“Sony Corp. has no plans to cut the price of its upcoming PlayStation 3 video game console in the United States, despite a recent cut announced for Japan, the chief of the company’s U.S. electronic entertainment division said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports.
Reuters reports, “Kaz Hirai, president and chief executive of Sony ComputerEntertainment America, told Reuters the company would stick with its planned price tags of $499 and $599 when the new PlayStation 3 consoles hit retailers’ shelves in the United States on November 17. ‘We are very comfortable with the pricing we have announced and have gotten tremendous support from retailers for that price point,’ Hirai said on the sidelines of the Dow Jones VentureWire Consumer Technology Conference. ‘So it is full steam ahead with the pricing of $499 and $599.'”
“Sony will introduce the PS3 in Japan on November 11 with the North American launch to follow six days later,” Reuters reports.
“Hirai also said the true test for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii would be next year when the consoles are all available at retailers and consumers have a true choice,” Reuters reports. “The Wii is Nintendo’s planned next-generation video game console, which is highly anticipated because of a remote control with motion sensors that can be swung like a sword or used imaginatively in other games.”
“Consumers have a growing number of digital and online entertainment options, ranging from Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes music store to YouTube Internet video site,” Reuters reports. “Yet Hirai said he was not so worried digital devices and online entertainment options would necessarily divert consumers from video game consoles such as PS3.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
5 must-have Nintendo Wii launch games – October 09, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii on Toys ‘R’ Us hot holiday list – September 26, 2006
Nintendo to launch Wii in Japan on December 2nd, priced around US$200 – September 14, 2006
IBM ships first microchips for Nintendo Wii – September 10, 2006
Can Nintendo’s Wii end up number one in market share? – July 18, 2006
Nintendo Wii wins E3 ‘Best of Show’ award – June 01, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii steals show at Electronic Entertainment Expo – May 12, 2006
When’s the European launch? Not that I’m buying..
Euro launch is like March next year or something crazy….they’re as bad as Microsoft for not hitting deadlines, I think it was originally planned for May this year.
who cares about europe.
Considering that Blu-Ray players cost close to a grand, the PS3 may be a cheaper option, plus you get to waste your life away plays games when not watching movies!!
$500.00? $600.00?
Look out Nintendo, here Wii come.
Signed
Grandfather of future spoilt grandchild
To expensive. There going to find out they will have no steam when it comes to holiday sales at those price points. I think many consumers will go for the Wii at more than half the cost of the Playstation 3.
This is a potentially stupid question:
Are these 2 new platforms any better than a real PC? I mean, are the graphics capabilities that far beyond anything our computers can muster?
I just can’t see spending that much money for a gaming machine.
Anyone?
Biscuit – just go out and get a Wii. there cheaper and better anyway.
Besides a blue-ray player, all the PS3 boasts is better graphics. The Nintendo Wii™ is a revolutionary console, which is going to redifine the way we look at consoles. The Wii is by far my pick.
And the Wii is revolutionary because… it has a motion controller and less graphical power than the 360 and 3? I’ve never seen anything that sets the Wii apart from the others, except for its price, the motion-sensitive controller (that Sony now mimics), and the theory that it will have more original games. Not really revolutionary in my book.
mudflapper,
Why would someone want to limit themself to PC sized monitor, when you can connect any game console to 32″, 46″, 52″ or whatever sized TV? HD or not?
And, from what I have seen (and excepting MMRPG), most console games are just better looking, more responsive and easier to play.
Maybe I’m biased. I’ve just never seen a PC game that impressed me.
$599??? thats a joke right… and not even coming out in the europe untill march!?!?! you suck sony… get your act together…
That the SP3 will be scarfed up as fast as they are put out on store shelves, I have no doubt. I also believe total SP3 sales will eclipse xbox right after 2007 xmas holiday season.
Though I’m still making good use of my SP2 and mod’ed xbox, my next console will be the SP3 and if it’s backward compatible with my current SP2 library then that’s a bonus.
It makes sense that if the console has Blu-Ray capability, storage capacity will not be a limitation for game programmers, right?
The PS3 will be sold out immediately. If your name is not on a hold list, good luck purchasing one. $500-600 is not that much considering the technology and inflation. Look what Atari 2600’s, Intellevisions, Coleco Vision consoles sold for. They were only good for games. The PS3 purchase can be justified for the Blu-ray disk player alone. The same thing was true for the PS2 as a DVD player when it was launched.
