PS3 Gets Price Cut in Japan, U.S. Price Remains

Published on September 24, 2006 By Island Dog In WinCustomize News

At this years Tokyo Game Show, Sony President Ken Kutaragi announced the price cut of the PS3 in Japan by 20%. The 20GB model will sell for $429 (U.S. dollars), down from the original $515. It was also announced both models will feature the high-definition HDMI connector, which was originally only slated for the higher end model.

This price cut is currently for the Japanese market only, but there was wide speculation on whether this will translate into a price cut for the U.S. also. Sony Computer president Kaz Hirai followed up and said that Sony does not intend to cut prices for the U.S. version. The PS3 pricing still remains at $499 for the 20GB model, and $599 for the 60GB model in the U.S.

Comments

sa33od

on Sep 25, 2006

My god! Sony Corp. is clearly suffering the pain of the fact that Xbox 360 has launched HARD in japan. I mean after the huge support that Microsoft and game developing companies has provided to the Japanese region, I believe that Sony got banged in the head facing the reality of PS3 losing in front of the Xbox 360. (Why not?!)

I do believe that PS3 has huge fan base, but that's only because of the availability of copied and hacked games, at least this is the situation in the Arabian region which I live in. People in most of the Asian countries are getting copied games most of the time, which made the PS2 more noticeable and easier to spread, but with the introduction of blue-ray drives and of course changing the security system of the Sony PS3, many people are going to realise how high priced is the PS3 compared to Xbox 360, and how they were blind folded into believing that PS2 is thee console!

In simple words, what made PS and PS2 famous was the fact of the copied game availability! That's a fact that I'm sure of; head to a torrent or p2p site and search for PS2 game titles compared to any other console, you'll be shocked by the amount of people sharing the PS2 games, allowing more and more copied titles, hens more PS2 machine owners.

I bit anyone of you that as soon as some type of a hack appears for Xbox 360 (which I believe is available!), people from all over the world are going to rush to the stores and buy the Xbox 360 console, simply because that they'll have cheaper games and more choices threw the Internet.

Adding to this and that, many bench-mark tests have proven that the PS3 is NO difference from the Xbox 360 based on the power and strength of the system. And based on all of this talk I believe that the coming couple of years are going to be Xbox 360 years, not only because of the low price compared to PS3 but also because of the marketing plan that Microsoft has planed, especially after including India as a launch country for the first time in the console gaming history.

Let's wait and see what will happen.

PurrBall

on Sep 25, 2006

I'll bet it is cut in Japan because of the Wii.

whiterabbit007

on Sep 25, 2006

I think that even despite the steep price (and even with the 20% cut, which is only for the cheaper model, and only japan, it's still too much) Sony will make plenty of money on PS3. Having said that, if they don't significantly drop the prices across the board (i.e. all markets, all system configurations), they're going to loose a lot of market share, and that's going to cost them much more in the long term. I wouldn't be surprised if 360's market share suppressed PS3 in North America, and it will be much more even in Japan as well.

I mean 5 Benjamins for the "cheap" version!

Who are they kidding. Unless they bundle a bunch of games, 2 gamepads and at least provide the online service for free, I'm not touching it with a 10ft. pole.

As much as I loath to say it but they need to take a page out of Microsoft's book - drop the price even if it means you'll be loosing money on the first few batches. Because in the long term, loosing market share is going to cost them much more than the few million systems they'll sell at a loss.

Drop125

on Sep 25, 2006

Xbox is no contest for PS period....The Wii is not even aimed at the same type of gamer, so no contest there either....Sony will dominate as they do now and so will in the future...Long live Leader PS...We will follow and obey....(end transmision)..LOL...

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