“We’ve been considering this since launch – this is all part of a very carefully thought-out plan.”

Seriously Mr Maguire? You planned this shambles?

what shambles exactally? - Sony have done nothing wrong i dont understand the negitivity - 360 is good and is giving it a run for its money - ps3 is still the better system and its hardware is faultless - if u cant afford somthing why ba****? EVERYONE with a ps3 or who can afford one never moans about it...

I have to agree with "Reythor", the launch and marketing strategy for the PS3 (not just price) has been a complete disaster.

I am an avid PlayStation fan but even I did not want to blindly buy a machine that costs nearly half a thousand pounds!

Now that the price is lowered (and not soon enough), will I consider buying it? NO! Why? Well, I don't feel the software catalogue is compelling enough and just when I thought I could at least enjoy my old PS2 games on it, I apparently cannot any more, thanks to the 'cut-down'.

Never mind the addition of insult to injury for all those loyal fans who bought one juts a few months ago in UK/Europe, they actually say in their interviews that you can STILL play your PS1 games on it but not PS2! WHY?!!

If it's all done in software emulation, then why cut it out altogether? And let's NOT forget that the Japanese and US markets have HARDWARE emulation for their models because both the PS1 and PS2 processors are on the PS3 system board - or at least, that's how it was originally explained.

So why is UK/Europe being stiffed like this? Why are we getting the WORST deal EVER, having been such loyal fans to Sony and the success story that was PlayStation?

I don't really want to buy a X360 and I've never been a fan of Nintendo either, but I want to play nexgen games and I want to get in on the online worlds as well, but I'm not going to fall for the non-consumer friendly tactics by Sony's marketing dept either.

Many fans are not buying into it because they're boycotting the PS3 and they're angry at Sony, not because they just want to slate them on the Internet for kicks; leave that to the XBox fanboys, with their 'mine is better than yours' useless contrasts.

It's now very difficult for Sony to bring those fans that they have alienated with their strange marketing and choices of what technology to put into their models and then come out and effectively LIE about it in their press releases, when we all know that if they could get away with it, they'd still be charging us ALL £500 per pop in all territories.

As "Reythor" says: So it was a very carefully thought-out shambles then, Mr McGuire?

They have made a positive move by lowering the price.

Fair? I saved up like crazy and bought a ps3 on release despite it having **** games cause I believed them when they said the price wasn't going to go down (I realise that was naive) and I wanted to enjoy next gen. Theres still no next gen imho since just about every game on the ps3 is also on the other "inferioir" platforms, and those that arent dont exhibit anything next gen except for improved graphics.

Now people get a starter pack at lower price and 5 free bluray disks when they buy a ps3. What did I get? Resistance online a few months earlier. I think that just like the Iphone customers, us early adopters also should get a refund.

And I agree their mixed up marketing strategies have been so short sighted. And their lies continue even now, claiming it was all part of the strat from day one. Was lying about no price drops part of the the strat too?

I still think the ps3 is a better peice of equipment compared to the other options out there, but sony's marketing and strategy dept are setting a new standard of bad business practice.

I have to agree with the above comments from ZZ. I no longer see how Sony can expect support from us ex-loyal consumers who they constantly lie to.

Dual Shock? That's a Last Gen feature, you don't want that... Oh no wait, here it is.

Backwards Compatability? You don't need that any more!

Half the price overseas? Yes but you're rich and stupid!

We're only going to release one hardware version, not like that Xbox. Do you want the 40Gb or 60Gb model?

Wow. It's so unfair that technology you bought a year ago is cheaper now. just plain unfair. and so highly unusual in the technology circles too. They should make everyone pay!
/sarcasm (for the xbots out there)
I paid top dollar for my ps3 when it came out, and have no probs with that, probably because I wasn't under the ridiculous impression that the price would stay up there. I'm happy they are dropping the price, other folk I know are getting ps3's now too :)

There is no way this was part of any original strategy. As well as the many valid reasons seen so far, there is also this one:

If you compare the various playstation models you will see that there is inconsistency between the selection of features you get for the price you pay, versus the order in which each specification has been released. There's been no measured, incremental increase or decrease in specification that corresponds to the price you pay.

All this achieves is confusion among buyers who are unsure what they're getting for their money, whether it's backwards compatibility, hard disk capacity, memory card readers or added USB slots.

This would lead me to suspect they've re-visited their original plans and opted for an approach that would see them cover as many price points as possible as a way of boosting sales.

Then again, they're already making a loss on every model sold. So I still don't understand what they're doing!

It makes for good reading though!

You should've waited. Don't run out and buy bleeding edge tech, then whine when it NATURALLY gets cheaper. Or more offers are extended to grab potential customers. Be mad at yourself for buying the system too early.

