whatever... but anyways check out my blog to see why it isn't a bad deal buying the PS3. and ApocalypseBlue: we can't talk about something that we don't know that's why im only taking the real facts on consideration. (what employers? what the hell r u talking about hehe)
flyfltch: why is it more expensive in the UK? well for the very simple reason that UK is far from where the PS3 is manufactured. Thus, it will cost those more to ship the PS3 to the UK. Don't forget that the UK is a Pal zone, Pal zone is always more expensive than NTSC zones.
READ PLEASE! Playstation 3 Demand Still Strong Despite Announced Price Calls placed to over twenty small-town retail outlets reflect demand ranging from lukewarm to red hot. By Carl Bender - May 18, 2006 One of the themes trumpeted recently by analysts and gaming media following the end of E3 has been the concern that with an entry point of $499, Sony may have priced itself out of the console market. At a 20% premium to it's nearest competitor, the reasons for worry seem obvious enough; but yet the situation as reflected by retail outlets seems to paint a different picture, and indicates that at least for the launch window, Sony has little to worry about. Looking to get a feel of how demand for the Playstation 3 has been holding up post-E3, PSINext placed calls to over twenty-five gaming stores in smaller towns across the United States; EB Games and GameStops for the most part, in order to keep it simple. Smaller towns were used on the assumption that they would more accurately reflect 'Middle American' willingness to spend up to $600 on a console, and the idea that figures taken from larger urban centers such as New York or Los Angeles might provide unusually inflated levels of interest in the system relative to the rest of the nation. In this completely unscientific survey, roughly a third of the stores contacted - in towns such as Seaford, DE and Brookhaven, MS - were not keeping lists at all, mindful of avoiding the fiasco that was the XBox 360 pre-order situation. For the other two-thirds of the retail outlets, recorded interest since E3 seemed quite strong indeed. Although two towns contacted were decidedly lukewarm at best - Gilford, NH and Petaluma, CA had roughly a dozen names each - for the most part stores contacted had consumer callback lists in the vicinity of fifty to sixty names; well above expected launch day availability. Some towns exceeded even those figures, with standouts like Wooster, OH and Houghton Lake, MI quoting numbers in the range of one hundred listed individuals. If Sony were able to sustain these levels of demand, sell-through could be ensured not only through the launch period, but into the following year as well. But as a cautionary note we should mention that although these gaming-specific outlets presently reflect a strong interest for the upcoming Playstation, the Playstation Portable was in a similar situation approaching it's own US debut. And though gaming stores all over the nation were sold out of the portable at the launch, ample supplies still sat untouched on the shelves of Targets and Wal-Marts. It stands to reason, however, that the above will not be the case for the Playstation 3. Not only will the November launch position Sony for Christmas shopping, but demand for the console seems like it will readily outstrip the US allocation of Sony's 2 million console launch figure. And though launch quantities will ultimately form a very small percentage of total shipped units over a consoles life, an early show of strength can still be crucial in allaying developer concerns and getting third-party support onboard. As time goes on, we will contact some of these stores again to keep a finger on the 'pulse' of PS3 consumer interest, and add others to the list to broaden the sample size
READ PLEASE! Playstation 3 Demand Still Strong Despite Announced Price Calls placed to over twenty small-town retail outlets reflect demand ranging from lukewarm to red hot. By Carl Bender - May 18, 2006 One of the themes trumpeted recently by analysts and gaming media following the end of E3 has been the concern that with an entry point of $499, Sony may have priced itself out of the console market. At a 20% premium to it's nearest competitor, the reasons for worry seem obvious enough; but yet the situation as reflected by retail outlets seems to paint a different picture, and indicates that at least for the launch window, Sony has little to worry about. Looking to get a feel of how demand for the Playstation 3 has been holding up post-E3, PSINext placed calls to over twenty-five gaming stores in smaller towns across the United States; EB Games and GameStops for the most part, in order to keep it simple. Smaller towns were used on the assumption that they would more accurately reflect 'Middle American' willingness to spend up to $600 on a console, and the idea that figures taken from larger urban centers such as New York or Los Angeles might provide unusually inflated levels of interest in the system relative to the rest of the nation. In this completely unscientific survey, roughly a third of the stores contacted - in towns such as Seaford, DE and Brookhaven, MS - were not keeping lists at all, mindful of avoiding the fiasco that was the XBox 360 pre-order situation. For the other two-thirds of the retail outlets, recorded interest since E3 seemed quite strong indeed. Although two towns contacted were decidedly lukewarm at best - Gilford, NH and Petaluma, CA had roughly a dozen names each - for the most part stores contacted had consumer callback lists in the vicinity of fifty to sixty names; well above expected launch day availability. Some towns exceeded even those figures, with standouts like Wooster, OH and Houghton Lake, MI quoting numbers in the range of one hundred listed individuals. If Sony were able to sustain these levels of demand, sell-through could be ensured not only through the launch period, but into the following year as well. But as a cautionary note we should mention that although these gaming-specific outlets presently reflect a strong interest for the upcoming Playstation, the Playstation Portable was in a similar situation approaching it's own US debut. And though gaming stores all over the nation were sold out of the portable at the launch, ample supplies still sat untouched on the shelves of Targets and Wal-Marts. It stands to reason, however, that the above will not be the case for the Playstation 3. Not only will the November launch position Sony for Christmas shopping, but demand for the console seems like it will readily outstrip the US allocation of Sony's 2 million console launch figure. And though launch quantities will ultimately form a very small percentage of total shipped units over a consoles life, an early show of strength can still be crucial in allaying developer concerns and getting third-party support onboard. As time goes on, we will contact some of these stores again to keep a finger on the 'pulse' of PS3 consumer interest, and add others to the list to broaden the sample size.
