Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

[Nazo]

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=23003

Wow, so we get a console that is cheaper to make than its US and JP counterparts, has less functionality but still costs twice as much?! Oh boy, thanks Sony!

This makes me sad, there's only Wii that I can buy now with a clear conscience.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Everyone has been shafting Europe for years....

[hongman]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

lol

I saw this subject title and immediately thought "So whats new?"

::laugh::

[Murphie]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

So don't buy one? Not an ideal solution, but if the PS3 isn't worth the money to you, you're under no obligation to buy one.

[Nazo]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I certainly won't be buying one, though I'd quite like one. But not being worth the money isn't the issue. It's the fact that we get an inferior product to the rest of the world and have to pay more for that product.

[Jarre]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Think yourself lucky we all get the dregs here in europe, even the US want to station all their nuclear missle defense equipment here in the uk so they don't get protests in the US. (starwars system mrk II anyone?)

Its the same old thing were just a tiny backwater that always gets through of last or, lets just give them this piece of shit. I would move to America, except for the screwed up justice system there.... No thanks. Latest news I read was about a man in wiscoussin who has been sued £1.3m because he smiled and said morning to his next door neighbour every morning for 2 years, and she claimed "he was stalking her" no other action, no spy, no other contact, just take his dog out for a walk sees her and say morning and smiles. GIVE ME A BREAK!!

We get shat on here in europe, but we don't need you lot rubbing it in and making a joke out of us for it. To all these companies we are not as proffitable as Japan and the US (or gullable) we are a tougher market to crack, so they tend to leave us to the last ounce of proffit they wan to make.

it would just be nice if companies would treat us as equals to the US and Japan, which unfortunately they don't. Now guess what....

FFXII is released today, small party at HMV iN london, but they have only delivered 50,000 copies of it to the UK. With another 300,000 copies due in March. so My amazon delivery has been updated to 1st March as they were refused the first wave of stock (which incidently 30,000 copies of went to the London HMV store!! and the rest spread between the 700+ HMV stores around the UK. according to the email from amzon I received) here we go screwed over again...

End of rant...

[hongman]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

FFXII is out? Damn, need to get my mitss back onto a PS2...

Jarre, what part of London you in? Im here right now

[Saren]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Thankyou so much Nazo, I really hate being a british gamer.

I waited sooo long to be allowed to pre order my PS3 and now, a week and a half later I am going to have to go in and cancel it. At £50-60 a pop for the new games I wasn't planning in buying that many but I was planning on playing my PS2 games on it quite a lot. Damn you sony!

Wonder if I can get an American one.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

"By launching the PS3 in Europe with the new chassis, Sony has at a stroke removed one of the barriers to future price reductions..."

I hope that's actually true, rather than optimistic spinning. If I buy a PS3 at some point in the future, it'll be to play PS3 games -- I can keep my PS1 and PS2 in my closet for when I need to play the games that the PS3 doesn't support. I'll be more concerned about the price I pay up front just to get the console.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

FFXII is released today, small party at HMV iN london, but they have only delivered 50,000 copies of it to the UK. With another 300,000 copies due in March. so My amazon delivery has been updated to 1st March as they were refused the first wave of stock (which incidently 30,000 copies of went to the London HMV store!! and the rest spread between the 700+ HMV stores around the UK. according to the email from amzon I received) here we go screwed over again...
End of rant...

/sigh. Oh well, finish off the games I have first. Interestingly, Play seems to have plenty of copies.

[Nazo]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Wonder if I can get an American one.

It wouldn't do you any good sadly, PS2 games are still region locked on PS3.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

As Murphie said, if it's not worth the price then don't get it yet.

As for the backwards compatibility, that's something that won't be a long term problem; don't let it stop you from buying the console if you really want it.

Sony's been saying for some time that they're going to switch over from hardware-based BC to software-based emulation, in an effort to phase out the PS2 Emotion Engine processor that's included inside the PS3. This is something they'll be doing with American and Japanese consoles as well. (Units produced after this time are probably being made in the same way that EU launch units are being made.) Eventually Backwards-Compatibility will be complete software based and the EE will no longer be needed. The loss of that piece of hardware would drastically lower the cost of producing the PS3.

Backwards compatibility is certain to suffer from this change at first but I wouldn't expect anything drastic. I certainly don't think it'd be as much of a problem as the changes made in the 360 spec that counted out most Xbox titles at launch. Thankfully the PS3 will share that advantage of firmware updates and like problems in current BC, issues should be fixed just the same in the new units. There's certainly something good to come out of that, of course. There are reports coming out that with the emulation-based PSone and PS2 backwards compatibility is capable of increasing the quality of games with enhanced Anti-Aliasing and high-definition upscaling.

