Just curious if the price has deterred anyone from purchasing a PS3?  Yeah, yeah, it's next gen...Ken wants you to have one or two...very powerful, cleans your underwear etc... however, there's no way I'm going to spend (after tax, and who knows what other peripherals you need) upwards of $600-$700 on a bloody system!!  Especially considering how good the US economy is right now (thanks George...)

-avatar!

ps I have my hopes pinned on the big N!  Heck, for $200 there's no way you could lose!

I might pay $300 for a PS3 but I'm not spending more that. Sony is going to lose a lot of customers.

The PS3 will only be for the ultimate hard core gamers until the price drops to match the 360.  Quite simply put, it will be the strongest console, unfortunately that means more cost.  There are people that spend twice that much to build a gaming computer, so obviously there are people who will buy a console that powerful.

Taken from IGN:

"And one more surprise ... the PS3 launch details. Two configs -- one with 20 gigs -- $499; One with 60 gigs -- $599. Two million planned for launch worldwide at launch, another two million in time for the end of 2006 and another 2 million by March 2007."

I would love to get a PS3, but, you know something, man? I just can't justify spending that much. I can justify dropping $130 on a DS Lite, or $130 on a PS2, or $200 on a PSP... but $500 for a console? $600?! As much as I don't really care for the 360, at least it was $200 less in both iterations.

Personally, I love my Playstation 2. I would make love to it if my dick had a Dualshock wire attached to it. Well, not counting what I do with Guitar Hero. It's my favorite console for a number of reasons... and if I had a shitload of money to spend on a PS3 I'd probably do it. But man, $700 for a system, an extra controller and a game is just absurd.

Come on, Sony. That's just ridiculous.

It's a steep investment.  But then again, gaming can be a considered a steep investment in itself.  This is just taking it up a few more notches. 

MGS4 pretty much cements my eventual purchase of a PS3.  The series has become my Achilles' heel, to be sure.

Neither for me, mainly because I don't see buying video games an investment.  When I think investment I think of something that gains in value.  Why pay $600 for something that could be as cheap as $200 in 3 years, especially considering Sony's notorious track record with defective hardware?

I waited four years to purchase a PS2.. and I garner it'll probably be two or three before I buy the PS3.

I think plenty of people will get it, also partly because it's a Blu-Ray player and not just a gaming console. That's one big reason for ANYONE to justify buying a PS3. I've seen plenty of non-gamers on Slashdot who bought a PS2 just because it had functions as a DVD player as well.

It seems that the PS3 will take a while to take off. But it's still in pole position to dominate next-gen.

Somehow, I'm still willing to pay the $600 at launch, so it can become my multimedia device. But Sony's definitely the entrepreneur here, attempting to sell systems at top dollar (PSP at $250, now this). We'll see how it goes, hmm.

I'm also sure that electronics experts can tinker around with the console to read data BluRay discs in the future as well.  But I will definitely wait a long time for the price to go down.  It might take 3 years before the main market demand has been met (6 million consoles)?  The more supply, the lower the price.

I think people had the same idea when they purchased a PS2, only to find that the quality of the DVD player was poor.  Besides, you're also assuming that the world will go blu ray, what if it doesnt?

cheers,

-avatar!

With as much as the console costs, both BluRay and DVD playback better be perfect.  And if Sony pushes hard enough with the other companies involved, BluRay WILL become the next standard.  Doesn't mean that DVDs will disappear any sooner than 1 or 2 decades though.

I still feel like I overpaid for a PS2 back at launch, but at least it had one game where I felt (somewhat) justified (Klonoa 2) and it was one of the cheapest DVD players at the time (if you consider $150 for a game machine, $150 for a DVD player). Only over the past 2 years, has it become the focus of my gaming set-up.

PS3 effectively has nothing worth mentioning being shown and I'm not sold on Blu Ray displacing DVD at this point in time (or for a long time). It's also twice the price of a PS2. Best thing I've heard about it is the wireless controller (a wireless Dual Shock 2 would be a most welcome addition to my current set-up). Power-wise, late-gen PS2 games aren't convincing me the system is capable of the graphical jump from PS1 to PS2.

The innovators of the PSP "Value" Pack strike again...At this point, PS3 is a sad joke. Maybe if they start bundling in Blu Ray copies of Spider Man 2...

I can see developers refusing to move to PS3 (mostly due to development costs, but even more if the system doesn't sell a ton)and stay content developing for PS2 for a long while.

Sony is USING PS3 to make the world go Blu-Ray. It goes hand-in-hand with their aims. They're not waiting for the world to go BR before adopting PS3.

If bluray and DVDs are the same cost, I can see why people would want to have bluray.  However, I'm guessing bluray will be 2-3 times the cost of DVDs, considering MANY DVDs are 5-15 bucks.  Besides, people have huge DVD collections and very good DVD players, so I don't think people will jump on a more expensive format any time soon. 

-avatar!

This isn't directly related, but I just now found out that our TV (Samsung HLN-567W) DOES, in fact, support HDCP.

*wipes gallon of sweat from brow*

Anyway, we (fiance and I) realized that if the PS3 goes on preorder this week, no way in hell are we going to have enough money between us to put down 100% of cost for preorder.  We're saving our pennies to preorder a Wii instead, and will wait until the turn of the year for a PS3.

