In early May, we were punched in the mouth with the $600 price tag of the PS3, and all hell broke loose. Just look at the absurd number of comments this story received. In this follow-up story, I'd like to point your attention to what was forecasted way in advance -
Gamespot is reporting that t
he PS3 is going to be sold for over $1000 as a package, like it or not, and that may be your only way to get your hands on around the release date. I say this because availability for new consoles is usually akin to luxuries in the third world - widespread scarcity and the craziest people muscle to take what they can. It's the same crap that happened with the Xbox 360 - you had to buy the damn package because the stores refused to sell you the single console due to "stock problems". Hence, this story is defiantly filed under a little folder I like to call Industry Bullshit.
Please allow me to cut through the aforementioned crap -
Sony plans to bundle UNLOAD some of their weakest games with this package strategy: Warhawk, Formula One 06, and SingStar. It's smart, as it's the only way these games will sell... but not on my dime. Warhawk was a bore, I played it myself at E3, it so-so at best. Formula One 06 got a terrible rating in the new EGM. And although I enjoyed one round of Singstar at E3, I'm not buying a $600 console to play kareoke. None of these games really put the console to the test, where's the b33f? I'm predicting there may be an alternate package that includes Genji 2 (yeah, that massive damage one) and some other weak first party titles off the bat. Personally, I'm buying this system later rather than sooner, and don't envy anyone who's going to try to show up to a store and try to find it. If you're an early adopter, I strongly suggest you get on the pre-order bandwagon before this package thing becomes a problem for Gamers and an "irrestiable opportunity" for E-tailers. G's up, E's down!
So we got hit today with Sony's pricing of the consoles - $499 for the 20GB version with no HDMI (high def video jack), wired controllers, and no memory card in the box. So it's pretty much mandatory that you fork over the $600 up front - plus another $40? for an additional controller (or three). Then since you own it, you may wanna buy games for it and stuff. Let's say 3 games at about $65 each, maybe a few accessories here and there for another $50... um hey that's already over $850... plus another 60 for taxes... plus another $$$ for shipping since your local stores will not have it in stock until next kwanza... yeah I'd say budget about $1,000 to be safe.
MSNBC just posted a poll to see who's actually going to buy this thing. At the time of posting, 60% of people are saying NO WAY. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out what body parts I could do without. (Anybody know what set of used non-smoking elbows fetch in the open market? ) Check out
this PDF posted the Japanese sony site for the gory details. What about you guys... who's giving into the dark side?
Taking the plunge?
We try our free Playstation 3 affordability suite.
Contest:
8:00 PM on 06.20.2006 | 
