Sony halting PS3 Supply to South Korea

[BKK2]

NJ5 said:

BKK2 said:

I'm highly skeptical that this is true. When Asian currencies depreciated against the Yen before SCE Asia increased the price of the PS3. Why wouldn't they do the same again instead of halting supply? It makes no sense.

However, South Korea and Japan use different voltage frequencies with the nominal voltage for South Korea being 220/380 and being 100/200 for Japan. Those picking up a Korean PS3 for Japan will need a converter.

This is completely false, PS3 has a universal PSU, it works on all voltages without a "converter". Korean PS3 is exactly the same as Japanese PS3, which is why none of this makes any sense.

It makes sense if PS3 hardware and/or software sales were too low to justify supporting the PS3 in Korea. I guess the 10-year lifecycle has already been broken in Korea if this is true.

As for your second point, is that the case for all the PS3 models? If you are right the article makes even more sense, since it means Japanese don't need to spend money on a converter, making a Korean PS3 look even cheaper.

 

There's absolutely no suggestion in the article that this is due to unsustainably low sales in Korea. PS3 is the only console with no piracy, in a country where piracy is rampant, it's legitimate software sales are probably higher than any other console. SCE Korea have been operating there for years, all of their infrastructure is already there for PS2 and PSP, it shouldn't cost them anymore to also distribute PS3. My guess is that SCEI are renogotiating the price SCE Korea pay for the PS3, and aren't shipping anymore until the new price SCE Korea have to pay is finalised. This seems far more likely than "10 year plan broken in Korea", which impied that PS3 has actually been discontinued there.

Yes, all PS3s have universal PSUs, but I don't think this was from the original article anyway, rather it's just typical bad "reporting" by Kotaku.