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UK PS3 Starter Pack limited News
PlayStation 3 News by Games Industry.biz
After denying the PS3 Starter Pack is a limited offer in Europe, new evidence from Sony UK has shown that the GBP 425 deal is likely to end at the end of the summer, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.
Yesterday it emerged that Sony Australia would only be offering the deal - which includes the console, extra Sixaxis controller and choice of two first-party games - until the end of the month. Sony told GamesIndustry.biz that the offer is ongoing in the European regions.
However, emails being sent from Sony to consumers dissatisfied that they purchased the GBP 425 console before the Starter Pack was announced - and therefore missed out on free games and peripherals - have stated that the current deal is a summer promotion only.
"I was sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied with regards to the launch of the PlayStation 3 Starter Pack. I would like to take this opportunity to stress that this is a summer promotion and that due to the nature of this offer it will end on a predetermined date," said the email from SCEE.
But despite acknowledging that these emails were being sent out from Sony, a representative for the company again reiterated to GamesIndustry that the current Starter Pack offering "will continue for the foreseeable future".
While the messages form Sony may be mixed at the current time, it's expected that the company will be making further announcements regarding the future of the console and its price at this month's Game Convention in Leipzig.
Harvest your own crop of news over on GamesIndustry.biz.
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Poster
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Well unless Sony are really, really, really stupid, they'll announce a hardware pricecut to coincide with the end of this "summer" promotion. It would be extremely foolish of them not to and the recent US price drop has shown that people DO want the PS3 but they're not prepared to pay through the roof for it that's all.
The PS3 needs to be £299 or less for it to start selling in significant numbers. It's a real shame Sony in their stupidity decided to drop the cheaper 20 GB HDD model because I'm sure that would have been very popular in Europe if it had been reasonably priced, say, £249. |
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ostrasized
07/08/07 @ 10:59
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Wow. Sony just lie and lie and lie some more.
Do they seriously expect people to keep on believing them any more? Come on EG or GI - why not bite the hand that feeds you? Next time you've got a big-up interview with a Sony honcho, why not present them with a list of the utterly contradictory statements made by their press departments? |
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captainrentboy
07/08/07 @ 11:01
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Bloody hell Darren, you're hoping aint you? Why would the 20gig model have been almost £200 less than the 60gig, that's a crazy pricing structure.
Maybe Sony should have been loving and kind to its customers, like MS were back in the day of the original Xbox price drop, 2 free first party games and an extra controller, thank you very much :) |
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@captainrentboy - I was meaning the 60 GB HDD PS3 needs to be £299 and the 20GB HDD model needs to £249 or less for it to achieve mass market sales in Europe that's all and stop people griping it's too expensive. I'm sure if Sony had launched the 20 GB HDD model in Europe in March it would have cost over £349.
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captainrentboy
07/08/07 @ 11:09
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£325-350 bundled with Heavenly Sword I'm sure would go down a treat at Chrimbo, but nothing from Sony's past, with regards to console price drops, says to me that they'll dop its price by so much so soon.
But then again, it's never looked quite so dire for one of Sony's consoles as it does now. I think they'll be pretty much forced into a whopping price cut by this Christmas. Edit- Ahh sorry Darren, I clearly mis-understood you.
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 12:10
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It is odd though that one of the biggest complaints about the PS3, apart from its lack of games, is its high price point yet Sony have discontinued the cheaper 20 GB HDD model in the US and Japan because they claimed it wasn't popular! I mean does that make sense to you because it sure as hell doesn't to me! LOL
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Haha, these mixed messages from Sony are pretty funny, but I do wonder at people who write to Sony complaining about buying the PS3 before the bundle and missing out on the free games. I mean, what do people do when a new Ipod comes out and they've upped the storage capacity and added video functionality? Or when a new digital camera model comes out just like the one they bought but with 10 megapixel instead? Sure, it's annoying, but you just accept that things change and offers get better, don't you?
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 12:12
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ProtoformX
07/08/07 @ 11:14
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The problem is that whilst Sony's PR does seem to be something unholy they don't really need to change it. Whilst gamers will read the PR and wonder how Sony still manages to keep going, the average non-gamer who just plays games for an hour a two a week won't be aware of any of this. They'll just want to get a PS3 and won't be aware of the changing bundles and prices until they walk into Game one day and see it on the shelf.
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"It is odd though that one of the biggest complaints about the PS3, apart from its lack of games, is its high price point yet Sony have discontinued the cheaper 20 GB HDD model in the US and Japan because they claimed it wasn't popular! I mean does that make sense to you because it sure as hell doesn't to me! LOL"
I think it's a "I'm missing out on something" mentality . The inkling at the back of your mind that you've got a "lesser" version of the product. It's like Microsoft with XP and Vista, most will buy the Pro/Ultimate/All the dogs whatsits version so that we feel we're not missing out on anything. |
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I paid £425 for my PS3 and a further £250 or so on five games and an extra controller yet the recent bundle doesn't bother me at all (I had £350 on a Game reward card anyway). I certainly don't feel like I've been cheated as that's how these things go.
I bought a new Sony HDTV for £876 a month ago, which was the cheapest I could find it at the time, but it's now selling for £713 on numerous websites. Again, that's just something I'm used to. If you wait then you'll get things cheaper/better value for money but the way I look at it is that I'm playing and enjoying the games and using my HDTV while others play the waiting game. |
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captainrentboy
07/08/07 @ 11:20
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Fuck me, £350 on the reward card? The reward card!!! Are you sure you aren't on about the gift card.
