Borkachev on 09 October 2007
Let's please not turn this into a Canada versus America debate.
While the PS3 sells at BestBuy for 499$ and in FutureShop (Owned by BestBuy Canada) 649$
You're comparing the 60 gig to the 80 gig. The 60 gig in Canada is only $50 more than in the US, as you can see.
Yeah, we're still getting screwed a little, but it's not that bad. Companies have been slowly reassessing prices to keep up with the exchange rate, but they prefer to do it at the same time as a regular price adjustment. That's why the PS3 and 360 stayed at their inflated inflated prices for a while after the CAN dollar rose, until the summer price drops came into effect. At that point they used the current exchange rate to figure out the new price, plus the usual 10% "screw you, Canada" levy (thus the PS3 was $550 instead of $520 as it should have been).
It's kind of unfair, I know. Sony was more than happy to raise the price of the PS3 when the dollar dropped at the end of 2006, but when the dollar gets stronger they suddenly have a lot less initiative.
My guess is that the next price reassessment will come at the launch of the 40 gig PS3 and the eventual price drop on the 80 gig model. It's probably too much to expect that they'll actually put them on par with the US prices, but something closer than we have now isn't unlikely. My guess is about $425 for the 40 gig and $525 for the 80 gig. For the 360, maybe when they introduce a new bundle? Another straight price drop on the XBOX is probably pretty far off.
Game prices is where we're really getting screwed. There seems to be an extra $10 markup on them, whatever the base price of the game is: so we pay $70 for $60 games, and $40 for $30 games. Not a very fair and balanced system. But... if you look at online retailers and check the prices of upcoming games, some people say they spot a pattern of slowly approaching parity. Some PS3/360 games are listed at more like $65 than $70, for instance.
So maybe it's happening, although slowly. I've heard economists say it might take 2 years for overall prices to really come down as a result of this, but I'd guess the electronics industry will move faster.
And yeah, you can always import from the US. I might start looking into that more for games, although the loss of warranty from importing a console is a bit much to take.
If you want something to really get worked up about, you should compare our car prices to theirs...
