, and I study medicine, also free (hell, they even pay me $750/month just to study!). AND when I get a job, I'm guaranteed 5 weeks vacation a year, paid by my boss (while I study, it's 2-3 months/year - at that $750/month).
All that is called welfare (well, and prosperity :-D)! But yes, we do have to pay a more for gadgets, which sux...
Hey guys, why are you complaining? In Brazil the PS3 costs about $1850 dollars (20gb). Practically impossible to buy.