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PlayStation 3 Still Set For March in EU, Price Revealed
Despite an accidental slip-up on the part of Sony CEO Howard Stringer, the PlayStation 3 is set for launch in the EU this March. When it does launch, folks in the UK and Ireland will be paying a pretty penny for Sony's new console. From the article: "Sony has confirmed ... that the 60GB PS3 will cost EUR 629.99 in Ireland, as suggested on the official website. 'Ireland is traditionally more expensive than other territories,' a spokesperson explained. 'The VAT rate there is 21 per cent, whereas it can be as low as 16 per cent in other EU countries.' However, the spokesperson continued, the PS3 will still cost EUR 599 if you're buying it elsewhere in Europe. Of course, here in Britain we're still using the funny old money with the picture of the rich lady on it, so we'll get a price point all of our own. And according to our old friend Senior Retail Sources, that price point will be set at GBP 425."
Heck, they could launch it in Europe this month -- just ship 'em all the unsold PS3's here.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Well, with the price point set so high in Europe, I know that the exchange rate will help Sony and keep it from losing quite so much money per PS3. However, it may be way too high in general from a consumer's perspective (after all, average spending power in the EU is altogether lower than in the US due to salaries being lower). So I'm not too optimistic about the number of units they'll actually be able to *sell* at that price. Far fewer than Wii's, that much I'm certain about.
I like basketball!!1!
Holy crap... That better be one awesome game machine.
Google marks the EU (not counting Ireland) price as about $770 and the UK price as $834. Like, damn. Am I the only one who thinks you'd have to be insane to spend that on a console? And I thought it was bad back when they announced the U.S. prices...
Unpleasantries.
£425 in $ .... ..but will it at least make breakfast for you in the morning?
UK£ 425 = 834.19 US$
Does the US price include tax? I had the impression that US prices are usually quoted without VAT.
Even if that's the case, then $600 + 22% VAT (in Finland) comes down to about 570 EUR. I wonder if shipping etc. could be a significant factor, given that the US also has to import their machines from overseas.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
So for the 80gig model: 425.00 GBP = 837.355 USD RRP in the US 499 USD That is: 338.355 USD more expensive in the UK. 171.768 GBP more expensive in the UK. So I can buy a Wii + game or an Xbox 360 with the price difference alone. So why buy a PS3 again?
The thing about the European prices compared to the US prices is that in the US we don't include tax in the stated price, in Europe the opposite is true. The price listed is what you actually pay at the register, as opposed to the US where you have to add on state tax (unless you're buying online, and even then you're supposed to pay your state for the purchase later (although nobody does this)).
Factoring out the tax we see that the PS3 is right around 500 to 520 euros or so, which puts it around US$650, which is a fairly modest markup of about US$50 or about 8% or so.
I read the internet for the articles.
The PS3 would still be interesting if it weren't for the hypervisor bullshit. How much am I willing to pay for hardware that doesn't trust me? Around 50 GBP, if I could get linux running native that might go to 300. Basically, the thing is a brick.
Nice price points... According to exchange rates of my Central Bank it is roughly $816 in Ireland, $837 in UK and $776 in the rest of Eurozone. Just watch for those lines in front of the stores gathering any minute now.
For those that don't know, average European, from UK, IE or the rest of Europe still earns less than Americans.
Robert
Bastard Operator From 193.219.28.162
You guys are complaining about nothing. Here're the official Brazilian price points for current generation consoles, in US dollars, if you want to avoid smugglers and prefer sticking to the letter of the law:
Sadly, none of the above are typos. And it's even more maddening when you consider most Brazilians earn half USA's minimum wage... :(
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
Now the Europeans can watch the console sit unsold on store shelves too!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
You got the US price wrong, the 60 gig model is $600. Also, if the UK price includes tax, the equivalent US price is about $636 (given 6% sales tax). This would make the difference $200, not $338.
Here in the UK, we often get screwed, as much as i adore my Wii, it costs $80 a Pop for games here
£425 for a console is obscene, people here just wont buy it (the average household income is 18K here- before Tax)
many people refuse to buy the X360 here because of the price (300 for the decent package)
while we can get gamecubes, PS2's, Xboxs and Wii's for 100200 here, the 360 and PS3 dont have a chance
Troll. Mod me as troll please.