There is no way this was part of any original strategy. As well as the many valid reasons seen so far, there is also this one:

If you compare the various playstation models you will see that there is inconsistency between the selection of features you get for the price you pay, versus the order in which each specification has been released. There's been no measured, incremental increase or decrease in specification that corresponds to the price you pay.

All this achieves is confusion among buyers who are unsure what they're getting for their money, whether it's backwards compatibility, hard disk capacity, memory card readers or added USB slots.

This would lead me to suspect they've re-visited their original plans and opted for an approach that would see them cover as many price points as possible as a way of boosting sales.

Then again, they're already making a loss on every model sold. So I still don't understand what they're doing!

It makes for good reading though!

"ps3 is still the better system and its hardware is faultless"

Is it ? What facts do you have to back that up ?

What game can you point too that compares to the best of 360 ?

I got stuck with a Playstation 3 and it really sucks. The BC even on the 60gb sucks, the interface isn't made to be user friendly at all, and the hardware has wayyyyyy too much **** randomly thrown in. Almost no devs want to exclusively make games for it.

Maybe 2008 some decent exclusives will appear besides Metal Gear, its ONE good game (not interested in Warhawk, played Heavenly Sword and it's average as they come, we won't talk about Lair).

Sony have become the politicians of the gaming world; constantly trying to put a positive spin on one disaster after another as they continually u-turn and fail to deliver their promises. Instead of actually listening to what customers want and delivering it, they constantly try to fob us off and then have the cheek to tell us a cut-down overpriced machine is what people are crying out for.
Until they realize that THEY are the problem thing aren't going to get any better for them and sadly I can't see them coming to their senses any time soon.

Amazing how they've made it cheaper in Europe by removing PS2 backwards compatibility which as far as I was aware was completely software based in the European model anyway!!

It must be the removed SACD compatibility that's led to the price drop then.....

Yes. I too bought the PS3 (all £425 of it) just so I could play PSX/PS2 games...

******s.

@ Hyperman? Working in a games department, I can tell you the ratio for returns on 360 is STILL higher than the PS3 hardware. Since the PS3 release we've had 2 returned (since March) while in the last month alone we've had FOUR 360's returned because of unreliability. I could go further back, but...

You spend £250 on a console, you expect a decent run. Luckily I've had my 360 for over a year now and no problems.

**** 90% your comments, that are riddled with internet propaganda, sickening really, Microsoft is a set back for the industry, all they have ever done is try for monopoly, they are paying out billions to slander the image of Sony and PS3, and some of you are believing it, not only that but some of you are sony fanboys that plain and simply don't know any facts so your defenses are useless... Let me put it this way...
Microsoft makes software to utilize file formats, then when other companies make software or hardware that utilize those file formats better... MS doesn't play fair, they take a very dirty tactic in this scenario, they invent a new file format that really isn't better than the predecessor, but they spend millions marketting it, until others have to adopt the file formats, and utilize who's tools and software in general for those OS specific file formats? yeop Microsoft's, Basically the unintelligent public is allowing Microsoft to print their own money, the US, and Canadian Governments have tried Microsoft in the court of law, and lost continuously, what does that tell you? well... it tells me that, they're trying to take over an industry, where I used to go to get away from 'pop culture' or where I used to go to relax, and dream etc, Microsoft has 'NO PLACE!' in this industry, We created it, hell 'WE MADE SONY' what they are, and they respect each and every one of us for it, why do you think they were trying to create a format/file format war, that would put them in lead, and ultimately the entire world would be a better less monopolized place where almost everyone who knows how to ******* use linux, could benefit, and linux is free... MY ******* god you stupid bunch ofhuman beings.

"**** 90% your comments, that are riddled with internet propaganda, sickening really, Microsoft is a set back for the industry, all they have ever done is try for monopoly, they are paying out billions to slander the image of Sony and PS3, and some of you are believing it, not only that but some of you are sony fanboys that plain and simply don't know any facts so your defenses are useless... Let me put it this way...
Microsoft makes software to utilize file formats, then when other companies make software or hardware that utilize those file formats better... MS doesn't play fair, they take a very dirty tactic in this scenario, they invent a new file format that really isn't better than the predecessor, but they spend millions marketting it, until others have to adopt the file formats, and utilize who's tools and software in general for those OS specific file formats? yeop Microsoft's, Basically the unintelligent public is allowing Microsoft to print their own money, the US, and Canadian Governments have tried Microsoft in the court of law, and lost continuously, what does that tell you? well... it tells me that, they're trying to take over an industry, where I used to go to get away from 'pop culture' or where I used to go to relax, and dream etc, Microsoft has 'NO PLACE!' in this industry, We created it, hell 'WE MADE SONY' what they are, and they respect each and every one of us for it, why do you think they were trying to create a format/file format war, that would put them in lead, and ultimately the entire world would be a better less monopolized place where almost everyone who knows how to ******* use linux, could benefit, and linux is free... MY ******* god you stupid bunch ofhuman beings.
"

If you could make a coherent sentence it could help to "prove" your points.
Most of us can't speak ******o.

