Sony already caused a buzz earlier during the last E3 when it announced that the PS3 console will be costlier than the Xbox 360 or the Wii. Then came the word war between Microsoft and Sony regarding the formats of their consoles, games, and hard drives. What seems to an endless battle now has added fuel. Sony has just announced that PS3 games and titles will be pricier than the current titles available in the market. Why? Blu-ray discs, of course. Besides, games developers also affirm that developing PS3 games for Blu-ray is a lot difficult than their previously developed PS games.
Kaz Hirai, Sony's top executive for United States operations made the announcement last Friday. Hirai said that PS3 games costs can amount to as much as $99 dollars which is roughly 53 Euros. Met with protests from avid gamers, as well as Sony fans, Hirai insisted that Sony is trying to keep games' cost down. Still, players have to splurge to get top-caliber games. Hirai even gave reason behind the protests over Sony's expensive games. He cited assumptions back in the 90's that games on disc would only cost from $39-$59. Of course, with this mindset, people would be hard-pressed to find an almost $100 game justified.
The pricing of PS3 games have been under speculations for some time. There are those that predict low prices to balance out the high price of the console. On the contrary, majority of the gamers expected high pricing to complement the console and its next-gen Blu-ray format.
It seems that Microsoft's attacks on the PS3 console's price did not discourage Sony at all. Digs about the console's price even seem to serve as inspiration for Sony to make its games expensive. The company appears not to care that they are pairing a prohibitively priced console with equally expensive PS3 games. Maybe Sony thinks that Blu-ray is enough reason for raising prices. But we have to admit that Sony does think about its fans. Hirai assures prospective PS3 gamers that the games may be priced higher than $59 but not over a hundred dollars. Swell, that's a relief. So there you have it from Sony folks; $59-$99 price bracket for a PS3 game. Now, obviously Hirai's comments are a bit vague, and certainly right now we're already seeing some next-gen games come in higher than $59 with Collector's Editions. But if the majority of PS3 software is suddenly over $60 that could be a real problem. Consumers are already shelling out $500 or $600 depending on which PS3 SKU they purchase. In the end, Sony, with the two other console manufacturers and video game publishers, is competing for a limited number of consumer dollars.
PS3 and Sony fans do not mind these pricing schemes (or they pretend not to), attributing it to the Blu-ray. Though Blu-ray haven't had time to prove itself, let's all hope that it is all it promises to be. PS3 games may not be the cheapest stuff out there, but they are surely the most hyped. People who want copies of PS3 games but are not willing to shell out big bucks might have to wait a bit longer. Games and technologies do depreciate, and gamers are sure to get fairly good prices at a later date. Just don't show your games to those who brought theirs at the height of the PS3 hype, they might not appreciate your ingenuity.
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