How concerned are you about possible criticisms that you should have given European consumers what SCEA has given US consumers, i.e. the option to pay a lower price?

Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game. All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July.

So once the 60GB is gone, that will be the end of the 60GB then?

In America, yes.

Why not offer the 80GB model in Europe?

The difference between 60GB and 80GB is not really necessary. The difference in cost between a 60 and 80 is just Euro cents; it's nothing, because the cost of memory is so small.

Probably we could have gone for 80GB, but does it really make any difference? We just know that we get a better supply on the 60GB than we will on the 80GB. So we chose to continue with the 60GB until we find that we can get something better, maybe lower cost. It just didn't seem necessary to us.

But if as you say there's no difference between the 60GB and 80GB, is SCEA making the right decision in offering the 80GB?

The difference is that the 60GB we have now has about 88 per cent backwards compatibility. The 60GB they had had 100 per cent backwards compatibility. They felt that by going down for 100 to 88, for example, that they'd have to add something in - and that's what they did.

That was their decision. We just felt that we didn't want to complicate things; wewanted to have one model, and we've had one model, we've done very well with it, now we'll add value and we'll think about what we'll do closer to Christmas.

Source

This is shooting yourself in the foot in a way I could never have imagined myself. I mean lowering the price tag by $100 and saying "only while supplies last", it sounds like some crappy infomercial on late night TV.

More Pictures Here

This is going to make me finally break down and buy a PSP....

I've been wicked busy all day today so I haven't had a chance to sift through all the E3 coverage. Not to mention I have to be at work in 9 hours, so I will hopefully be able to bang out a lot of what I think is hot tomorrow night. Stay Tuned!

E3 in it new shape and form begins tonight with the Microsoft E3 press conference. You can watch it live over at 1UP. Just watched the new Guitar Hero 3 trailer with Slash from GnR, and I must say, I'm VERY excited for that game. I'm also expecting to here that Microsoft is dropping the price of their 360 by $50 and getting rid of the core system. But who knows until we see the conference at 8:30 PST tonight. I must say I'm eagerly awaiting to hear about a bunch of new games.

Confirming Internet reports from late last week, Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially confirmed the company will be dropping the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 SKU to $499, effective Tuesday. Additionally, Sony will be introducing an 80GB SKU in August for $599 bundled with a copy of MotorStorm.

So far, the price drop is only for North America. Stay tuned for more details as E3 begins next week.

Source

So Sony has finally confirmed the $100 price cut that was leaked late last week. While its great that it is now $100 less, the new $599 package doesn't seem to have enough to justify the higher price tag with just 20gb more and a $60 game. I think they are going to announce that only the $599 sku will contain the new rumble controllers.