Sony Weighs PS3 with Hefty Price Tag

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 5/9/2006

After pushing back the launch of its long-awaited Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has saddled it with a hefty price tag starting at about $500.

U.S. retail prices were released Monday with the 20GByte hard disk drive version retailing at $499 and the 60GByte version at $599.

Originally expected to be released this spring, Sony announced in mid-February that it would delay the launch of its PS3 to November for a simultaneous rollout in Japan, North America and Europe.  The worldwide simultaneous launch date has now been set for November 17.

To put the PS3 price tag into context, its predecessor, the PS2 launched in October 2000 for $299. Rival Microsoft’s Xbox 360 debuted in November 2005 for $299 and $399 for its Premium Edition with extra peripherals. Nintendo’s Wii (formerly named Revolution) still has not set a launch date or price.

Sony announced in late April it would was set to take hits in both operating and net income in fiscal 2006 because of the PS3 pushback. Both operating income and net income are expected this fiscal year to decrease 48 percent to approximately $8.79 billion (1 trillion yen) and $13.18 billion (1.5 trillion yen), respectively.

The PS3 is equipped with Cell and RSX processors and will be able to play PlayStation and PS2 games. Having Giga-bit Ethernet and a pre-installed hard disk drive (HDD) in PS3, users can download a variety of on-line games and services over the network. PS3 will also be able to play Blu-ray discs at a bit rate of multiplex 48Mbps.