End of conversation.
This?
-EL
Where you get that 18K figure from? I was under the impression that it was about £26K, before tax.
This page seems to suggest £27K!
What could be still an issue for Europe is the problems with graphics of some PS2 games (see http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/ message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=808212 for instance).
This could be more of a problem in the EU, as PAL versions of games generally don't have progressive scan support (which is a work-around).
I called Playstation support in the UK yesterday about this, and they claimed that this would be fixed in a firmware update before the EU launch. I'm not sue I believe them though.
£425 is $830.
Fortunately, many people who have that kind of cash to throw at a game console either know people in the US, or might be going over there some time soon, whether through business or holidays.
$830 will get you a 20Gb PS3 (the extras in the 60Gb we're forced to get in the US don't terribly interest most people), and leave you enough cash left over to buy a Wii and still have $80 left over to cover sales taxes. Or, if you don't want a Wii, put the money toward your airfare...
Wow, that's a markup...
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
I came back from Japan recently. The 20Gb model is about £220 and the 60Gb model under £300 at current exchange rates.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The VAT rate there is 21 per cent, whereas it can be as low as 16 per cent in other EU countries.
It's 21% in Belgium as well, but we could just hop across the border if they charged more here. So that extra 30 euro is just an island tax.
Despite being a long-time PC gamer (with no plans to change that), I am considering finally getting a console.
I appreciate that I'm a lone person and so largely irrelevant, but Sony can forget about getting my money. Even if I had forgotten about the rootkit fiasco (and I haven't), that's out of my price range given there are cheaper alternatives.
Just my two penn'orth.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I think it's not entirely offtopic to state:
I want a Wii.
Here in France, the Wii was released on the 8th of December. I resisted the temptation to preorder, naively confident that Nintendo's production would quickly catch up to demand.
Today still (Jan 18th), stocks are empty everywhere I search, with shops depending on Nintendo's trickling supplies to honor preorders.
In a prominent consumer electronics shop (FNAC), I was tersely answered "No dates" when I asked for an ETA. Another chain tells me "End of February, start of March"...
So the best I can hope is to get my Wii by the time the PS3 hits the stores. If I don't preorder *now*, it'll probably shift some more.
Also, we don't yet have real HDTVs here (all the big TVs are "HD-ready", that's 720p). It's one of the reasons I'm holding out for one. I wonder how that'll impact the performance of the PS3.
Is it too much speculation to believe the PS3 supply will equalize demand within in a month, here?
All in all, I'm very curious to see how the European market will react to the three consoles, compared to the USA and Japan.
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Watch a line of three people gathering in front of the stores the day before selling it. Message to sony, people do not have money to spend on junk, it is neither close to the summer vacation nor close to christmas! Btw. we also earn less than the average US or japanese household!
So, in Canada at least, Sony is already dumping PS3s onto wholesaler warehouse stores.
It's usual to find overstocked or end-of-line stuff there.
Costco's not driven by low-end stuff - it's not playing in the Walmart marketplace. It's demographics are weighted to the middle-earning-bracket. I'd say that Sony is delighted that Costco is stocking the PS3 - the people shopping in there are more likely to purchase something in this price bracket. Costco's marketplace is driven by cheap storage costs and bulk purchases of mid-range items. It does not deal in end-of-line stuff unless it getting a major price cut on it and I don't see the Costco price for the PS3 on the site right now.
After all, Sony is interested in selling as many PS3's as possible at it's current manufacturing supply cost (i.e. the price that the retailers pay, not to be confused with the MSRP). All the time that places are selling out of PS3's, Sony is going to be happy. Right now, the PS3 is (one of?) the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market and has a small PS3 game library. Once the sales start to slow, look to Sony for price cuts to continue the selling. The interesting point will be this summer - if the PS3 sees a number (at least five) of must-have games in time for the summer vacations and a price drop of US$100, I suspect that the PS3 will reach parity with the number of XBox 360 systems.
I must be mad making predictions :-) Be interesting to see how they play out.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Sorry to disappoint you... but it's a PS3.