Just a quick word of warning for anybody who already owns an xbox360 or a PS3, the first time you start up the game and get the 'basch teaching you controls' section,
you'll think "jesus christ this looks terrible". Stick with it, after a couple of hours you'll be used to super-low res-o-vision and it doesn't really detract from the game.

unless of course your a complete git like me and are able to play it in high-def via a ps3 development kit and some really unstable firmware.

Nope, I took these screenies myself - will post a few more once I've fed the wee man and got him to sleep. They are writing a proper PSone and PS2 emulator
inside of the firmware, but the first step they've taken is to use the existing PSone and PS2 chipsets in the launch units and just off-load the rendering to the PS3,
which can then spruce it up with AA and render in 1080p (or 720p depending on your setup). It's going to be a while off yet.

That's Final Fantasy XII running in 720p on the emulation-based backwards compatibility being added to the PS3. It's just a rumour, but the pictures say plenty.

As for price, it does suck and I'm sorry. I hate seeing that a lot of PS3 fans have been discouraged from buying the console because of the higher prices in Europe and other areas. It's not completely Sony's fault due to the massive amount more that European consumers have to pay because of VATs. They could, however, have done something about that. I'm sure by now they could afford to drop the price to retailers by a little bit and eat the same losses that they did at US launch (they're losing far less on each unit now than they did then, and will soon no longer be losing money on units sold at all), in an effort to keep the retail price of the unit lower for the consumers.

Hopefully Sony will be just as hasty to lower the price in Europe as they will be in the US and Japan. I think it's unfair that they took measures such as open pricing in Japan to allow retailers to set attractive pricing but didn't take much effort to help in Europe where the problem is far more serious and fans there have already been turned away once before.

[Telera]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

As for price, it does suck and I'm sorry. I hate seeing that a lot of PS3 fans have been discouraged from buying the console because of the higher prices in Europe and other areas.

Which, imo, applies to the US as well, since we weren't given the drop/open pricing options Japan was given. I've always been a Sony fan, but even if I had $2000+ to blow on the system, a TV that was compatible, and the games, I still wouldn't buy it yet. When I can still buy two other next-gen consoles for the same price as that one, I'm sorry, it's a no-go. Hell, for the cost of all the necessary upgrades, I could buy a PC that would laugh at Oblivion. Or get really damn close. As Lyonheart said, to me, it's more about upfront cost than any Back-compatibility or other issues. My PS2 is still running beautifully, and it's an old fat thing, I could just use it for whatever I needed played.

I think the problem was, as has come to light, not utilizing the most cost-effective hardware/software and other things that could have easily made the console cheaper to produce and cheaper to market for the general consumer. Most people who buy a PS3 are not looking to synch it to their MP3 player (a feature I've heard some Sony spokesmen say they want to implement). Or any number of other features it uses. Some of us just want it to have a HD to save files and play our games. Some wanted it for the Blu-Ray, too, and that makes sense. It's cheaper than just a player, or so I've heard many people tell me. The rest of the rigamarole is almost like forcing extras down someone's throat when they buy a car, then saying they have no option to take them off. I don't pay for things I don't intend to use. Yes, yes, don't like, don't buy. The problem is I *do* like, can buy (at least soon-ish), but won't because I don't agree with how it was done.

My Wii and my 360 are what I want in a console: they play games. Only. They connect to the net for multiplayer and community (Wii can even surf the web with its Opera browser), and they have HDs. If a PS3 did only that, I'd probably go nab one as soon as my taxes come back in a few weeks. I'd love to have one, but I can't in principle buy a system, and by extension give a stamp of improval to inflating the console gaming market to $1k/console come the next generation. Something of that magnitude would drive many gamers (myself included) into PC exclusivity. Not to mention it's ridiculous. Either make a console, or make a PC. Don't try to do both and sell it for PC cost. If I want a PC, I'll go buy one. But I have one, so no thanks.

In a short time, when HDTV tech has cheapened up, and probably the PS3 as well, I'll look into it yet again. For now, I'd honestly advise waiting for most people. It won't be long before it's all drastically more affordable. Even if you have that much money to spend, why do it immediately when you could save a good chunk in just 6 months to a year? Alot of the minor issues would also be fixed up by then, and you'd be a happy camper.

[Skoal]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I use our Wii to play Super Mario World and Zelda Link to the Past. We hardly touch the 360 anymore. I may play Fight Night Round 3 online but thats maybe once in two weeks. We played through resistance in about 3 nights and I think it took us that long since we were drinking the whole time and lost many motor skills. For you ppl in Europe who are waiting for PS3, just wait til more games come out. Its a cool system and for right now we just use it as a blue ray player. When you think about it, its a good price for that player if nothing else.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I haven't touched a console in over four years now. The whole console gaming market became too stale and too expensive for me to be honest. I rarely buy any stand alone games for my PC and just focus on MMoGs anyway but tossing out $60-80 a time for a console game I would finish in a few days up to a week just isn't what I deem a smart way to spend my cash.