GamesIndustry.biz interview of Sony UK Managing Director. Here is what he has to say about the USA in his attempt to justify UK pricing. If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more. The cost of retail is vastly more in the UK than it is in the US and that's before you even stop to consider the US doesn't have VAT at RRP, they put a small amount on afterwards. Whereas, we get stung by 17.5 per cent. And pity the poor Irish and places like Sweden. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=23722

Good grief. 0.o

He meant the cheap cost of living he has been totaly misquoted and thats typical of the british press , the hate the fact that sony were so successful with the ps and ps2 . Everybody in the uk hates the press non stop lies and overexageration and Americans surely arent stupid enough to fall for that surely .

Misquote? It's from the transcript of the interview. And how about this little nugget, from the TRANSCRIPT: But GBP 425 seems like an odd number. Did you think about pricing the PS3 at GBP 399 which would have a different feel to it, psychologically? No. We did consider GBP 429, but we wanted to get the best for the consumer.

Cheap people thats nonsense and of course every single transcript is right isnt it . We in the UK relealise how cheap it is to live in the US after all we get shafted every day . Id life there if som many Americans werent so ignorent and self centered , doesnt mean i dont like them though ive had many US friends over the years and had a good time with them wether socially or privately .

I never thought it would be possible to top Hiroshi Yamauchi's insane ramblings. Sony has proved me wrong. I have never seen such a successful company stricken with such a case of footinmouth disease. The best thing Sony can do right now, outside of secure more exclusives, is to put a gag order on their top executives. I used to find these gaffes somewhat amusing before but now they are just plain sad.

I can half see where Sony is coming from after reading the ENTIRE REPORT and not just putting a small quote here for people to glance at. But by god they word it some of it so badly... or is it also reported badly? You have to remember too that the £ Sterling is VERY STRONG against the $US Dollar at this moment in time. Currently 1.00 GBP=1.96140 USD.Then slap on 17.5 Value Added Tax (What a pathetic tax name/type). Source.The UK is currently expensive, and is only a small land mass/population compared to the US (despite having 60Million+ people on this island!).