TGS - PS3 - $1 demos, HDMI now included on 20GB model, Japan Price cut by 20%

Abooie · 22 Sep 2006 at 07:58

PS3 online may be 'free' but in his keynote address at TGS he hinted at charging to download demos.

Kutaragi also talks about the possibility of paying 100 yen (about $1) for a small or time-limited game demo.

http://uk.gamespot.com/events/tgs2006/story.html?sid=6158144

Better news is the lower end PS3 will also now have HDMI as well.

http://uk.gamespot.com/events/tgs2006/story.html?sid=6158155

DaveyD · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5369720.stm
Also it looks like Japan will be getting a 20% price cut, but not us

, which is very very good. As they're also sticking the HDMI connection on the 20GB version, I think they're actually seeing some sense, though how much money this will lose them, is another question, but I guess they'll sell a lot more at the better price.

Edited...

I guess the price cut will be good for the PS3 in the Japanese market, and the 60GB version will be a lot less attractive to people for HDMI and WiFi when it's that extra big step. Plus retailers can still set their own price in Japan.

Anders0n · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:06

Nice to see some good news for a change, although isnt the price drop only for japan?

jamie2497 · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:12

"The price for the North American and European launch will stay the same."

No price cuts for us, so all in all PS3 now includes a HDMI cable and is gonna cost $1 to download demos? Hardly groundbreaking stuff so far

Come on sony pull something out of the bag.

Nismo · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:15

Price cut before its even been launched, nice

SiD the Turtle · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:24

DaveyD said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5369720.stm
Also it looks like Japan will be getting a 20% price cut, but not us , which is very very good. As they're also sticking the HDMI connection on the 20GB version, I think they're actually seeing some sense, though how much money this will lose them, is another question, but I guess they'll sell a lot more at the better price.

Edited...

I guess the price cut will be good for the PS3 in the Japanese market, and the 60GB version will be a lot less attractive to people for HDMI and WiFi when it's that extra big step. Plus retailers can still set their own price in Japan.

Well for me that's the straw that broke the camel's back. Good they are sticking on HDMI (or are they sneakly adding HDCP to the lower end model to satisfy the movie companies?). However making in competitive in Japan, but screwing everyone else? Thanks again Sony. It sounds keyboard warriorish but as a consumer I can only vote with my wallet. I now refuse to by any Sony products until they clean up their act and value their foriegn consumers.

Chrisss · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:31

$1 to download a demo....

Windle · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:37

Here Wii come....

geddit?

Likewise going to vote with my pocket, and stick with Msoft and Ninty this time round. Unless there's a drastic price drop or plenty of people selling them cheaper i can't see myself getting one.

DaveyD · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:41

Chrisss said:
$1 to download a demo....

Can be good if you don't download that many demos, and if the service is free, as opposed to say $40-$50 a year for Xbox Live, and I've only downloaded 5 or 6 demos on Live, so it's not *that* bad. As long as they implement a money system where you can buy Playstation money retail for kids can buy their demos instead of needing a credit card. If Sony were to charge for online play AS WELL, then it'd be quite bad In my opinion.

Cronox · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:50

DaveyD said:
Can be good if you don't download that many demos, and if the service is free, as opposed to say $40-$50 a year for Xbox Live, and I've only downloaded 5 or 6 demos on Live, so it's not *that* bad. As long as they implement a money system where you can buy Playstation money retail for kids can buy their demos instead of needing a credit card. If Sony were to charge for online play AS WELL, then it'd be quite bad In my opinion.

My concern is that if they charge to download demos, what else will they thing is OK? It really does sound like they are headed towards the GT HD thing where you buy a game with virtually no content then pay small amount to unlock each level/car/track/weapon/character.

SiD the Turtle · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:11

DaveyD said:
Can be good if you don't download that many demos, and if the service is free, as opposed to say $40-$50 a year for Xbox Live, and I've only downloaded 5 or 6 demos on Live, so it's not *that* bad. As long as they implement a money system where you can buy Playstation money retail for kids can buy their demos instead of needing a credit card. If Sony were to charge for online play AS WELL, then it'd be quite bad In my opinion.

Except you can download demos on Xbox Live Silver for the grand price of zero pounds?

