E3: Sony should announce cheaper PS3s for the world (and Australia!)

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 18:51

Opinion and Analysis

With the Xbox 360 getting nice price cuts, and the Wii still competitively priced, the pricey PS3 looms large as the most expensive console with games and graphics that aren’t all that different from the Xbox 360. E3 is the moment Sony should grab hold of with both hands to slice the PS3’s price!

Gaming website Kotaku has pointed to a “Gippsland Gamers” forum that says Australia will see a new PS3 model arrive next month.

The forum poster, a site admin oddly named “CthulhuFhtagn”, says the he’s received news that “Sony have completely halted all PS3 shipments to Australia to prepare for a new SKU to be launched after E3 this month.”

The post continues to note that “BigW have stopped taking rainchecks and are not allowed overselling of the PS3 despite being in the middle of the biggest Toy Sale of the year and allowed rainchecks and oversales on all other consoles.”

The post ends by noting that: “According to the "higher ups" at Woolworths [parent company of BigW, a Wal-mart/Target/K-Mart style store], it is because the pricing and details of the new SKU have not been received yet, but the new system should arrive next month in Australian stores.”

Now Kotaku are a bit pessimistic in saying that Sony will probably do the least possible and simply bundle the new DualShock 3 controller with the PS3, and little else, but Sony should do a lot more.

After all, as a commenter in the Kotaku story called Adrian notes, the PS3 costs the equivalent of AUD $199 in Japan, compared with the AUD $699 we pay for the PS3 here.

But as another commenter notes, even if the price is dropped by AUD $100, it'll still be quite pricey: Sony should bite the bullet and go for an AUD $499 price, and an equally eye opening price in the US, UK and elsewhere in the world.

It has to be said that Japan has had cheaper PS3 prices since day one and it’s still being outsold by the Nintendo Wii, but as the Kotaku site notes, at least the PS3 does have some hit titles now.

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