@Chutup

You actually think it's business-wise to sell the PS3 for the same price the world over? The products have to be scaled to the economical standards of the continent or there will be a deficit, which will not only screw up the company, but take the value away from the currency.

You add more value to the dollar, not more dollar to the value.

Pariah_001

Except in this instance you're adding more value to the dollar at the expense of the Euro and the Aussie Dollar.

Besides... I hardly think that the price of the Playstation will have any effect on the disaster that is the current Dollar exchange rate to the Euro (reaching record levels).

I've given up on Sony for now. They quite clearly don't value us European and Australian/Kiwi gamers as much as our American and Japanese cousins. I recently gave my PS2 to my brother and I have no intentions of replacing it with the PS3 at that price. There's just too much choice at the moment and I'm quite happy with my Wii, PC and 360.

This generation is definitely not going to be a replay of the last one for Sony.

[QUOTE="mruurds"]

I will continue to reserve my right to protest against Sony's pricing strategy by boycotting all of SCEE's products until they become affordable to me. Afterall, they are competing against the 360 which has been on my TV stand for over a year now. They've taken a large loss-leader approach in the US and JPN, but have chosen to use the PAL regions as a buffer to soften the blow to their bottom line.

Maybe I'm thick and my economics training only goes as far as year two in college (accounts and audits major), but all of your rationalising is not making me feel better about spending $845 on a console when I should be spending at least $250 less.

SambaLele

don't worry. Sony could be waiting to the same time gap to pass on the european launch, which occured 4-5 months later than US', isn't it? so maybe you get a price cut in a matter of 4-5 months.

PAL regions will continue to get shafted regardless. Any price drop might be time-delayed, but it will still be matched to the price drop in the NTSC region (percentage wise). This will continue to happen as long as Sony continues to play Robinhood by robbing the supposed "rich" to pass on savings to the so-called "poor".

[QUOTE="drewtwo99"][QUOTE="chutup"]

OK well first of all you may have just pulled those figures out of your *ahem* nose for all I know, but I really can't be bothered looking for figures of my own so I'll just let that one go by. Let's just say that Australians do, on average, make twice as much money as Americans. So you think that because we're richer than you, Sony should take revenge on us by overcharging us? Perhaps you think that the profits Sony makes from Australia will be distributed across America, but, oops, Sony is based in Japan, remember. Or do you think that Sony should just squeeze as much money as they can out of everyone? "If they can pay, let's charge 'em!" What you're saying is that Sony can urinate all over its customers in the PAL territories for all you care, as long as you get your price cut.

chutup

First of all, I got my information from typing "Median US income" into google and checking the link. Then I took out my calculator and divided that number by the amount of working hours to get a dollar per hour wage. It's not really hard to check my math, and if you're going to insinuate I lied to you, you should take the 5 minutes that I did to figure it out.

And again, I'll state it, it's simple economics. Sony can "squeeze" as much money as Australians are willing to pay out based on how much income they have and the perceived value of the product on hand. Free market economics mean that a company will make as much money as possible. Saying that Sony is "squeezing" money out of you is implying that they are forcing you to pay money for something that you need, when in fact, this is a luxery item and falls under a different group of products. It's not only subject to production costs, but also to the percieved value that each market it is being sold in has. In the US, there is a median lower amount of money per household, so a percieved higher value for us is less money to another country which has a higher median value income.

OK, if that's the case, then how about we look at what the other companies are charging for their systems?

PS3 = $999AU = $860 US (Australian price) - $499 (American price) = $360 (difference)

Wii = $400AU = $347US - $250 = $103 difference

360 = $650AU = $564US - $400 = $165 difference

Of course you can expect some extra costs for shipping and so forth, and I'm not claiming that Nintendo and Microsoft aren't also milking us by upping the price. But you cannot deny the fact that when it comes to ripping off the PAL territories, Sony comes out at #1.

Unfortunately I have to admit all three companies are taking us for a ride here. Price difference as a percentage of the US price:

PS3 = $360/$860 x 100 = 41.8%

Wii = $103/$347 x 100 = 29.6%

360 = $165/$564 x 100 = 29.26%

Quite clearly though Sony is giving us more of a shafting than the rest.

I will continue to reserve my right to protest against Sony's pricing strategy by boycotting all of SCEE's products until they become affordable to me. Afterall, they are competing against the 360 which has been on my TV stand for over a year now. They've taken a large loss-leader approach in the US and JPN, but have chosen to use the PAL regions as a buffer to soften the blow to their bottom line.

Maybe I'm thick and my economics training only goes as far as year two in college (accounts and audits major), but all of your rationalising is not making me feel better about spending $845 on a console when I should be spending at least $250 less.

Another point is the poor South Africans who earn a lot less than your average American, but happen to be in a PAL area and are paying even more than Europe.

South Africa has historically been Sonyland, but Sony's pricing strategy is giving Microsoft a major look-in to a market that didn't even have an official Xbox1 launch.

I would buy a PS3 if it wasn't as expensive as it is. I would get one if it was priced at the US level.

How much longer will Europe be expectd to subsidise US and JPN gamers?

Global economics and cost of living statistics have their merits, but I take offense that I have to pay say cost + x% when other consumers are paying (in some cases) cost - x%.

Gimme my x% back!

Minimum wage in the US is just over $5.00, what is the minimum wage in the european country you work in, and then convert that to american dollars and tell me again how you are getting ripped off. drewtwo99

That's rubbish and blatant profiteering. RRP should be calculated on the basis of [Cost + transport and duties + handling + markup for manufacturer and retailer]. Instead you quite clearly prefer the "hmmm, how much can we afford to squeeze out of them" approach.

Yawn. Sony needed to announce some new titlesas the PS3 has almost no games that make it worth spending the extra cash.

There are so many good games coming out on the 360 that weren't even mentioned at E3. Way to go taking E3 asbeing the make or break of the console war.

This year will still belong to the Wii with the 360 coming in in close second.

Once again legalize starts a pointless thread and gets self-owned.