DaveyD · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:17

SiD the Turtle said:
Except you can download demos on Xbox Live Silver for the grand price of zero pounds?

Yes I know that, just you lose one good free thing for something you have to pay for, so you have to play for your downloads and play games online free, or on the Xbox, pay to play online, and download some stuff free. Xbox live still has a lot of content that you have to pay for, which is quite expensive too.

I'd rather pay like the Xbox method, pay for my online and get free downloads personally.

SiD the Turtle · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:22

Cronox said:
My concern is that if they charge to download demos, what else will they thing is OK? It really does sound like they are headed towards the GT HD thing where you buy a game with virtually no content then pay small amount to unlock each level/car/track/weapon/character.

Rumour control at gamespot:

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25001533&sid=6158135

Still a rumour, but if this is the way things are heading, sheesh. Buy a HD racing game! With no cars! Just like real life!

SiD the Turtle · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:24

DaveyD said:
Yes I know that, just you lose one good free thing for something you have to pay for, so you have to play for your downloads and play games online free, or on the Xbox, pay to play online, and download some stuff free. Xbox live still has a lot of content that you have to pay for, which is quite expensive too.

I'd rather pay like the Xbox method, pay for my online and get free downloads personally.

Oh I see what you mean. Paying for demos though, isn't that a big of backwards marketing? Release a demo to encourage you to buy a game, but you have to pay for the demo too? I think I'll pass on those games!

JUMPURS · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:43

SiD the Turtle said:
Well for me that's the straw that broke the camel's back. Good they are sticking on HDMI (or are they sneakly adding HDCP to the lower end model to satisfy the movie companies?). However making in competitive in Japan, but screwing everyone else? Thanks again Sony. It sounds keyboard warriorish but as a consumer I can only vote with my wallet. I now refuse to by any Sony products until they clean up their act and value their foriegn consumers.

they are not really sneakily adding on anything, they are openly improving a model which got slated for not having HDMI and now they add HDMI they are getting slated. God this is getting so tedious!! They are listening to consumer complaints and doing something about it, yet they still can't do anything right. And we are still 6 months away from the European Release, expect a revised price

Also more competitive in Japan against what the 4 xbox 360's a month that sell?? as i still dont think the Wii is competition to the PS3 in Japan, the 2 will go side by side happily.

$1 for demos doesn't concern me, but i dont download a lot of demo's and buy the magazines anyway.
Its something which MS may seriously start looking at, i know this is unrelated but they are now wanting to charge for Beta versions of there software, just $1, but if they done that for the office 2007 beta they would have made $1.5million. I see MS thinking about doing it for a nominal fee eventually, even if its just the Silver subscribers.

DaveyD made a good point, what do u want Free Demos or free multiplayer?? Whats the better value? Do people want everything for Free from Sony, but MS charging?

Sorry keyboard warrior mode off lol

punky_munky · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:45

Demos are adverts. Why should we pay for the privilege of being advertised to? :mad:

dirtydog · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:56

I would be happy to pay a nominal fee for demos if online gaming was free. Let's face it someone's gotta pay for it - running game servers for millions of users worldwide ain't cheap.

It's also good news that the cheaper version of the PS3 isn't going to be crippled after all - it does show that Sony is listening to consumer feedback

DaveyD · 22 Sep 2006 at 10:00

dirtydog said:
I would be happy to pay a nominal fee for demos if online gaming was free. Let's face it someone's gotta pay for it - running game servers for millions of users worldwide ain't cheap.

It's also good news that the cheaper version of the PS3 isn't going to be crippled after all - it does show that Sony is listening to consumer feedback

I'm very happy with it, just it's still unsure if UK will get the 20GB version anyway, but, a lot of things can change in the next 6 months, and how well the PS3 does over that time in US and Japan will probably dectate a little bit of how the Sony Euro strategy will unfold, and if Sony manage to do anything wrong in those launches, we should hopefully see things come out better in Europe.

JUMPURS · 22 Sep 2006 at 10:08

i can see us Euro's getting a blu ray movie thrown in like the did the PSP, maybe a 2nd controller if we are realllllly lucky

SiD the Turtle · 22 Sep 2006 at 10:11

JUMPURS said:
Sorry keyboard warrior mode off lol

I said good they are adding HDMI, and I SPECULATED if the reasoning was HDCP. Not ranting