PS3 for £425 in the UK; "Bargain" say Sony

[Ben]

Well, hardly a surprise after the E3 conference announcements. Still, doesn't make it seem any less expensive to see it in good ol' British pounds. Although Kutaragi's UK cronies bravely agree it's expensive...

Oh no wait, they disagree about it being expensive. What a shock.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=17105

[Roderick]

In about a year or four, I may deem it time to get a Blu-Ray player. Which at that point can be gotten for about 50 Euros, maybe.

The thing is, when the PS2 launched, DVD was all the rage and people were willing to invest in the gaming machine. Blu-Ray will take another two years AT LEAST to catch on, so there's really not much value to the statement that it's a 'cheap Blu-ray player' yet.

[-MaSQuE-]

Ah yes, a "cheap" Blu-Ray player to play my nonexistent Blu-Ray movie collection on.

[Roderick]

It'll go nicely along with your non-existent HD tv.

[Ginger]

and to play all my non-existent innovitivel PS3 titles on...

[-MaSQuE-]

It'll go nicely along with your non-existent HD tv.

It will, won't it? I'm not sure it hasn't got so much "HD style" that merely putting a non-existing PS3 next to it might not make it explode in a untimely fashion.

(I'm getting dizzy).

[SpiderMonkey]

People in the UK put out for Playstation.

[-MaSQuE-]

People in the UK put out for Playstation.

What exactly did they put out?

Y'know, could get dangerous, it's still nippy.

[brkl]

That's like eight hundred dollars

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

The real question is whether Next Gen DVD players will take hold yet.

The current format is still fine for most users.

I somewhat wonder whether they're bringing this out too early.

[miffy495]

Yeah, it's definitely too early. I've developed quite a DVD collection over the years, and 480p is frankly already higher def than I actually need to enjoy most of my movies/TV shows. Wow, all of a sudden, South Park got so much better now that it's on HDDVD, despite the fact that it wasn't created in HD! How did they DO that?

I'm with Rodi, maybe a few years down the line. Maybe.

[Thrik]

£425? More like fuck off. You know what I could do to this PC with that?!

[SiW]

This is as good a place as any to ask this..

Why would any serious gamer buy the UK release of a console these days? The prices of both hardware and software are jacked up and now there are several avenues for importing with reasonable prices, it's not too hard to get a TV that handles NTSC, so why would you pay the premium to buy a UK machine?

[SpiderMonkey]

Because it's a pain in the ass to then never be able to impulse buy anything?

[SiW]

Because it's a pain in the ass to then never be able to impulse buy anything?

Valid point, and I have to acknowledge my own skewed viewpoint seeing as I rarely buy games in-store anymore, but still. The difference in price would be a big factor for me, plus the wait time on some titles (though this appears to be shrinking). I have to wonder how region-free the "region-free PS3" will turn out to be, though.

I have a personal interest in the subject as I'm planning to move back to England this year, before the new consoles are released, and I'm trying to decide what to do.

[elmuerte]

£425? More like fuck off. You know what I could do to this PC with that?!

Play BluRay movies?

[SpiderMonkey]

I worked out the other day that when you average it out over the 7ish years I've had my own computer, I've spent £300 a year on hardware. So I guess £425 buys you a year and a half of PC gaming?

[Thrik]

There's no way I've spent that much. But then, I tend to let my hardware become obsolete before upgrading, and in pretty much all cases I've managed to continue using at least some of my old hardware.

My PC has definitely been the best value for money in comparison to any console I've owned — which is them all, pretty much. The only hitch is the exclusive games that make me want go out and buy one of the bastards.

[elmuerte]

And there is the price tag of the PS3 games. I doubt those will be close to $40, and I think $40 is already more than enough

[Oath]

I worked out the other day that when you average it out over the 7ish years I've had my own computer, I've spent £300 a year on hardware. So I guess £425 buys you a year and a half of PC gaming?

Since you spend that much money on additional hardware, you have a pretty large amount of secondary computers that can run as webservers or whatever, right? Or do you just buy a ton of gamepads?

Because the PS3 is a pretty narrow piece of hardware, only being able to play games and movies, it is a slightly worse investment than PC hardware. What I'm trying to say is that the money spent on computers is a bit more versatile than that spent on consoles.

[Roderick]

Yes, I actually do most of my work on my PC, so I'd say it's about onethousand times more important to me than any console.

[vimes]

Choosing a next gen console for me is a piece of cake : I can't neither afford the PS3 and the XBOX360... life is simple when you can't throw money everywhere:violin:

[SpiderMonkey]

Since you spend that much money on additional hardware, you have a pretty large amount of secondary computers that can run as webservers or whatever, right? Or do you just buy a ton of gamepads?

I was pretty disturbed to find out I'd spent that much, as it was. The breakdown is: I built one machine in summer 1999 for about £1000; I built a second machine (entirely fresh, so as to keep that one kicking around) for £900 in Nov 2003, then last month I bought a new graphics card and obligatory new PSU to fuel it which came to £300. I bought the best AGP card going because I don't want to have to buy anything else until 2008.

That's £2200 over 9 years, so I guess actually my maths is off and it's closer to £240 per year. Still a disgustingly large amount of money, given I thought I was being reasonable conservative - obviously I'm spending more than "dude I'm getting a Dell", but I'm not exactly buying SLIs either. And yes, I agree, PCs are more versatile. I wouldn't spend nearly as much if I didn't need/enjoy being able to crunch stuff through Photoshop, Hammer, etc.

[Existentialist Jones]

So, €800-€850, in real money, more or less.

Take away my rent, that's about what I expect to make in a month working full-time. I think Sony have been giving themselves too many pay-raises to see straight anymore.

[brkl]

625€, actually.