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[Furoba]

Will PS3's launch lead to people having to sit on top of pillars again, with their newly bought hardware on top of their head, and a large mob of people trying to take their boxes away? I know it happened in Paris (Virgin MegaStore) at the PS2 launch. Good times. :lol

 

[travisbickle]

no 499 ver in europe?

That's been known in a few European countries for a while. The only (really) new info is not on shelves till 2007, which I'd personally put down to a prediction by the store, more then a statement by Sony.

 

[PipBoy]

I wonder what the rationale for apparently not relasing the Gimp Pack in Europe is.

Adding two platters in the HDD, a WiFi chip and an Hdmi port doesn't cost 100€ so Sony is losing more € on the 500€ version. It's much easier to distribute two versions in the US than in the segmented Euro markets, especially if the supply is really low.

 

[McHuj]

I predict that the tard pack will be in very limited supplies everywhere in the world. My guess it will be the opposite of the Xbox where the tard pack was readily available while the premium was not.

MS got alot of people to buy the tard pack and upgrade to the premium with peripherals. My guess is that by buying the tard pack with the extras to upgrade MS's loss is much lower then getting everything with the premium. I think they had dual SKUs to minimize losses on the premium. Once production costs drop, the tard pack will be eliminated.

For Sony, I think it will be the opposite. Their isn't significant difference between the two SKUs, a bigger HD which doesn't add that much cost (probably on the order of dollars at high volume), an HDMI port probably (another couple of dollars if that. I bet the internals are there and the only thing missing is the port. It wouldn't make sense to produce two different motherboards for the ps3.) The Wifi may add some cost, (but you can get a router for under 20 dollars.)

I think Sony's higher priced SKU has a lower loss then their tard pack. The tard pack's only purpose is so Sony can say that they have a sub $500 entry point, and it will be available in very limited quatities because they will want you to buy the higher priced model.

 

[teiresias]

For Sony, I think it will be the opposite. Their isn't significant difference between the two SKUs, a bigger HD which doesn't add that much cost (probably on the order of dollars at high volume), an HDMI port probably (another couple of dollars if that. I bet the internals are there and the only thing missing is the port. It wouldn't make sense to produce two different motherboards for the ps3.) The Wifi may add some cost, (but you can get a router for under 20 dollars.)

I doubt they'll be producing different motherboards for the two versions, but I would tend to think the tard pack actually will be missing the HDMI-required innards, as I've read the IC to do the HDCP encoding, etc. for the port is running somewhere in the $15 range even in bulk.

For example, the Analog Devices AD9880 (HDMI IC w/HDCP 1.1 support) is approximately $14/unit with a minimum order of 90 at Digikey with no price break offered for larger orders. Of course, someone like Sony going directly through Analog Devices may get a better deal. Still, a cost even that close is no small matter when you can lower your BOM on a certain device by completely leaving off some IC devices.

 

[gofreak]

no 499 ver in europe?

If this information is true, it doesn't seem clear it refers to all of Europe. SCEE people have referred to the €499 pack in previous interviews, so it doesn't sound like it's out of consideration. To be honest, I'd say they don't really know what the allocations will be yet.

Either way, I'd expect it to appear beyond the launch. If they do plan to ride the €599 pack exclusively, I imagine it'd only be for the first couple of months.

 

[Xrenity]

So... if they launch a marketing campagin, and people go to stores... The PS3's are already sold out before launch? Sounds stupid.

 

[thetrin]

In Britain I'm pretty sure all HDTVs sold have HDMI ports, we're not bloody yokels.

Then why do you get everything after everyone else? :S

 

[Draft]

So... if they launch a marketing campagin, and people go to stores... The PS3's are already sold out before launch? Sounds stupid.

People will go to stores and request imaginary PS3s just to support the brand. It's that strong.

 

[travisbickle]

Then why do you get everything after everyone else? :S

The times are a changing.

 

[mrklaw]

Even though us yokels have HDMI sockets, it'd still be nice to have even a soft launch of the 'tard' pack (most usable tard pack ever), if only to help Sony sell the idea that PS3 isn't twice the bloody price of the x360

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I just wanna preorder this bastard in the US already!!!!

 

[Superfrog]

I wonder if official preorders will be taken across Europe from next week, or if this is just in Germany.

