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