£350's worth of reward points would mean you bought a shit load of games, I've never had a customer with more than 30 odd quid on theirs. |
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afghan_jones
07/08/07 @ 11:27
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@captainrentboy
I used to have a reward card that was broken somehow. Basically it always had a magic £2.50 on it which I must have cashed in on about 20 different occasions. It was great. Then it stopped doing it and I died a little inside. |
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everyone knows its a clearance sales on the 60GB models.. why dont sony just tell the truth
I fully expect the PS3 price to stay the same but there will be a 80GB model with one game for £425 If rumours are true it actiually saves sony money to use the 60gb drive instead of 40gb and well a game bundle costs peanuts... an actual price cut however attacks the bottom line directly
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 12:29
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@captainrentboy - Sorry, yes, I meant the Game gift card not the reward one! I apologise for the confusion... LOL
Apparently though, the system Game use wasn't designed to cope with gift cards with that much on them so it took the staff the best part of 20 minutes before they found a way round it!!! Hehehe! I'd traded in about 70 or so Xbox, GameCube and PS2 games and that's why I had so much on the gift card you see. |
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afghan_jones
07/08/07 @ 11:40
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@Darren
I did the same thing in blockbuster to get my 360. Had to get my girlfriend to open an account with them as you couldnt fit that much trade in on one account. Did about 60 PS2 games. |
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GingerNathan
07/08/07 @ 11:48
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"Fuck me, £350 on the reward card? The reward card!!! Are you sure you aren't on about the gift card.
£350's worth of reward points would mean you bought a shit load of games, I've never had a customer with more than 30 odd quid on theirs. " He must mean gift card, £350 on a GAME reward card requires £14,000 (as you get £2.50 back for every £100 spent) worth of sales (not including special offers and pre-orders). *edit* Darren already confirmed it. :/
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 12:50
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Rev. Stuart Campbell
07/08/07 @ 11:56
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"i agree with you rentboy, after paying full price for one (needed to play VF5) when i heard of this starter pack i felt like i had just been fucked in the ass."
That's because you had. But then, that's what you get if you bend over and ask for it, which is what all early adopters are doing. |
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I remember one of the Sony execs saying (I forget which one) this isn't the make or break peak time in the market, so I'm not expecting anything drastic from the Sony camp until one of the other boys make a move. The Starter Pack looks to be temporary, in the short term; that appears to be a bad strategy. Sony's long term 10 year strategy however is of more interest...
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 13:34
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kangarootoo
07/08/07 @ 12:13
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"But then, that's what you get if you bend over and ask for it, which is what all early adopters are doing."
That's just something that people say when they can't afford to be frivolous with money. Was the businessman that paid to be the first civilian in space getting fucked? Or was he just very rich and well able to afford it? Early adopters are paying the priveledge of getting something early. And if someone can afford that priveledge they aren't getting fucked by anyone are they? A games console "only" costs a few hundred quid, which relative to the cost of say buying a house, is barely anything at all. So there are plenty of people out there who can simply afford to be an early adopter and are quite happy to pay the required premium. Anecdote time. A friend of mine once wandered into a branch of GAME store and asked about the Xbox 360 Elite. Idiot kid behind counter said "you would have to be a mug to want to pay that". So my friend just thinks "No, its just that I make over £50k a year, and you are a penny starved teenager, without even a basic understanding of good customer service". I'd have said it out loud.... except I don't get paid as well as my friend :( |
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Sony and Microsoft are consolidating their lines. For Sony it's going to be the single priced 80gb model (with or without promotional bundled games).
For Microsoft it's going to be the same thing. A single unit with Elite specs and the new 65nm processor. I think the reason they don't want to come out and openly admit this strategy is because sales would halt overnight. No-one is stupid enough to buy a machine that will be superseeded with a better model a few months later. The only way they would is if the price was dropped on the older model or a lot of value added to the old model....kind of like in the US and the UK respectively. EDIT: A fellow dev has just reminded me about the cheap ass model of the PS3 that's rumoured to be on the cards so maybe two models is in Sony's future a single high end machine and a single cheap ass, devoid of features model for the masses.
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 13:21
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@Kanga
Of course its true that the more money you have the more the significance of a couple of hundred quid diminishes. However, having lots of money does not necessarily diminish your sense of something's worth. There are people who earn far more money than you or I who simply do not think the PS3 is worth the asking price and as such won't buy it, regardless of the fact that its not much money in real terms to them. Not everyone goes all Harry Enfield once they hit the big time ;)
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 13:21
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kangarootoo
07/08/07 @ 12:47
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@lambtron
I agree completely. I never said that the PS3 was worth the money, or otherwise. That is of course down the individual. What I take exception to is the idea put out by some people that if someone does decide its worth the dosh and buys one, they are somehow a sheep, or are "getting fucked", or have "more money than sense", or any of those insults that people level during these sorts of discussions. Everyone makes their own mind up based on the info available and their own personal circumstances. The whole issue to me results from an attitude of "I am right. Anyone who differs from me is therefore wrong". Purile, childish nonsense. Edit: P.s. and sometimes simple old fashioned jelousy.
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most recently on 07/08/07 @ 13:48
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I can't really disagree with anything you say ;).
I suppose its all down to how people argue the point. If I bought a PS3 and a friend told me - oh I don't think its worth the money - I wouldn't have done that. Then fair enough. On the other hand if he says - OMG you gibbering imbecile, I can't believe you did that you must be mental. Haha the boys at Sony must be laughing at you I imagine I would be more than a litttle peeved ;). |
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