"what shambles exactally? - Sony have done nothing wrong i dont understand the negitivity - 360 is good and is giving it a run for its money - ps3 is still the better system and its hardware is faultless - if u cant afford somthing why ba****? EVERYONE with a ps3 or who can afford one never moans about it..." of course they never moan about it, it's not pleasuring them the way the expected it to, hahahahahahahahahahahaha

The thing is, their not really lowering the price of the PS3. At least not as we know it. They're cutting down on the features with a smaller hard-drive, fewer memory options, fewer USB ports, and the removal of backwards compatibility. (Apparently, the necessary hardware structure even for software-aided backwards compatibility is completely nonexistent in the 40gig.) It's like getting a pizza for cheap because they removed the cheese and the sauce. (Forgive me, I just had a pizza a few minutes ago. First thing that popped in my head.)

@ "Action *******"

We're not saying they shouldn't have multiple models and we're not saying they can't drop the price. That is inevitable.

But you surely agree that after a mere 8 months or so being released in the UK (March 2007), now (October 2007), the price has been dropped by a staggering GBP 150!!

That can't have been part of the original strategy surely?! What, stiff early adopters after less than a year? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, let's do that! I don't think so...

Also, when the PS2 was launched (or PS1 for that matter) it was one uniformed and consistent model and price, until the price drops started. However the hardware looks, its features (including the PS1 chip for backwards compatibility) was NEVER changed and the marketing strategy was very consistent and aggressively competitive.

THAT'S what we're protesting about. No not the price drops, no not the backwards compatibility either! We're protesting about our BELOVED console brand's name being dragged through the mud by the VERY people who make it. Not Microsoft or Nintendo by fair tactics or foul, but by Sony themselves.

The very fact that so many comments on so many blogs and sites are from angry/annoyed PS fans should be proof enough for Sony that we LOVE their consoles but they simply CANNOT stiff us like this. "Live with it", "they're doing it, so there!", I hear you cry. Well, no, not really. I don't and I won't buy the PS3 and that's the best way that you can hit back and hurt them.

Sony have lost the plot with this generation and, arguably, the race as well.

@ "Truth"

You've got so many threads that don't end in your passage and so much **** in your head, I really don't know where to begin.

But I will say this, perhaps we don't all want to write Linux device drivers in our sleep, like you obviously like/want to do, and spend the rest of our lives with RSI , because of the amount of command line typing that we have to do!

You can certainly count yourself as part of that "unintelligent public" because no one format can ever rule the world.

I am a PS fan (call me a fanboy, if you like, I don't mind) and I've never owned any other console brand (apart from the old Atari VCS 2600 - but that was before the Sony era), but even I know that what Sony has done to our beloved brand is WRONG.

That won't make me get a X360 but Microsoft is merely doing what they know best and for that, you simply need to look at the PC industry, so it's no conspiracy or anything novel, really.

I'll understand if you didn't read this far down, I know you've got some Linux mouse driver to write, because your distro didn't come with one...

x360 is a 100% low powered and defective console. The XBOTS are in full force here talking rubbish.

Why do u do so when you are having a faulty console that dies within 2 days

even MS themselves admitted that all x360s are defective

http://www.product...call/

the G***** box 360 has no wifi ...no HDMI 1.3 support , no NEXT GEN player and above all no games.

Heavenly Sword makes all x360 games look like wii games .
Bioshock and Gears are on PC as well and no one cares about an overrated game like HALO 3...that runs at 640 p and looks super cartoonish .

BTW gar**** box 360 is now dead in EU . ps3 is hammering EU charts as we speak

www.amazon.co.uk

www.hmv.co.uk

www.amazon.de

www.amazon.fr

i work in the games industry and i love the sony brand but they have lost the war this time microsoft have hit the nail on the head and sony havn't they release a console the 40gb that nobody wants! they drop the price on the 60gb and guess which one starts selling more the 60gb sony wise the hell up and look at how microsoft are running their show who knows you could learn something and pull some of you loyal fans back from the grave fans like me that wont buy a ps3 until they do something right

I have owned all 3 systems since launch and as of yet the PS3 continues to be the only console left unused. Lair was so bad that when I gave away my copy to my nephew, he gave it back. I almost bought Heavenly Sword but instead rented the game and grew tired of it in less than 5 days. Warhawk is the only semi decent title so far and even then, many first person shooters on the 360 not only play better but actually offer a decent amount of online competition. Look at Lair and then look at Metroid Prime Corruption. MPC easily does so much more than Lair without having the best specs on the market. Bioshock, even without any mulitplayer, outdoes any fps on the PS3. I won't return my PS3 yet, only on the promise of what Metal Gear 4 can and will be. Im a PS fan but even now I cannot and will not deny that every early adopter (and soon to be adopter) are getting put over a barrel by Sony.

