Ken says "PS3 too cheap"

[HighOnSunoco]

Krazy Ken's at it again. Following the surprise pre-E3 announcement of the PlayStation 3 price, Sony Computer Entertainment head Ken Kutaragi spoke with Japan's IT Media and offered up this beauty: "It's probably too cheap."

In case you skipped out on Monday's press conference, here's the deal. In addition to showing a slew of game demonstrations, Sony Computer Entertainment's Kaz Hirai announced launch specifics for the system. PS3 will go on sale first in Japan on 11/11 at a price of 59,800 yen for a 20GB model, with a 60GB model set at open pricing. The US will get the system on 11/17 with cost set at, respectively, $499 and $599.

Kutaragi explained to IT Media why be believes the price isn't a problem:

"This is the PS3 price. Expensive, cheap -- we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines. Because the PS3 is like nothing else.

For instance, is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem.

When we announced the PlayStation price, it was said to be expensive. Same for the PlayStation 2. However, when released, both had sales that were unthinkable for previous game machines. This is because both offered experiences that could not be had on previous game machines.

With the PS3, you can have next generation game experiences that could previously not be experienced -- things like next generation graphics and various services via the network. And, as with the PS and PS2, we believe people who like games will, without question, purchase it."


Kutaragi also took the time to comment on Sony's shipping targets for the system. SCE plans to have two million units available at launch (the Japanese press reports this as the initial shipment figure for the system, and not a number that will be gradually released over a launch window), with another two million by the end of the year and two million more before the end of March 2007. Regarding this, Kutaragi said, "Of course, this is a number that we announced having made sure we can definitely prepare it. There is the possibility of unexpected problems like earthquake or theft, so I won't say it's absolute, but if this type of trouble does not occur, there's no problem with this number."

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/706/706133p1.html

[venomv]

Like they said, Krazy Ken. The guys seems a bit eccentric, but hes cool. And it depends how much Sony is spending wether it is cheap or not, something I bet KK knows.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Ken has gone mad. Maybe if the fans are angry enough, they'll reduce the price before launch.

[Coded-Dude]

When you make millions of dollars a year, PS3 price is spit in an bucket, btu for the AVERAGE JOE, this is not cheap.....not arguing that the console is not worth every penny they are charging, but I am stating the obvious. $600 is NOT cheap for soccer mom and her slew of naggin children.

[masteratt]

I will now have to wait until a price drop (which will take a long time) to purchase one which is sad news but I'm not going to go into a crying/angry mode about all of this because I feel the price is justified.

[Viper]

You know that's funny because my defintion of cheap and Kens definition of cheap must not be the same thing.


Is this possibly a case of Engrish?

[DofD]

Cheap is relative in this case. The PS3 is cheap in comparision to it's developement and production costs. But it is also expensive when compared to the PS2 release price, and mainly what many people may think is a good price for a games console. I'd say that Sony is taking a 30% hit with the price versus production cost.

[Hrama]

I think it is cheap relative to other functional audio/video components, but not cheap relative to the other two competitors in the segment. Its too much, as 600$ is really going deep, even if it is a five or six year investment.

[CrumCon]

Ken is nuts.

too cheap lol.

[Hrama]

Good god Crumcon, do you have to screw the formatting over like that with such a long signature?! J/K and yeah, he is nuts.

[chrismt]

So basically, a Wii and 360 put together equal the true cost of the PS3. The PS3 is now going into the price of PC's. It is cheap for a PC.

[Coded-Dude]

@Hrama
its nto normally liek that(it woudl be an image that meets server requirements), btu they turned of sigs, so his URL(which is rather long) is showing instead.

[Hrama]

Yeah I know... that is why I said J/K =)