E3 2006: PS3 Date and Price Announced
 

System to come in two configurations, will cost up to $599.
by Jeff Haynes

May 8, 2006 - In a last minute bombshell, Kaz Hirai announced the specific date and details of the PS3 launch. The PS3 will be arranged in two separate system configurations: a 20 and a 60 gigabyte hard drive system. What's more, Japan will see the PS3 first on November 11th, at a price for 59,800 yen for the 20 gigabyte system setup. The 60 gigabyte system will be open ended and set by retailers. North America, Europe and Australasia will see the system six days later on November 17th. The price? $499 dollars or 499 Euros for the 20 gig version, and $599 dollars or 599 Euros for the 60 gig version. In Canadian dollars, that will come to approximately $549 dollars for the 20 gig and $659 dollars for the 60 gig version.

Hirai also announced that Sony will try to get a grand total of six million units shipped by March 31, 2007, which is Sony's fiscal date: 2 million PS3s will be available during the initial launch window, another 2 million will be shipped before the end of 2006, and finally another 2 before March 31st.

$549 canadian?
i know the dollar is good, but not THAT good. that is 6$ less that it should be.
americans will be jumping the border to get it up here. :p

20gig i think is all you need.

so what is the benefit of the 60gb one? I thought you just needed 20gb to play online?

Exact same thing I thought. That is too expensive. Oh wells, it looks like I will not be upgrading to the PS3 at this price.

Plenty of other good things to spend money on :!:

Here's your answer

It seems Sony is onto a winner with this one - as everyone knew this would be an expensive piece of equipment but not when you look at the specs. This thing will outsell the 360 dramatically.

$600 for the upgraded version? Thats a bit retarded for a video game system.

It had better be able to cook me dinner and wipe my ass for that kind of money.

It had better be something extremely special and exponentially better than the PS3. I doubt that it will be so much better to justify this ass raping price. I'll probably still buy the cheaper version anyway after a few months off ebay when the prices drop a bit.

Can't wait to see GT5 on this thing.

it's so retarded that we uropeans have to pay the same price in euros as you americans in dollars.

This might work against sony. Mums and dads at christmas know that the 360 and PS3 is what kids want, and will go for the cheapest thinking theres no real diffrence. But Sony usually win in the end.

$600 ??? seems crazy... i guess it won't be a top seller when you got the nice 360 probably being 50 bucks under its original retail price by that date

It better have freaking amazing graphics. I mean AMAZING as in way better than xbox 360 if they want me to pay 600$

Well will it be the price diffrents be worth the graphical edge the PS3 will most likely have?

BTW Grand turismo HD has been announced and the trailer can be seen at www.gametrailers.com if anyone does'nt know about it. Its basically GT4 but with highDEF

I thought the price of the XBOX 360 was bad, but this is just $599 ridiculous!

It's a modern era, and it shouldn't be that expensive to have a new technology on a new game console.

i want one!

expensive, but it's got to be done, right?

I wouldn't count on it.

The PS3 is gonna need a handfull of absolutely killer games to get me to plunk down $600 for the console.

high res pics
http://www.scee.presscentre.com/imag...ry/default.asp

anyone else find it weird that google ads show the PS3 on this thread always? I Mean, does it track to check title of thread and puts the most related ad there? hmm makes you wonder.

But don't forget the PS3 has HDMI, 1080p, a Blu Ray drive, more space, motion sensitive controllers, and free online play.... easily gonna beat of the 360 - i'll be getting one anyway ;)

I think it'll be worth it as a Blu ray player alone

I find the price acceptable.
You get a lot more hardware than you do from an xbox 360.

Besides if you think the price is expensive, than think about what car makers charge for options.

the goolge ads does a search of the page. and finds 'key words' and posts links that relate to the topics on the page.

The price is no dou bt worth it. Aint sony making a loss on each system? and thats mostly due to the blueray drive??

But just because its worth it from a technical point of view. Does'nt mean people can afford or willing to part with that kind of money for a games console. I can imagine people just thinking they will stick with the PS2 they already have, or a xbox360 so they can join the nextGen hype.

I promise you that Sony IS NOT making a loss on each system. If that was the case:

1) They wouldn't be selling it

2) They wouldn't have jacked upthe price to $600 a unit. I know that it doesn't cost that much to make these things.

