PS3 in the UK

NOT ONLY do UK customers for the PS3 have to put up with a console that is much more expensive than anywhere else in the world, Sony has now admitted it will not work as well either.
UK punters have already had to wait for the release of the PS3 while Sony tried to butter up its American and Japanese customers, only to find that they will have to pay nearly double for the console.

Now it turns out that the European version of PlayStation 3 will play fewer PlayStation 2 video games when it launches on March 23 compared with models launched earlier in Japan and America.

The Euro model will be designed differently from the US and software will take over some of the functionality that was originally taken care of by dedicated chips. Dedicated chips cost a bit more than software so Sony is actually skimping its British customers despite charging them more.

But the result is that if UK people were hoping that their PS2 games will run on the PS3 you might be out of luck.

So why is Sony being so nasty to its UK client base? There is the small matter of British consumer law which requires gizmos to last nearly twice as long than the US and Japan. In US if a PS3 explodes after a year, the punter has not got a leg to stand on. In Blighty however Sony would have to repair or replace the thing for two years after it was sold.

Sony loses money at first on each PS3 sale due to high production costs and Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer is determined to make the negative PS3 margin to break even toward the second half of the next business year.

Hence UK PS gamers lose out and Microsoft and Nintendo gamers win!

 

Not to mention that there is a stong rumour that the release will delayed til sept apparantly.

 

Well GAME are doing pre-orders with a £50 deposit and HMV are taking pre-orders with a £100 deposit.

I think at this stage they're not gonna push back the date again.

 

By the time I buy it, Firmware updates will have solved the issue of backwards compatability. It's still the best console there is power and feature wise, and it's actually cheap considering you get a Blu-Ray player in it, and they cost around a grand on their own!

 

I'm going for a Wii.

Ah! That's better.

 

I won't bother til there is actually something out that I want to play on it. The SW Force Unleashed game is supposed to be on the PS2 as well as the next gen consoles.

 

When Sony announced the UK (and Europe) wouldn't get the PS3 until March '07, Sony vice-president Jamie Macdonald said this:

?European consumers have shown historically that they don?t mind delays.?

So with this latest news, they could change that too:

?European consumers have shown historically that they don?t mind putting up with sub-standard hardware.?

 

I don't think there are gonna be any software updates General Grievious! below!


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The European version of PlayStation 3 will play fewer PlayStation 2 video games when it launches on March 23 compared with models launched earlier in Japan and America, Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday.

"The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as the U.S. and Japan models," a Sony spokesman said.

PlayStation 3 (PS3) was first launched in Japan and North America in November and the model that will be introduced in Europe will be designed differently.

Software will take over some of the functionality that was originally taken care of by dedicated chips, which means far fewer PlayStation 2 (PS2) games can be played on a European PS3 compared with the Japanese and American PS3 models which play 98 percent of old games.

"Sony is managing expectations by saying now that the new console will play fewer of the old games, and that's a good thing," said analyst Alex Kwiatowski at British market research group Vertical Market Technologies.

Over the last 18 months Sony has had a series of public relations disasters, including a recall of nearly 10 million of its computer batteries, PS3 delays and a software program on Sony Entertainment music CDs that breached computer security.

Kwiatowski said gamers with a PS2 would have to hold onto their device to play their current collection.

"I'm as disappointed as the next game player about the reduced backward compatibility, but even the most nostalgic, misty-eyed gamers will have their steely hearts impressed by the new features that PS3 games provide," Kwiatowski said.

The PS3's graphics and sound capabilities are much improved over the PS2.

"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3," Sony Computer Entertainment said in a statement.
About one million units will be available at the European launch next month, as many as were made available in the United States during the first six weeks after the launch last year.

Sony loses money at first on each PS3 sale due to high production costs.

But Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer, said in January the company aims to bring the negative PS3 margin to break even toward the second half of the next business year, which starts in April, by component cost savings on chips driving the PS3.

 

Sony signed their own death warrant with this. They're already underperforming worldwide, the 360 and Wii are outselling it everywhere, and now with this, the PS diehards are going to wonder if the PS3 is all it's cracked up to be.

