Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

[bside]

Found the news at MSN.co.jp, saying that Ken Kutaragi, President of Sony Computer Entertainment, today announced at Tokyo Game Show that they will lower the MSRP for PS3 unit from 62,790JPY to 49,980JPY, in response to Japanese communitiy's voice that claims the original MSRP is too high, while such a claim doesn't exist in US or EU. News doesn't say anything about the prices in other markets.

The news also says that Basic model comes w/ HDMI port, despite the fact that it was originally announced not to.


The original news in Japanese can be found here;
http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entert...00065000c.html

[Loial]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

That's about $540US with current exchange rates.

[Icemage]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

Interesting. This makes a lower release price possible in other regions as well (not just in the USA, either). I feel bad for Australians, who have to deal with a MSRP of $999 AUS, which converts to $755.25 US at current exchange rates.


Icemage

[Lambeaus]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

It will take an even lower price and more must-have games for me to take the plunge. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[kuu]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

It will take an even lower price and more must-have games for me to take the plunge. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Unfortunelly, the american public doesn't agree with you.

Sony's marketing research show that they're leaning on not lowering the price in NA because NA people generally accept AND perfer the $600 version.

This may change with the shakeup, but clearly it show that you're in the early adopters minority.

Consoles have always worked on the backs of the company(pulling lost headers) and earily adopters.

Normal people with hands at their pockets don't fall into this catagory. This is very true as the amount of systems coming out would drastically exceed the price of $600 anyway.

Realistically on a purely supply and demand model, they shouldn't put any prices at all, as it clearly shows that people are willing to pay a lot more then MSRP as ebay taught us.

It's just you can't afford the bad press of price gouging, and must put out a disturbingly low MSRP.

I'm not trying to put you in a bad light, but your opinions mean next to crap because you were never a consumer.

Basic the cruel line of "sit quietly on the sidelines like a good benchwarmer".

HDMI for all is going to need more marketing research, hope it's in time before 11/17.

[Raydeus]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

Whatever the price is I'm gonna pay at least $200.00 more to get the PS3 where I live. So if they lower the price or not it wont have much of an effect for me.

Same with games, for instance ToAU was $29.99, I payed around $65.00 for it including import taxes and delivery.

So the PS3 will cost at least $800.00 for me, and I'm still buying it.

[Zamphire]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

As long as SE is a dedicated Playstation developer... I'll buy one everntually.

[kuu]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

I'm leaning towards the 499/450 version now that it has hdmi(though honestly I didn't really care)

I was planning to have it around for a year or two, then trade it in or give it to a family member as a gift, and get a new beefy one.(when more of those stuff are in use).

The hard part I guess is getting my hands on one this holiday season. Chances are I'll have to wait till January.

Price isn't that big of a deal to me as long as I use it. I might even get some unamed bundle, since I actually am interested in a lot of the launch games.

Well we'll see how crazy it gets.

On another note... blueray Advent Children anounced...I think that might actually be my first movie purchase @.@

[Raydeus]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

On another note... blueray Advent Children anounced...I think that might actually be my first movie purchase @.@

If the Region coding that's supposed to be implemented for Blu-ray movies is accurate that means America (all of it, North and South, or however is tought in the US) and Japan will be in the same region.

That's an Auto-win +10 right there.

[Gentoo]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

My LS got into a short discussion about the PS3's price. The interesting thing is that the PS3 is priced lower in Canada: CAN $549 (20GB HDD) and CAN $659 (60GB HDD). A'boot $487.00 US (20G) and $584.59 (60G) respectively.

That makes it comparable to the Japanese price.

[bside]

Re: Sony lowers PS3 MSRP for Japan

That's about $540US with current exchange rates.

49,980JPY is roughly US$430 based on the current exchange rate; you probably did it the other way around. For US$430, Japan's MSRP is possibly the lowest in the world.

XE.com's Universal Currency Converter comes in handy for up-to-date currency exchange;
http://www.xe.com/ucc

Interesting. This makes a lower release price possible in other regions as well (not just in the USA, either). I feel bad for Australians, who have to deal with a MSRP of $999 AUS, which converts to $755.25 US at current exchange rates.
Icemage

Depending on the countries/regions, I believe the MSRP isn't necessarily the same as the actual selling prices which could differ a lot, but supposing that the MSRP actually does reflect such prices, people in Denmark are paying the most for the basic version.

Wikipedia's page on Playstation 3 has a list of MSRP's in each regions, and according to this the MSRP for Denmark is 4495DKK, which converts to roughly US$770, close to twice as mush as Japan.

I don't know if they include any taxes that could be much higher in some regions, but even considering that, $770 is a little too high conmared to other parts of the world. Just so you know, Japan's MSRP of 49,980JPY already includes sales tax, 5% anywhere in Japan.

I'm leaning towards the 499/450 version now that it has hdmi(though honestly I didn't really care)

BD players without HDMI could face the serious problem in the future, such as forced down-scale (to DVD quality) even when you play BD movies. For this reason, I was thinking to get the Premium package.

But now that the Basic package coming w/ HDMI, diferences between Basic and Premium are 1) Flash card reader, and 2) Wi-Fi, and both are what I don't need.

I'd probably get the Basic version, too.