Sony Sets PlayStation 3 Price
Posted Tue May 9, 2006 at 12:13 AM PDT by
After months of speculation over the expected cost of the Blu-Ray-driven
PlayStation 3, Sony has
at
last revealed its pricing plans for the highly-anticipated next-gen game
console, CNN reported late yesterday.
The company unveiled a two-tier pricing strategy for the PS3 with an announcement
at yesterday's E3 expo, which kicked off the four-day videogame convention in
Los Angeles. Sony said it will offer two packages when the system goes on sale
this November worldwide -- a PS3 with a 20 GB hard drive will cost consumers
$499, while a larger 60 GB hard drive will retail for $599.
That puts the PS3 at $100 higher than the current price for Microsoft's popular
Xbox 360, and $200 to $300 higher than the launch price for the PlayStation
2 six years ago.
Both versions will include Blu-Ray high-definition drives, and be able to play
Blu-Ray movie discs in addition to videogames.
Sony says it plans to ship 2 million units worldwide at launch, with an additional
2 million by Dec. 31. This could lead to shortages at retail, however, mirroring
the inventory problems that plagued the arrival of the Xbox 360 last November.
Both the 20 GB and 60 GB consoles will launch simultaneously in North America
and Europe on November 17, while Japan will get the players almost a week earlier
on November 11.Sony's announcement also comes a day after Microsoft unveiled its first HD-DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360, which is due to coincide with the arrival of the PS3 this fall.