I have seen a lot of complaints as to the cost of the PS3. I think that the following should help you understand why this is not as unreasonable as it seems. Let me first discuss the graphics. By this time everyone knows the outputs. PS3 will be outputting true HD (at this time) of 1080p. The Xbox360 isn
Look at this: The Playstation 3 Value Proposition The console may be expensive - but it's not overpriced. By Carl Bender - May 21, 2006 Out of all the announcements Sony made during their pre-E3 conference two weeks ago, probably none has resonated more loudly than the announcement of the price for the upcoming console. Starting at $500 the system is not cheap, and even longtime Sony loyalists are waking up to the fact that when November rolls around this year, there will be decidedly less expensive alternatives to consider should half a grand seem a little too rich for their blood. But now that the dust has begun to settle and people are starting to get over the initial shock of the announcement, it's time to look a little more closely at what exactly Sony is offering the consumer for the price being asked. We'll start with the base console. Called 'crippled' by many, the truth is the base model can be considered crippled only when compared to its more expensive sibling. When compared to its nearest rival on the other hand - the premium XBox 360 - the basic Playstation 3 matches it feature for feature... and then goes farther. The most obvious addition over the XBox 360 is of course the Blu-ray drive. The favored next-generation optical format among the majority of movie studios, it's inclusion in the Playstation for a $100 premium grants the consumer a feature that would otherwise cost roughly a thousand dollars to obtain via a standalone player. In addition, the PS3 supports DTS audio for the audiophiles out there (not to mention SACD), whereas the XBox 360 is limited to Dolby. Lack of HDMI and the possible use of ICT-flagging on next-gen media does, however, remain a cloud over the BD playback capabilities of the base PS3. On any Blu-ray films that were to utilize ICT, output would be limited to a 960x540 image (DVD is 720x480) instead of Blu-ray's potential maximum of 1920x1080. At the moment though, no film studio has announced an intent to use ICT-flagging in their shipped products. In fact, Sony has already come out as saying they will not use ICT on their own Blu-ray video releases (Sony owns Columbia, MGM, and Sony Pictures). If other studios follow Sony's example, then for the next several years there would be very little shortfall in owning a component-equipped PS3 vs an HDMI-capable unit. Over on the gaming side of things, the promise of an online network emulating many of Live Golds key features - while at the same time remaining free from a service charge - will present consumers with the opportunity to save the $50 per year charged by Microsoft for subscription-based Gold service. For those who game online, this savings alone would pay for the price difference between the two consoles after just two years; calculated five years out, this would actually provide a savings relative to the premium 360 of $150. And with a hard drive present on all SKUs, the Playstation 3 allows developers the freedom to build games around the hard drive and with the hard drive in mind. Though still useful on the 360, the requirement that all games shipped for the system work on non-HDD equipped systems puts a limit on the maximum potential of the 360 hard drive in a gaming environment. When moving up to the Playstation 3 'luxury' edition, for the additional price of an XBox 360 WiFi adaptor or an extra 20GB hard drive, owners of the upgraded Playstation gain not only high-speed wireless, but a tripling of the hard drive size, a multi-format card reader, and the next-generation of HDMI interface. Superior to the HDMI solutions available today, HDMI 1.3 will raise the color information carried per channel to 16 bits from the present 12 bits, and allow audio to be carried via the HDMI cable as well. A compatible HDTV set will be required to make full use of this added functionality though, and for a lot of people this will essentially render HDMI 1.3 no more or less attractive than HDMI 1.2 for the next several years. Still, on a high-end A/V device, forward-compatability is always appreciated. In the end, the launch price of the Playstation 3 puts the system out of the reach of many consumers that might otherwise desire one. Luckily for Sony, this does not look like it will greatly effect the demand for the console during the launch window itself. After that period, it will be up to Sony to take advantage of falling processor and Blu-ray component costs to drop the price of the console as rapidly as possible for the benefit of the mainstream consumer. For those that can afford a Playstation 3 at launch, however, the system represents a compelling value across a number of fronts. On top of that, when factoring in certain accessory prices and possible online gaming fees, in several scenarios the PS3 may actually come out ahead in total cost of ownership relative to the XBox 360. For the capabilities offered in the PS3, the word "overpriced" is certainly misused when applied to it.
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