Sony have announced the intended UK price of the Playstation 3. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Eurogamer TV, Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment UK's managing director, announced that PS3 will retail at œ425.
"It's a bargain," said Maguire, "I don't think it's an expensive machine; I think actually, it's probably a cheap machine."
"If you think a Blu-Ray player by itself might be œ600-700, and we're coming in at just œ425 – it's a bargain."
During E3 Sony stated the EURO price of the PS3 will be ?599, at today's exchange rate (Provided by OANDA) this converts to œ405.68, roughly œ20 short of Sonys UK price. The XBOX 360 currently retails at œ280
"œ425 is definitely not a mass market price, no," Said Maguire "But you think about the price, think about the price of just a Blu-Ray player. It will be cheaper than a Blu-Ray player just by itself. So fundamentally we're going to be great value just from that point of view without even looking at the games side."
"The point is that most people don't realise what they're actually getting with PlayStation 3," Maguire said.
"Number one, it's a games machine and we all know that. But also it's a high definition video playback device through Blu-Ray, and a lot of people don't really understand that part of the functionality either. There's a big story to tell people and a lot of information to be taken on board."
Microsoft have reportedly told UK retails that the XBOX 360 with HD-DVD add-on will be cheaper than the PS3 by Christmas 2006.