I’m constantly seeing/hearing/reading people complaining about the price of the PS3, claiming it’s too expensive for a gaming machine. Well it’s time I explained why I feel the PS3 is worth the £425 price tag even though I will be using it mainly for games & DVDs.

When I hear someone say “I’m not paying £425 for a games console!” I immediately think they are looking at it the same way your parents probably viewed gaming when you were a kid: “Oh they will grow out of it once they become adults & join the real world”.

Gaming should no longer be viewed as “being for kids”. According to ESA (Entertainment Software Association), the average age of gamers in North America is 33 & they’ve been playing games for 12 years.

I’m 26 (27 very shortly) & I’ve been gaming since I was 6. So why do people keep saying “I’m not paying £400+ for a games machine!” actually belittling a hobby that brings them a lot of joy & actually treating it as if it’s a toy, when they are more than happy to pay similar amounts for other (more adult classified) electrical equipment that they will also use on a regular basis!

The PS3 is a top of the range gaming machine (well depending on which camp you’re in ) and if you wanted to buy a top of the range DVD recorder/PC/Laptop/mobile phone/MP3 player/TV etc, most people are quite willing to pay the asking price or close to it. These can range from £200 - £4000.

With products like MP3 players, mobile phones, PCs/Laptops they will usually last around 1-2 years before you need to replace or upgrade to a better version.

Using an MP3 player as an example, you pay £220 for the 30GB video iPod & it lasts 1-2 years before it either dies or you decide to upgrade to a better MP3 player. Let’s just say the newer, upgraded version costs another £220 so in the space of two years you could’ve spent £440 on MP3 players plus whatever it costs for the songs to go on it. This is just an example.

The PS3 should last around 5 years (yeah I know, some people are on their 3rd or 4th PS2, heck I’m on my 2nd PS2 in 6 years but the 2nd one I bought cost me £100) so that £425 you paid for the machine is all you should have to pay until the next super console is launched, possibly 5 or more years down the line. No need to pay more money to upgrade the machine every couple of years.

Now the PS3 plays PSone, PS2 & PS3 games, DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray movies, and you will more than likely be able to browse the web with it. Not bad for something that costs £425. Name one other piece of equipment that can do all that for the same price?

Now I earn a poor wage yet I still believe that £425 for the PS3 is a fair price considering what the machine is capable of even if it couldn’t play Blu-ray movies.

The PS2 cost me £299 when I bought it not long after launch so is the PS3 worth the extra £125? I think so.

Sony isn’t aiming the PS3 at kids, I don’t view it as a toy & I certainly don’t think anybody else should view gaming as a hobby for kids. It should be viewed along the same lines as DVD recorders/PCs/Laptops/MP3 players etc & I think that’s how Sony is trying to market the PS3, as part of your main entertainment hub in your home.

When I get my PS3 it will be going in my living room alongside my TV & DVD recorder & not hidden away in the bedroom or a spare room. I know people have different requirements with different views, but these are my views as to why the PS3 is worth the £425 price & why it should not be viewed as a toy.

Feel free to share your views.

According to MCV, Sony is in discussions with UK retailers to try & implement a pre-order payment scheme where you place a deposit of £150 & you should get a PS3 at launch.

In theory a store would get say 50 PS3s & the first 50 people that pay the deposit of £150 would get a PS3 at launch as long as that store gets those 50 PS3s.

If I remember correctly Sony did a similar thing for the PS2 but through Sony themselves & it didn’t cost you £150 to guarantee yourself a PS2. I can’t remember exactly what Sony did with the PS2 launch because I picked mine up from a shop.

I think it’s an excellent idea & it would mean the people that pre-ordered first would stand a very good chance of getting a PS3. Any ideas that prevents the PS3 launch from mimicking the terrible 360 launch is a good thing in my book.

Pre-order a UK PS3 for £150

Future Publishing is launching magazine PSM3 on August 3rd. Of course, this magazine will cover the PS3 and will include two discs every month.

PSM3 will feature two covermounted discs every month with the first DVDs including recent PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2 video game trailers and footage with voiceover commentary. The second DVD includes PSP game saves, games tips, a game review database, wallpapers, and PSP applications and audio files.

As a bonus, the first issue includes a free PSP charger/data cable allowing readers to charge their PSP from their computer or laptop. The price is set at £3.99, which means that they’re talking about the UK release. Can the North American release be at the same time?