Kenshin Dragon Quest?  You betcha. :)

Well, this is an entirely different argument from the one you were talking about before. As long as you recognize that Sony's BR ambitions are tied with the PS3; that's fine with me. After all, the propagation of Blu-Ray spells only good things for Sony, since that's the format they support and helped develop.

HD-DVD seems to set to be cheaper, with BR eventually reaching higher storage capacity (in years to come, after technology for dual, triple layered come). I think that the next-gen format battle is quite even, with HD-DVD having the advantage in cost but Blu-Ray holding some major heavyweights as supporters. We'll see.

Of course, the sad thing is that I'll probably end up buying a PS3 at some point or another. I'm Square Enix's bitch, sadly (not that their games have been particularly great lately).

So are you destined to get the Wii at launch with SE's two launch titles (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles online and Dragon Quest Swords)?

There are limits. I didn't buy FFCC when it first came out and considering I didn't care for DQ8, I probably won't pick up DQS either. Or a Wii, for that matter. I'm more than content with my PS2 and PC at this point in time...

I've taken complete advantage of the PS2's DVD capability. Quality, or lack thereof, I've had no problems with it ever. I've never bought one DVD player in my life, except the PS2 itself, so it has served my needs well. Likewise, I see the PS3 fulfilling my entertainment purposes. I'm all for the backwards compatability, and although many desire to see a new controller, I still love the simple and intuitive design of the Dual Shock and I've never grown tired of it.

The Blu-ray issue is definitely one to focus on. I'm taking risks to buy a system with a technology that's possible of not catching on, such as the UMD. But whether it catches on or not, will we see another version of the PS3 later on down the road? Assuming there won't be, then consumers will be forced to stick to the PS3 for the features that it provides in order to play the games. But if a new version was to be released, then it probably wouldn't be released until over half-way through its lifespan, and by then, I'd be ready for the next-gen after PS3. To be honest though, I'd love for these lifespans for the consoles to last longer than the typical 5-year deal we're seeing...companies always greed for money.

Yeah, I see what you're saying.  On the other hand, I do think that 5 years is a good half-life for systems.  The leap in graphics, sound, etc isn't always spectacular, nor is it necessarily that important, but I do think it's important for the industry to push forward instead of being content with just making due.  Besides, the amount of money you spend on a system is nothing compared to how much you spend on software.  Well, with the exception of the PS3!

cheers,

-avatar!

New release DVDs regularly sell for $15.  New release HD-DVDs are currently selling for $25.  This price will definitely come down.  While I would expect Blu-Ray to sell for a similiar premium at first, pricing should drop as adoption rates increase.

I will buy a PS3 eventually for MGS4, but when I actually purchase the system is still up in the air.  As of right now, I don't expect to get one before Fall 2007.  RE5 is the only other PS3 game that I definitely want, but I still want to know if Sony is going to fix those analog sticks.  If not, I might go with the X360 version of RE5 just to get tighter controls.  Of course, that would mean I'd have to buy an X360, and any purchase of that hardware will take away from money for PS3.

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if you care for blu-ray playback, then PS3 might be perfect opportunity to get it, since blu ray player will cost like 1,000 or something.
price of ps3 is fair at some point and I know that THERE WILL BE SHORTAGE at launch, no matter what people are saying - system will sell incredibly well.
games at E3 conference were mediocre or at least looked good - but I havent seen anything revolutionary, "wannabe Wii" dualshock was a definite surprise.
I will buy PS3 despite the price, but personally I'm for Nintendo Wii all the way.

Well I'm not willing to pay it and I don't buy the blu-ray argument either. It's a storage mendium - they were capable of choosing any medium at all. To expect me to pay more and justify it by saying other machines using that medium will cost more is nuts.

I give it two months from launch before the price drops.

About only six million consoles for about the first six months worldwide? Looks like Sony is just doing what Microsoft should have done: Putting the price high initially since the demand are bound to be higher than the offers anyway. The ridiculous increase of the price for mere 40GB is just the result of that.

Edit: looks like the cheaper editon will have HDCP disabled and thus be unusable as a BlueRay player at full resolution or something. *roll eyes* Edit 2: controllers also won't have rumble anymore (probably due to the court case), and the cheaper edition furthermore misses memory card slot and wifi.

Patience is looking like a good virtue in harware now as well as software...
(game titles launch at $50 and the next year they're in the $20 bargain bin, and hardware is now following the same trends)

I'm going to happily wait it out for 2 years until price drops.
(same with all of the new consoles, won't buy xbox360 either until a reduction happens)

Seems a bad investment to jump right in at launch, similar to buying a new car right when the new year model debuts, as it devalues the fastest in the first few years of ownership.

What about the Wii? Isn't that going to be $200?

- hardcore gamers
+ spoiled rich kids

I am not buying a PS3 when it first comes out.  It's too expensive for me.  I don't really watch movies, so the Blue Ray drive is not important to me.  I barely used the PS2's DVD drive.

I have other things I could use with that kind of money.

That lawsuit against ANYBODY ELSE making force feedback controllers is a load of Bull S***.  I guess it's too bad they got in bed with Microsoft and decided to target Sony.  The incompatibility of motion detection and vibration in the controller at the same time may very well be why Sony hadn't implemented the motion detection earlier.  Since now they are free to replace dualshock with another feature.

As a reader of one of those articles said though, the patent system is a joke.