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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."
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.
The PS3 60 GB costs EUR 629.99 which is about $815 USD and the 20GB is EUR 599.99 which is about $776 USD.
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 US prices are generally listed without tax. However, our sales tax rates are generally far less than 22%. I think the highest sales tax rates are usually 8-9%, and there are still several states that have no sales tax at all.
Even if you consider that Europe includes tax in its prices and consider the ex VAT price, the cost of goods in Europe is far, far higher than the equivalent than in the US.
Is this some kind of Slashdot joke like the "In Soviet Russia" or "Only old people use email"? Last time i checked (yesterday) there were NO PS3's avaliable at any Best Buy within a 100 mile radius of downstate NY.
"Insert Sig Here"
I live within in Eastern PA (I'm pretty sure NYC is less than 100 miles) and the local Best Buy had 18 units sitting in a pile by the checkouts as of 2 hours ago.
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. --Herbert Hoover
For example, if content producers sold the top and newest games for $20 here, not the $100 they currently ask, they would sell maybe 100 times more, thus making a higher profit on the volume sales than what they get on the small number of overprices sales they make.
The official DVD movie industry does this. They sell the newest double-disk blockbusters for $21 and the single-disk version for $17. After a short period of time the price of the single-disk version drops to $13, and when the movie enters the bargain bin it's being sold for something around $8. These are affordable prices for the Brazilian market, and as a result most people who own DVD player prefer to purchase official disks, not pirated ones. Of course piracy still exists and you'll find plenty of DVD-Rs for $2 and VCDs for $1. But it's nevertheless way less widespread (in proportional terms) than what happens in the game market, whose producers for some reason seem to not grasp the concept that they should have price points adapted to the purchasing power of the majority of the population.
It's business stupidity on a whole new level. Don't try to understand it.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.