Future launches PS3 magazine

BusinessWeek reports that Hirokazu Hamamura of Enterbrain says that developers are shying away from the PS3 because of the PS3’s high price. They note that on July 13th, EA mentioned more Wii games than PS3 games. Recently in an interview Jeff Brown said that EA will no back all next-gen consoles equally. He said, basically, that they go where the marketshare is. If the Xbox 360 has a much higher marketshare, then that’s where EA will have more games. That makes sense. EA’s supposed better support for the Wii is a little confusing to me, however. First, looks can be deceiving. EA may be just as much behind the PS3 as the Wii, and we might be none the wiser. But let’s say they are in fact backing the Wii more. Is it really because they see the PS3 as the super-expensive console that won’t sell?

BusinessWeek’s made the mistake of saying the PS3 is $200 more expensive than the Xbox 360. It’s not. It’s $100 more. Yes, that’s comparing the more expensive Xbox 360 with the PS3 Jr. But it’s not fair to compare the 360 with the PS3 Sr because the PS3 Jr is the one that’s actually closer in functionality.

So what you’re really talking about is a $100 difference. And in some markets, like Canada, the difference is even less (here, if the Xbox 360 price remains the same, the difference will be $50.)

Joe Sixpack really seems to get around, and he’s making an appearance here again. Joe goes to the store to buy his son Billy a console. “Hey Billy boy! What’s that gaming machine you got?” “It’s a PS2 dad!” With 70% marketshare, chances are it’s a PS2. Mr. Clerk at the store tells Joe that he can choose between the 360, PS3, or maybe the Wii. Mr. Clerk’s commission on the Wii isn’t so big, so he’ll flog the big consoles first. Joe will probably ask about the PS3 because his boy already has a PS2. But whoa, would you look at that price! $600! Mr. Clerk points out that the PS3 Jr. is $500 - only $100 bucks more than the 360, which it’s very comparable to, and it will play all of Billy’s PS2 games. Plus it has a built-in BD player and has free online games. Joe, of course, has no idea what a BD player is so his mind blanks for a moment while it erases that piece of information from his memory. So the choice comes down to $400 for a 360, or 25% more ($100) for the PS3 which will play all of Billy’s PS2 games, has free online gaming, and is a known brand. Everyone knows the Sony PlayStation! In Canada, it’s just 10% ($50) more. If Joe were Canadian, I think the answer would be obvious: get the PS3. It’s only $50 more. In the States, where it’s $100, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suppose Joe will choose the PS3 there as well. Do you, given those circumstances?

Will Sony’s Pricey PS3 Pay Off?

Sony’s big PS3 man himself, Ken Kutaragi, is going to give a keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) on September 22nd this year. While the important stuff about the PS3 is already know, there are lots of little details about the PS3 that are unknown and that are good fodder for Ken’s keynote. Here are some things that I’d like to know.

1. A little more about Linux. What distribution? Will it be crippled in any way? What kind of software will be available for it? What are the development tools like? How do you access Linux from the PS3?
2. What kind of media functionality will it have? We know it’ll play music, but can you rip your own CD’s? Can it play music from your home network? What about movies? Videos?
3. Can you play music from your network or from the HDD in the game? Frankly I’m tired of the music in racing games and would like to use my own.
4. Will the PS3 indeed be a Location Free server?
5. How long will the batteries in the PS3 controller last?
6. What will come included with the PS3? A game? A headset? A BD movie?
7. Games, of course. Are there any games we don’t know about?

Is there anything I’m missing?

Kutaragi To Headline TGS

Gavin has posted his PS3 Countdown podcast number 21. He discusses Call of Duty 3, PS3 production, God of War, EA, Half-Life 2, and more.

PS3 Countdown 21

You may have heard the rumours about the PS3 already being in production. And I can confirm for you right here that yes indeed, these are the rumours. Cheap shot, I know, but I couldn’t resist.

Following unconfirmed reports that Nintendo is already producing the Wii, we now have an unconfirmed report from The Commercial Times that Taiwanese electronics firm Asustek Computer has already started producing PlayStation 3 machines and have delivered some to Sony. Production quantities at first are reportedly small, which is understandable.

Supposedly they received parts for 200,000 units in June and that number will keep getting higher until Sony gets 2 million per month in October. Which seems strange since Sony has previously said that it’ll only have 2 million at launch.

