Following up on Ken Kutaragi's pre-TGS keynote address, Japanese site Impress Watch has posted the latest in its "Random Tracking" editorial series. This periodic feature is written by Munechika Nishida, a well-known contributor to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Ultra One PC magazine, and this latest update has some surprising revelations on the PS3.
To most gamers, the most eye-catching part of the feature is a claim about game prices. Citing "multiple information sources," the article states that the price of PS3 games will be concentrated in the 8,800 to 9,800 yen range. The primary reason given is the rising cost of development.
Can't be true. Nothing can justify such a high price IMHO....
Last edited by bapenguin; 09-24-2006 at 11:20 AM..
But, but, Blu-ray and more content and such...right, I mean that surely must mean the cost of adding all that extra is going to get paid off by someone. The consumer?
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I was actually at EB Games yesterday and my old manager had mentioned they had heard from corporate that PS3 games could be $69.99. I guess Sony hasn't actually set the price yet.
Blu-Ray can only read from discs pressed on gold foil because the Cell processor is too awesome for anything else. It melts lesser discs. With awesome.
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360 games routinely go for ￥8,000 or more. DOA Extreme 2 retails for ￥9,240. I'm not sure why this is shocking.
Aww, see, now you go and spoil all the fun. If you go and point out that (GASP!) things cost differently in other countries, how are we supposed to go on for 100+ posts of rampant speculation and frequent abuse of XE.com?
I wonder if that's the case if developing software for the PS3 must really cost a pretty penny.
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One thing to keep in mind about Japanese game pricing is that aside from being more expensive it's also a lot more flexible. Here in the U.S. few PS2 titles exceed $50 MSRP unless it's a "special edition" or something like that; in Japan companies like Square-Enix have no problem charging $10-20 more for their big franchise titles simply because they can get away with it. Tecmo charges insane prices for their 360 titles because people will buy them anyway -- games like Perfect Dark Zero go for much less because they face an uphill struggle in the Japanese market. The prices Sony is supposedly talking about for PS3 games in Japan aren't that huge a premium by local standards, but if they start charging $80 in the U.S., then yeah, they're going to see a lot of outrage.
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Question - would you be willing to pay $75 to $84 for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant, or would you rather pay $50 to $60 for a good meal at a nice restaurant?
The aticle is discussing that they initially hoped to alleviate licensing costs for 3rd parties by making the platform more open, which would require them to make a lot more back off the console price. The rumor is that this didn't come to fruition, so they have to go back to the old PS2/PS1 model of charging higher licensing fees but lowering the price of the console to appeal to customers. It also states that there are games in Japan that cost 8800-9600 yen, and it also doesn't give the price of 360 games there. If you check sites like Playasia you will see that almost every Japanese 360 game goes for $65, with some games going for as high as $80.
So this really is an issue of Sony adjusting it's business strategy. I see it as having both good and bad sides. The good is that the article states that they could release the PS3 for a "surprisingly low price" which I'm guessing is either $400 or even lower across the world. It also states they would be focusing more on the 20 gig model with the 60 gig model still available in smaller quantities. The downside I see is that it may frustrate 3rd party publishers, although if they lower the price of the PS3 that much people will be much more likely to buy it, which will mean there will be a larger installed base for 3rd parties.
Anyways, this site news4gamers really needs to post what the actual article says and not what they want to share.
Question - would you be willing to pay $75 to $84 for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant, or would you rather pay $50 to $60 for a good meal at a nice restaurant?
Don't forget the $1 "appetizer" you can get at the fancy one...