Seems indeed to be true at least for Germany -> Saturn (another large retail chain like Media Markt, it's for the Hamburg store only in this case) has officially started accepting preorders TODAY:

http://www.saturn.de/frontend/offer...357220&navi=offer&pool_id=1&tagname=hp_prod_3

It says:

- €100 advance payment
- Release Nov 17
- only €599 version is listed

 

[Rhindle]

you got numbers? Pretty much most major electronics retailers moved heavily into HDTV sets this year. Moved the CRTs out of the way. Even little 23" sets are HD ready with HDMI inputs.

Penetration will grow rapidly simply due to normal replacement cycles. Almost by default, any TV replaced will be HD ready.

HDTV adoption is in the low single percentages in the UK, if I recall correctly vs. about 30% or so in the US. Of course it will grow over time, but it is virtually non-existent at the moment.

Edit: Apparently, there were 700K HD sets total in the UK as of the end of last year. That a whopping 3% of all households. :lol

 

[quetz67]

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I'd do the same thing if they'd let me. I'd pay it off though.

 

[Y2Kev]

Well you're a pre-ordering maniac!

I want to buy my bundle-- come on Sony. Get it over with.

 

[HaliKali]

Will PS3's launch lead to people having to sit on top of pillars again, with their newly bought hardware on top of their head, and a large mob of people trying to take their boxes away? I know it happened in Paris (Virgin MegaStore) at the PS2 launch. Good times. :lol

Oh God yes, I'll be there!! Camping with the french!
No, I won't buy a PS3 on day one, I just want to see these guys nerd-fighting for their console... I'll bring pictures, I promise...

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Well you're a pre-ordering maniac!

I want to buy my bundle-- come on Sony. Get it over with.

They need to get allocation numbers first

 

[RiotPelaaja]

Its known fact that Germany will only take the higher priced model. European distributors can select which model they take in stock, they dont have to buy both.

 

[hadareud]

HDTV adoption is in the low single percentages in the UK, if I recall correctly vs. about 30% or so in the US. Of course it will grow over time, but it is virtually non-existent at the moment.

Edit: Apparently, there were 700K HD sets total in the UK as of the end of last year. That a whopping 3% of all households. :lol

not that I don't agree - but I think this has changed quite a bit over the last few months, especially with the world cup and sky hd.

Also, people slowly HD is slowly getting a bit of word of mouth here. Half a year ago hardly any mainstream customers ever heard about HDTV.

 

[gofreak]

not that I don't agree - but I think this has changed quite a bit over the last few months, especially with the world cup and sky hd.

I read some report a little while back that stated well over 350k flat panels had been sold in the UK in just 4 weeks up to the beginning of June, IIRC. No numbers on how many would be HD, but no doubt it would have been a significant proportion. It also had some encouraging survey figures on planned HDTV adoption for the UK market.

It'll be interesting to see how many sell this year in total.

 

[Superfrog]

According to CNET, the percentage of households with HDTVs looks like this.

End of 2005:

USA - 17%
JPN - 14%
EUR - 5%

2010:

USA - 59%
JPN - 66%
EUR - 30%

 

[gofreak]

Thought it might interest those wondering about the €499 pack - Hexus.net reports that Amazon.co.uk now has that pack available for preorder. They claim has it down for a Jan 26 2007 release date, although I can't see that on Amazon's own page.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6058

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000FN7KF0/

Would be in line with the suggestion that they'll launch with the 60GB version, and follow up with the 20GB version subsequently, but I guess we'll have to wait for confirmation..

 

[Jim]

According to CNET, the percentage of households with HDTVs looks like this.

End of 2005:

USA - 17%
JPN - 14%
EUR - 5%

2010:

USA - 59%
JPN - 66%
EUR - 30%

And according to a number of consumer research groups, HDTVs (in the US) will outsell SDTVs for the first time this year (~20 million HDTV sets vs. ~13 million SDTV sets). That is nearly, exactly flip-flopped from 2005.

2007 will see about 30 million HDTV vs. 3 million SDTV.

Edit: Source (Kagan Research - http://research.kagan.com/keo/databooksdetailpage.aspx?DatabookID=89)

 

[travisbickle]

HDTV adoption is in the low single percentages in the UK, if I recall correctly vs. about 30% or so in the US. Of course it will grow over time, but it is virtually non-existent at the moment.

Edit: Apparently, there were 700K HD sets total in the UK as of the end of last year. That a whopping 3% of all households. :lol

700,000 by the end of 2005, projected 2million in 2006, that's 2.7 million Christmas 2006 in Britain, how many PS3s will be on sale?

 

[ghst]

The times are a changing.

Lets hope so

PS Out of everyone ive spoken to, the only people planning to buy PS3s are going for the buy/ebay/profit thing.