+18million people would disagree that the PS3 is too expensive.

In the UK there is an immense deal at gamestation...an 80g ps3 with 4 games for 299.99! Go now uk people!

There are various perspectives, in terms of value and technology being offered the price is very low, even lower than actual costs.

It's a super pricing for people interested in HD entertainment content. Best quality living room technology for a very affordable price.

It's however too expensive for most to give as a birthday or Christmas present to their young kids. Also a HDTV and an internet connection makes the console provide a much improved experience, but not many kids have those in their bedroom neither.

A cheap slimline PS3 is needed to tap this market segment.

I agree that it's the best Blu-ray player as you alluded, but people don't always care about "best"... this generation has showed us that bigger is not always better.

Price is the biggest factor and still is. It's not about what you are getting for your money so much as it is more about how much money you are spending that matter most nowadays.

On top of this, entry level BD players are sub-$200.00 now... so the price bargain as the one-time cheapest BD player (that was the PS3) is now an expensive (although still the best) BD player.

I think most of us can agree that the PS3 is a great value. But a lot of people just want to play games and don't care about the extras. Their loss, but it's also their right to choose what's best for them and their budget. For some, it's not about value, but affordability.

If I buy a comparable 360, plus wireless for 360, plus a cheaper BR player I will actually spend as much or probably more than the cost of a PS3 - particularly after two years as I will also have added 2 years of live to the cost where PSN is free.

So the PS3 is good for the price, provided you want an HD console and a BR player and online play.

This has always been Sony's issue since launch. The bigger market out their wants an HD game consoles at a lower price, and don't care about BR, and 360 is selling to those people and if Sony wants to reverse that trend its either going to have to hope the market buys into BR and compares the two consoles inclusive of BR as a cost (which I think is pretty unlikely right now), let 360 pick up market share, or eat margin and cut the price below the true value of the system.



Sony's dilemma is do they lower price to where it is ridiculous for the actual contents of PS3 (including BR player) but will sell much better to those potential purchasers who aren't going to go for the current price and don't care about BR, or do they try and hold fast for as long as possible at the current price?

Oh I agree, and have stated this before myself.

People look at base pricing versus the overall package though.

People look at the price and say, wow, the XBOX 360 starts at $199.00 and the PS3 starts at $399.00.  And that's where their reasoning ends.  People want to be able to dip their feet into a product at the lowest starting point possible, and they seldom look down the road to see how much the hidden costs will be later.

Totally agree.  I was in HMV recently in London and it really struck me that if I looked at 360/PS3 game shelves they looked almost identical now (Fallout 3, Dead Space, COD WaW, etc.) and unless you were really thinking about WiFi, BR, etc. the 360 looked way cheaper.

A friend of mine recently bought his son a 360 and was most unhappy to discover he immediately had to shell out for WiFi and Live.  When all was said and done he realised he should have got a PS3 as he wants BR too and didn't realise it wasn't included with 360 (he's a typical dad non-gamer, as opposed to me).

360 will pick up a lot of sales due to recession right now, but I suspect many will end up spending as much or more as they would if they'd gone PS3 but Sony really aren't pushing the difference via marketing, etc. IMHO.

Definitely.  I have long said that the PS3 is the best value packaged console because it's all inclusive once you buy the console.

I think the other aspect that often gets overlooked is XBOX LIVE.  It's wildly popular, plus it's in its second generation being alive, and therefore a lot of people like the fact they could carry their friends over to the new console.

I think Sony's success this generation is dependent upon two things..

A) Getting the price to around $299.00 entry level (hoping that MS wouldn't drop the console again to offset this)

B) revamping the PSN.  It's free, but it's just not as good as LIVE yet.  I know Sony has been trying really hard to make it better, but they've waited so long to do so, that it's given MS a huge generational lead.