I’m not much of a game player, but I bought the PS1 as a CD player, the PS2 as a DVD player and I may buy the PS3 as a Blu-ray player.
In a seperate announcement, pog said today: “I won’t be buying a PS3 until the price drops.” The general public generally agreed with his sentiments and the PS3 became a flop after an initial rush.
Also G4Dualie, SP3? You’re either foriegn or a retard. Its “PS3”.
Xbox 360 and PS3 have graphics that are equivalent to mid-range of current ATi / nVidia graphics cards. Big news if you are used to playing games at 480p, but pretty unexciting if you’ve played ‘Half-Life 2’ at 2560×1600 on an Apple 30-inch display.
Nintendo Wii on the other hand looks very interesting, they’ve gone for the graphics don’t matter it’s gameplay that counts — and that a console should be about playing games, not being a “media center”. The new control mechanism looks brilliant compared to the staid and boring controls of Xbox 360 and PS3.
Only problem is, it’s increasingly looking like their 4 million consoles for 2006 are not going to be enough. Looking like Wii may be sold out in Europe before it’s even available to buy
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35591
what’s blue ray? i’m being a bit sarcastic,but that’s what a signif number of folks will be saying. $500 bucks is still a lot of dough for a lot of folks. After taxes, better than a weeks pay. Like Macs have been in the past, it may be worth it, but will people pay it- especially since the console just gets you an admission ticket.
And by mid-range of current ATi / nVidia graphics cards I mean nVidia 7000 range not brand new 8000, and ATi X1000 range.
“And the Wii is revolutionary because… it has a motion controller and less graphical power than the 360 and 3? I’ve never seen anything that sets the Wii apart from the others, except for its price, the motion-sensitive controller (that Sony now mimics), and the theory that it will have more original games. Not really revolutionary in my book.”
Well as far as nnovation goes hotter graphics and a gloryfied media player are not what i would call innovation either… but at least the wii seems to have an ambiton to give it a go (by no means ensures they will succeed)…
And as for the price point Sony will sell them initially regardless (possbly the only way not to cause to much noise about not being able to deliver enough units) and the drop will come as soon as they got the producton up to scratch…
And would say that the benefit of consoles is that developers have to adhere to the specs of the console instead of forcng gamers to upgrade hardware every 6 months…. lazy buggars
Anyway to pop out that blue-ray drive into my powermac G5. ggggggs. Be great to buy two PS3. Take the drive out of one PS3 and pop it into the G5 and then use the other for gaming.
Many may gripe at $499 and $599 price points, but what a consumer will get at the price point is rather incredible.
Yes, the price point locks out mainstream consumers and low-end buyers, but for the Christmas season, Sony will not be able to meet the demand for the market it can fufill at this price point.
By the June ’07 quarter (that starts in April for those who don’t know), expect the price points to fall $100 respectively, putting the product into the hands of millions more users.
Next fall will be the true battle between these consoles, and it may be that Sony and Nintendo put quite a hurt on MicroSoft, causing them to rethink their position.
Fall of ’07 may be a very bad time for MicroSofts consumer electronics division, as the Zune will be dying on a vine, losing money like a sieve, along with xBox never showing a profit (save for one quarter).
Diverting more towards a Microsoft topic, has it ever occurred to any Microsoft shareholder that the 90’s are over and that only two products make this company any pickin’ money? That the rest of the company delivers loss leader after loss leader product, which never turn into profitable solutions?
If I were a shareholder I would want Bill Gates head. He and Balmer have not aided in the stock doing a thing over the past six years. It has tracked as pathetically as Dell.
But I suppose shareholders like to re-live the glory days. That’s nice… WHACK!
“Whoa, what was that Apple, Google, iTV, iPhone, Tiger thing that just lopped our heads off?”
I checked out the Wii at the Nintendo store. It’s cool, the controller is killer-app great, the games are fun.
But the output resolution is very low. Terrible to the point of being a deal-breaker for anyone with better than a 27″ CRT TV set.
Kids will love it and it will undoubtedly be a tremendous hit. I’ll buy the PS3 instead, YMMV.