The company is there to make profit, and if they have a product that is only costing them money they would no longer sell it in mass numbers. With the super high demand fopr these things, you can bet that they're making a nice peice of change for each unit sold.

for the price it better be worth it. Can't wait to play it in stores. Hope the delay allowed the game designers to use the machine to its fullest

Holy Fuck thats expensive hard choice to make, will it be worth it, ahh well i aint gonna buy an xbox thats for sure, 60GB one it is.

Are you sure? i know for a fact that xbox and xbox 360 both made losses on release, and im sure I read somewhere that the PS3 are making the biggest loss. It may seem stupid, and like you said, it would make no sense, after all there in there to make money. But they make a loss so they can sell more units, which means overall that more games will be sold, which then means sony get money because they take a profit from each game. Basically its not uncommon for microsoft or sony to take a loss on the system, to gain more in game sale percentages. I think it takes £900 to pruduce one ps3. Like I said this is only what Ive read somewhere, but it is more likely there lossing money on the system.


Just a quick Edit. This quote from a website explains the process better than I can. I just want to show that companys do sell products at a loss.

""It is normal for game companies to take a loss on hardware whenever a new console launches, since they typically focus on acquiring market share rather than generating a profit during the first year. During the second year and afterward, they can recover the losses with the savings that come from mass production and with licensing fees from publishers.

However, Merrill Lynch Japan warns that the normal console business cycle may be disrupted if Microsoft cuts the Xbox 360's price when the PlayStation 3 launches. The report goes on to say that such a move could hurt Sony's plans, bringing an additional loss of 80 billion yen ($730 million) in its second year and 50 billion yen ($457 million) in its third year. Thus far, Sony has already invested 200 billion yen ($1.83 billion) into development and production for the Cell chip alone.""

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4727/

it is a blue ray player for under $500, you are really gettting a deal :wink:

They calculated the price @ consumer buying the parts individually, but if u buy millions, the discount is FAT!! Plus, down the product life, hardware price will continue to drop (of course they also make price adjustments). No manufacture will have their product @ launch @ loss, they have to recover their developement cost you know. :wink:

The price is astronomical, more than some computers... I certainly won't be buying one of these brand new, like I did for the PS2. This better have some earth-shatteringly good graphics and physics.

There's no way around the fact that, even if you are Sony, a Blu-Ray player costs in excess of $400 to produce, so already $400 before you even take into account any of the graphics chips, or memory, or the hdd, or the controller, or anything else in the cost.

I've read it will cost Sony up to $800-$850 for each unit for the first few million units. Obviously, once they ramp up production the costs will come down, and Sony can start making a profit. But don't think they are even thinking about making a profit on the first units they sell, that's not how the industry works, all of the companies use this business model, and its been shown to work very well.

If Sony could make the price cheaper, they would, this is probably the most loss per unit they can afford. Its the usual business model for consoles...get that market share, and make up the losses with later console sales, and game royalties.

Actually Coloradosilver, I believe Daggernite is correct when he says that Playstation will lose money with every single system they sell. Like Daggernite said, the profit is in the games and all the things that come along with it(royalties, accessories, etc).

Anyways, has anyone heard of any games that will be coming out for the PS3 besides GT5? It's pretty hard to justify spending $600 on a system just to play one single game, even though that is what I will probably do(Heck, i'm going to buy a 360 just to play Halo 3 and Forza 2).

And have you seen gt5? Graphics look like GT4 almost 100% same. Not worth it. No Lambo, no Ferrari, no Porsche and no visual improovements? Thats a retard move!

I wasn't just referring to the console. I was talking about the whole PS3 business. Games and all. After all, who would buy the system, but never buy any games for it? The whole video game industry is a HUGE money maker. They may take a hit if the only thing they sell was the console itself, but when you factor in the games, accessories, and other related products, you can bet the bank account will be well on the "plus" side.

that is because they used an "enhanced" GT-4 to demo the potential of PS-3. What you saw was not GT-5. Besides it wont be until GT-6 that you see the full potential of the PS-3. In fact most first genereation games for the PS-3 will suck in comparison to the second generation PS-3 games. The PS3 is incredibly complicated, and it will take game developers a long time to understand how to best programm for the PS3 in order to maxmize the potential.

That's IF blueray becomes the new standard. Consumers are going to get fucked if they jump on the HDDVD or Blueray bandwagon right away.


Just the fact that HD-DVD has the jump start on blueray has got to have Sony trembling just a bit..


The free online play on the ps3 got my attention though.. i just hope blueray comes through.

Blue-ray is bigger in size, and has more backers it prob. will last longer