My retail operations have seen a surge in people buying the 60GB model in the last few days. One employee said some customers said they were afraid to be stuck with the 40 GB version if they don't act now. So hey, Sony's strategy works in weird ways.

From a retailers point of view the price drop has come just at the right time, the market for 360 buyers is getting near saturation & the mothers favourite "Wii" is in short supply. Faulty 360's pile up in retailers warehouses waiting to be repaired by microsoft... while the PS3 at last is starting to move off the shelves and we, the retailers, can sell them all day long happy in the knowledge that we won't have half of them back faulty by the weekend.

Wake up and read above and below your post, you Sony Slave.

I don't own an X360 and I don't like MS or Nin for that matter. I'm a loyal sony fan but I have my own brain and know when Sony is trying to stiff us loyal (call us Sony Fanboys, if you like, I dont mind) fans and we're simply (judging by the huge amount of negative comments on this and other sites) not going to stand for it.

If you're happy buying a toaster with one slot only, while other territories get two slots, then go right ahead and quote some more sales figures...

I'm a little confused. Whats the big deal. People should just buy something if they feel that it is worth their money. If the PS3 is a disaster, get some other console, or live with the fact that the PS3 is a disaster. Its not complicated, not everyone here is a Sony exec, employee, or has their life and death balanced on whether Sony's marketing strategy is sound, or whether Sony execs are not making sense. For me, its simple, I like Sony, I buy PS1, PS2, PSP, but I haven't bought PS3 because I can't harden up and slap down $600 dollars. 40GB with no BC? I was a little dissapointed because my PS2 is a JPN model and I was hoping to be able to play some cheap used US region PS2 games on the PS3 (when I do save up enough money). So in terms of Sony's strategy? I don't think its the end of the world. They launched a high priced product during a time where people weren't ready to spend that much money because there wasn't a need. Now they roll out a cheaper version, and many people who are caught up about BC go and spend $600 on the 60GB model. Then 2 months later, when 40GB comes out, I go and buy it because in my books, I'd take the 20 less GB and lack of BC for $200 where I could spend else where.

Good grief, the fanboys are out in force today. Wouldn't be so bad if any of you actually knew what you were on about.

@ RandomReader:

I understand and it SHOULDN'T be a big deal. But those who've bought their console early do sound like they've been cheated and those who wish to purchase one, feel confused and disappointed with all the changes of models and the hardware components within.

I suppose we're just passionate about PlayStation and don't want anyone (inclduing Sony) to mess it up. We've all helped build up this brand and Sony's reputation ever since the PS1 launch. And if you care to read any sales charts (and predictions) for this qiarter, you will notice that PS3 is trailing way behind Nintendo and Microsoft, respectively.

@ JB:

Unless you have something grown up to say and wish to contribute to the debate as an adult, stick to your Cabbage Patch or Bratz Dolls or whatever it is kids play with these days...

This pretty much sums up many things I feel and are being discussed in this debate:

http://www.gamesin...29569

rscv rpioe ygbwautcn nhvpgbtsx jghrfy bgmrpjl jheugfa

too many people are getting fussed about this whole video game thing. nearly every 360 owner i know starts arguing about who better their console is to the ps3 and wii... untill it burst into flames. for me the point of video games is its something that lets me forget about laws of physics.

it also has some quite awe inspiring moments. Want to display skill? look no further than the landing on your opponents before impaling their skull-ity of UTIII. want to wind down? just head out for a stroll in the forests and hunt the occasional deer in Oblivion. or just want to drive around aimlessly with a few mates and shoot the crap out of each other? GTA4 awaits.

Games are too violent? some think that games make us violent. but get real. this sort of violence predates commercial games like GTA and manhunt. more often than not violence is conducted by people who claim to be in a "gang" or part of the "hood". and (sorry for those who dont like this) most of these gangs get their inspiration from the rapper/hiphop genre. don't believe me then listen to a 50cent song (if it can be so called) or even look at def jam and bulletproof.

besides these games are labled with the aproppriate age requirement. if your letting your children play manhunt at the age of 10 then maybe you should argue with yourself, not the sensors. they make it clear that this game is gruesome, violent and warped. i would only restrict manhunt 2 to the underage and the insecure. i guess the reason for parents banning manhunt 2 it to remove all responsibility from themselves on what their children see.

call me old fashioned but games used to be pure untill politics got its stubby dirty hand over it. next time a game comes out with a bit of gore, dont raise to say it will corrupt my children. just think that my own are too young to watch this and i should keep them from playing it. prohibition of games (or banning them) is the easy and worst solution (dont forget the beer prohibition in the usa, all it did was force drinking to go underground)