So that puts the kibosh on all those rumours that the PS3 components won’t even fit into the PS3 box.

Report: PS3 Production Underway

gameindustry.biz has a fascinating interview with Jeff Brown from EA. I already talked about it some in this 40 40 20 article and this article on PS3 price point, but here I wanted to mention more.

Jeff Brown had this to say about the accusations against Sony that it is being arrogant:

I don’t think it’s fair. And at the risk of sounding arrogant myself, I don’t think it’s relevant. I’ve been in this business for seven years, which is not a long time, but it’s long enough to have seen a couple of cycles of hardware, and I know that there are always trips and stumbles at the start of these things.

When the PS2 was released I was pleased as punch when I found one at a local Zellers even though they were in short supply everywhere. I was the first person I knew to get a PS2. At the same time, there were shortages everywhere. And people wondered about the anti-aliasing. “The PS2 can’t anti-alias! Games are gonna look like crap!” Remember that talk? It all amounted to a hill of beans. So when people predict bad things about the PS3 or complain about its price or complexity, I take it with a grain of salt. The proof is in the pudding, so they say, so we’ll just have to see how good that pudding ends up tasting when the time comes.

Challenging everything

gameindustry.biz has a fascinating interview with Jeff Brown from EA. I already talked about it some in this 40 40 20 article, but here I wanted to mention more.

Mr. Brown is asked about the PS3’s price point. And I think he had something interesting, and heartening to us PS3 fans, to say:

Say what you will about the PlayStation 3, we know this as fact: Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Corporation are very, very, very good at marketing consumer electronics. These guys aren’t dumb. I wish it was cheap - look, at EA, we wish there was a $200 PlayStation 3 out there; we love big, big numbers on installed base.

But they have a business that they have to maintain, that’s the price point they came to. Is it a little high? Perhaps it is, but I would never underestimate their ability to market consumer electronics. Again and again, they’ve really distinguished themselves. Does it hurt them? It certainly remains to be seen. I wouldn’t say that yet.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that Sony isn’t a machine, sitting atop a big hill somewhere passing down its decrees to its acolytes to go forth and proselytize the masses. Sony is made up of smart people who know very well what people are saying about them and their PS3. They’re smart, and they’ve made the PSone and the PS2 raging successes. This is the same company that will attempt to do the same with the PS3, and we shouldn’t underestimate them. Sure it’ll be harder this time around, because Microsoft is coming on strong. But the PS3 won’t be a failure. It might not have the same marketshare as last time, but that won’t make it a failure. You’ll buy your PS3, enjoy it, and get lots of fun games. That’s what counts in the end, right?

Challenging everything

Gary’s been doing a great job co-writing this site with me, but now that he’s really busy of late finding a new place to stay and whatnot, his temporary absence has really hit home. It made me realize how dependent I am on him, and that this site could really use a third writer to balance Gary and me.

So if you have strong opinions about all things PS3, know a lot about the world of Sony PlayStation, and know how to write, please send some writing samples to me on my PS3Blog.net contact page. I’d love to have you on board this great team.

Edit: Note that this is an unpaid position. This site does not bring in nearly enough money to pay anyone anything - not by a longshot. So you’ll be doing this out of the goodness of your heart, your love of video games, and maybe to hone your journalistic skills. (Though I never really thought of myself as a journalist.)

gameindustry.biz has a fascinating interview with Jeff Brown from EA. Usually interviews with industry people like Jeff Brown are mostly boring affairs with a good answer or two thrown in, but this one is chock full of good stuff.

First off, he freely admits that EA is not equally committed to all three next-gen platforms. EA will put more resources behind the platform with greater marketshare. Which makes sense for a company that makes games and actually wants to make a profit. So in a backhanded fashion he mentions that in a couple months there will be 7 million Xbox 360’s and 1 million PS3’s. You do the math…

In answering the same question, Mr. Brown also says that industry whispers are that the marketshare positions in the next gen console war will be 40 / 40 / 20 - Sony / Microsoft / Nintendo. If this ends up being true, then Microsoft and Nintendo will surely be happy, because they’ll both have gained at Sony’s expense. Remember that Sony had 65 to 70 percent marketshare with the PS2.

What do you guys think? Does 40 / 40 / 20 sound realistic? Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part, but I think Sony will get more than 40%.

Challenging everything