Truth from fiction

Sony Europe’s Jamie MacDonald:

Q: What would you say to consumers who like Sony and want to buy your products, but perhaps feel that because they’re in Europe they’re always last in line?

A: European consumers have shown that historically they don’t mind that, because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan. In Europe, it doesn’t seem that the release of our platforms after the US and Japan – in the long run – affects how consumers feel.

In other words: “Europe will take it as hard as we want to give it to them.” Nice of them to admit it.

Sony’s PS3 strategy really is a disaster waiting to happen, and a lot of it is the fault of SCE marketing: arrogant and obtuse, managing to put out exactly the messages they’re trying to dispel. They claim revolutionary graphics; those “screenshots” that aren’t renders look like Xbox-360 screenshots, or only slightly better. They claim a full online environment; every manufacturer is making their own, just like with the PS2, and most probably won’t be Xbox Live level. They claim their controller is entirely original; but it’s just a Dual Shock without the shock and with a tilt, as opposed to the real Wiivolution (which manages both). They’ve even forced a pro-PS3 magazine to take down a video of the system booting up.

And, of course, Sony is still stuck in the Dark Ages of European Pricing, as they are with the PSP. £425 (for the 60GB model) does not equal $599 (the US price for the 60GB model), it equals $800; we’re being stiffed by over a hundred pounds at current exchange rates. It doesn’t equal €599 either, although that’s only a £25 extra Ripoff Britain stiffing by SCEE (how nice of them) – and that one can’t account for VAT either.

[In the meantime, the Xbox-360 HD-DVD drive is £119, which is basically the US price ($199) plus VAT. Microsoft are being friendlier to us than Sony. Now that’s weird.]

Of course, Sony can still rescue themselves if they make decent games and people decide that they want the console, but by the current look of things they really don’t deserve it. Especially since the PS3 isn’t “coming out” until March, although it isn’t really coming out until then anywhere (only 400,000 units to the USA = instant $2000 eBay sales, you can count on it.) But right now, they’re screwed, and they’re doing it to themselves. If only they hadn’t said it would be out this year, and if only they didn’t exaggerate or screw Europeans on pricing, things might be going better for them… might.

[via Engadget.]