 

I learnt my mistake with the PS2. Never buy a games console for one game. I may just ait until they make a PSThree and then get FFXIII...

 

I read on another article (IGN I think) that Firware updates will fix the problem eventually.

The main reason i'll be buying a PS3 is for Pro Evo, but there are gonna be plenty of other games I will want it for, such as MotorStorm, Burnout 5, SW Force Unleashed etc.

I think I will wait until the first price drop to buy mine, and that will be some time. I believe the 360 is only having it's first price drop this month

 

At over £500 pounds, not worth any of it.

You can get a premium xbox 360 and a hd-dvd drive for £350. Not only is the PS3 being out sold, but so is blu-ray. Plus LG are bringing out a player that plays both blu-ray and HD, so after awhile spending that much money on the dvd version of beta-max is gonna suck lol

The 360 is getting force unleashed, halo 3 and halo wars, plus it already has dead rising and gears of war. SOLD!

 

I heard Microsoft were trying to get a deal with Pro Evo and Fifa to keep them exclusive to the 360 for half the year

 

PS3 is being sold for that much becuase it's better, simple as.

 

But it's blatantly not better. It has a few add-ons, and plays the same games. It's just uglier, more expensive, and more likely to blow up on you.

 

I hope the PS3 launch prompts the next Xbox360 price drop, at least sometime before Halo 3 and GTA4 come out.

 

Just what I'm waiting for too

 

A few shops are selling the 360 below the RRP, so it already has had an unofficial price-cut. The best Microsoft can do is make Xbox live free next. With the PS3, you're paying the extra for the Blu-Ray player, and only a cheap one at that which will reflect on its quality. Plus the fact that neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD are the future, the argument of saying I'll get a PS3 for Blu-Ray isn't a good one. And most multi-format games on the PS3 and 360 will look identical as developers wont be able to afford to make more use of the PS3s "more powerful" technology due to vast production costs, and this will also make console exclusives a rare thing (take Virtual Fighter 5 for example, which was originally a PS3 exclusive but will now be released on the 360 too).

While the PS3 will have some qualities, the way they are treating the European market is disgraceful.

 

I almost bought one yesterday - I had one in my hands, and also Ridge Racer 7, Sonic, and Resistance of man. The base unit was £300, and the games were £30 each.

I held off buying one for two reasons 1) the american unit I was going to buy won't play UK PS2 games (but apparently the UK PS3 might not play UK PS2 games!), and the american base unit won't play european blu-ray movies.

 

Yeah, somebody in Collecting who lives in the UK got a US PS3. It would be a pain having to order US versions of any game you want to play.
Not to mention having to pay duty on the system if you got caught coming through Customs here.

 

It's my understanding that the US base unit will play UK and Japanese games just fine. The only issue is that it won't play UK blue-ray movies, or UK PS2 games. otherwise I doubt anyone would have bought an imported PS3 if they'd have to buy imported games for the next 5 years (or risk a chip).

You also shouldn't have to pay duty if the base unit is for your own use - it's no different to buying cigarettes or alcohol from europe and bringing it into the UK for your own use.

Typically people who buy items in the US will post the receipts to their home address to be on the safe side.

The base unit is well over £100 cheaper in the US, and the games are probably half price. I'm just concerned over my inability to play my existing PS2 library, and future released blue-ray movies.

 

There is a limit on goods coming in from abroad - it's £145, even if the goods are for your own use. Anything above that amount is liable for duty. Alcohol and cigarettes have their own exemption.

You can see more here in case you change your mind on that PS3.

 

oh

 

Good to see gg1 bias never falters in the face of hard facts.
This is disgraceful by Sony, charging us more for a machine with less in. It is not the first time Europe has been shunned by game companies, in fact I think nintendo still hates us, but this just angers me because people in europe won`t make a stand.

 

I had no interest in a PS3 before, and after seeing the price that interest has become negative.

I have my Wii and I'm very happy with it With the DS and the Wii, Nintendo have once again become the ultimate in home gaming.