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PS3 & XBox360 pricing announced
The first estimations of PS3's price and production costs have now surfaced, putting the expected US retail price at $399 and the manufacturing cost at a whopping $494 per console. Ouch. PS3 will cost 54,000 yen ($494 approx) to produce as of Spring 2006, pricing individual components such as the Cell chip and the Blu-Ray disc drive at 11,000 yen ($101) apiece, according to predictions by financial management firm Merrill Lynch Japan Securities. Given Xbox 360's widely expected $299 price tag, Merrill Lynch Japan predicts that Sony will try to sell its PS3 at $399 in the US, which will cause the company to lose almost $100 per machine. Microsoft on the other hand is predicted to lose around $75 per Xbox 360 sold, with the machine thought to cost approximately $375 to make. This puts Microsoft in a very good position. It has a console of comparable ability to PS3 launching first and with a cheaper price tag, with further potential to drop the console's price to coincide with PS3's (and Halo 3's, let's not forget) launch. This is potentially a very damaging situation for Sony who, according to yet more startling words of wonder from figurehead Ken Kutaragi, expects customers to "work more hours" to afford this luxurious piece of equipment. Kutaragi suggested that Sony may not even want to mark the console down as much as is being predicted. "Whether consumers think a product is expensive or cheap all depends on the balance between its appeal and price," he commented to Japanese publication Toyo Keizai. "Our ideal [situation] is for consumers to think to themselves, 'OK, I'll work more hours and buy it,'" Kutaragi optimistically hypothesises. "We want people to feel that they want it, no matter what." While many of you may think Kutaragi is being overly hopeful, he has more stunning logic to back up his claims. "When Nintendo was selling its 16-bit machine at around 12,500 yen ($115), we sold the first PlayStation at 39,800 yen ($365)," he said. "The press was saying that it was expensive, but it was a huge hit." However, some would be quick to point out that defeating ageing hardware at a higher price is a tad easier than beating a comparable console... especially when that console launches earlier, at a cheaper price and can do pretty much everything yours can. |
I probably won't bother. I play the ps2 less and less nowadays as it is.
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Good for you. I'm going to get both :D I have to admit I play on the xbox a LOT more than I play on the ps2 these days though...
p.s. The pricing stuff is still all speculation and rumour. Nothing concrete has been released yet. I do know however that when I bought my xbox (on the day it was released), I paid £400 for it without any games, so when you put that into context with inflation etc, the new console price predictions don't seem so bad :) |
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Sony is the inventor of Blu-Ray and will fab Cell at 65nm, so they arguably have greater control over pricing. MS is using 3rd parties like IBM and thus are a little more exposed. Here's hoping the competition causes prices to fall soon after Christmas :)
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The playstation 1 was about that price on release...I bought one. Can't remember what the xbox was on first release but they always seem to drop dramatically after the first 12 months.
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Will probably get the PS3 at launch and wait until next Xmas before getting the 360.
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Why?
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The Xbox was £300 when released in the UK - are you sure you paid £400 Iain!! It dropped to £199 a few weeks later when it failed to fly off the shelves.
I've become pretty jaded with Sony myself and the PS3 will probably be the first console in five years that I haven't bought at launch :) |
I've still got the receipt from Game, (I found it while sorting through some stuff the other day). It was £399.99 with one controller and no game.
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Originally Posted by Iain Young
Why?
Glad I got PGR2 at the same time though! :D Basically I have 10 times more PS2 games than XBox games. And I still occasionally dip into my Ps1 back catalogue I'll get a 360, but I won't be paying launch prices for one. |
From what I can see though, a lot of the playstation 'exclusive' developers are now developing for the xbox 360, (including a load of Japanese software houses), the 360 is likely to be cheaper than the ps3, from all reports it seems to be pretty much equal in terms of power, and it'll be out 6 months earlier. It's going to be interesting to see what happens...
I didn't like Halo2 either, but I still play on the xbox far more than on my ps2. Whenever a game comes out for both platforms, I almost always get the xbox version because 9 times out of 10 it looks better and plays smoother on the xbox. I find it ironic that the games I play most on the ps2 these days are actually from my old ps1 back catalogue :D So, why will you not pay launch prices for a 360, but you will pay launch price for a ps3, when it is likely to be even more expensive? Not sure I see the logic in that one... :) |
My Favourites are all PS based - Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider & Metal Gear. Although the new TR is supposedly gonna be on Xbox.
I got Lego Star Wars a few weeks ago and was intending to get the XBox box version but it was out of stock so went for the PS2 version instead. Probably my biggest gripe with the XBox is the controller design - just not keen on it - but at least it looks better than whats proposed for the PS3! |
Guess that depends on the shape of your hand. I actually find the xbox controller (the newer smaller sized controller) to be far better than the ps2 pads. Also I find that the triggers are far more suited to driving games than the sticks on the ps2, (which is why I bought a force feedback pro wheel for the ps2 and GT4). Suppose it's all down to personal preference. :)
My favourite games are spread around all my machines (xbox, ps2, gamecube, dreamcast, snes, pc etc). I must say that I use the xbox and pc the most though, (I got lego star wars on the pc for £15 :D) I'll probably be buying bothe new consoles on day of release. What can I say, I'm a sucker for gadgets :D |
Iain
How do you find the steering wheel for GT4 ? Was considering getting a decent one myself - but as I already have a good wheel for the PC wasnt sure if it was really worth it. GT4 is trickier than previous incarnations with the analogue sticks ! |
Not bad at all. It certainly is an improvement over the ps2 pad. I got the driving force pro with the full rotation (i.e. it turns 2 times from lock to lock), and it improves the feel of realism no end. The downside is that until you get used to it, it does actually make the game harder !!!
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The wheel is the bollox. I don't bother with the racing much any more, drifting with the wheel is so much fun.
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Originally Posted by messiah
start saving...
Simon |
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