£150 PS3 Deposit Shock

Baine

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£150 PS3 deposit shock
16:15, Jul 20th by Lisa Foster
Consumers will have to pay a hefty £150 deposit to pre-order PS3 hardware, if a revolutionary new allocation scheme by Sony is introduced.
In an exclusive report published in tomorrow’s issue of MCV, it is revealed that the format holder is currently discussing the radical new plan with senior retail buyers as it looks to manage a limited initial hardware supply this Christmas.

The £150 deposit scheme is being considered to ensure that allocation can be more fairly managed. In particular, it is believed that Sony is looking to avoid the ‘eBay phenomenon’ that occurred with the launch of Xbox 360 whereby some consumers who managed to acquire more than one unit – on deposits as low as £5 – sold on their extra machines for well above the RRP.

Sony has confirmed that it is in talks with retail about the scheme.
 
^^ Any preorders that have been taken so far really mean nothing as sony havent even said how many the uk will get

Thats why the uk largest games retailer (the purple shirt boys) isnt taking any orders and if anyone going to get them on launch its these guys
 
Cant see it really stopping the "ebay phenomenon" as you've still gotta eventually pay £450 quid for them anyway so if your're preordering 1,2 or 10 to flog on ebay you know you gonna make a profit regardless selling it before christmas (£700 will be the least you can probably expect to make) so putting down £150 isnt gonna stop people pre ordering more.

The only people it will stop are the ones who cant afford multiples of £150 at the point pre orders go on sale whose pre orders will then be taken by pro ebayers who'll make an even bigger mint.
 
Something tells me it's more to keep the number of disapointed pre-order people down than to stop ebay (or a very nice short term money making scheme - the interest on say half a million lots of £150 would be very nice).

It won't stop ebayers, but it will no doubt cut back on the total number of pre-orders and give sony/the stores potentially months of sitting on large sums of money (gaining interest) before the goods are sent out.
 
I agree that this will stop people who put down pre-orders all over the place hoping that one might actually get them a console from doing so - and thus a certain amount of ebaying of consoles from people who think 'what the hell, I'll still get it and just e-bay it', but the core of the e-bay sales, IMHO, are people who always intended to sell consoles on e-bay - it wont stop them at all.

fini
 
Werewolf said:
Something tells me it's more to keep the number of disapointed pre-order people down than to stop ebay (or a very nice short term money making scheme - the interest on say half a million lots of £150 would be very nice).

It won't stop ebayers, but it will no doubt cut back on the total number of pre-orders and give sony/the stores potentially months of sitting on large sums of money (gaining interest) before the goods are sent out.
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Thats exactly what i was thinking, all those preorders at £150 a shot sure is gonna generate some intrest for someone.

Or maybe its to help pay for production lol

Paul ...
 
Phil99 said:
Why not :confused:

If you're going to spend £400+ on a console, why aren't you going to pay a £150 deposit?
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its far too high £50 might work but its never been done before, microsoft didnt do it, i dont think nintendo intend to because there console only costs 90p:rolleyes:
 
Psycho Sonny said:
its far too high £50 might work but its never been done before, microsoft didnt do it, i dont think nintendo intend to because there console only costs 90p:rolleyes:
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Thats raises an interesting point. The deposit is more than the Wii with a game costs. It may well help reduce sales of the PS3 over Christmas, but what if those people get Wiis, end up liking them a great deal, and the Wii ends up significantly outselling the PS3 in the long term due to word of mouth?

Every preorder, even if its 0 deposit, will help keep the preorder people faithful to the PS3 even if they have to wait months. If they're gonna have to wait months anyway, they might as well put the £150 on the Wii and a game or two. The PS3 costs so much, £150 a few months prior on a 'stop-gap console' won't matter too much to the people who can afford a PS3.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
its far too high £50 might work but its never been done before, microsoft didnt do it, i dont think nintendo intend to because there console only costs 90p:rolleyes:
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So what if it hasn't been done before.

They've seen the mess of the xbox360 launch and they're attempting to save the same thing happening for their launch.



£150 is nothing considering what the rrp for the console is, this does it's job as a deterrent for people trying to make a quick buck on ebay.
 
crunchman said:
£150 is nothing considering what the rrp for the console is, this does it's job as a deterrent for people trying to make a quick buck on ebay.
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As has been said, it won't stop the ebay people. Paying £150 down now per console means nothing, since it would be spent on the console anyway.

£500 for console - £150 deposit = £350 later, £500 total spent anyway - no change in overall cost. Sell on Ebay for £700, £200 profit, again, deposit made no difference.

Shops don't exactly stop buying in inventory because they have to put a down payment to secure the inventory. It won't stop the people who sell on ebay by any stretch. At the very most, it'll do what has been said earlier, stop people preordering all over the place to get a console as quickly as possible, and maybe selling the extra consoles instead of cancelling the extra preorders. Those sorts of ebay sales are in the minority however.
 
crunchman said:
So what if it hasn't been done before.
£150 is nothing considering what the rrp for the console is, this does it's job as a deterrent for people trying to make a quick buck on ebay.
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What deterrent is it though?

If im sitting at home now planning to spend £900/£1350/£1800 on 2/3/4 consoles with the 99% certain chance of making £100-£200 markup on each one why is putting £150 down in August rather than November gonna put me off? Its not like the consoles gonna cost me any more it just means I put £150 down now and £300 in November.
 
£150 may not be much compared to the full price of the console, but it's a large chunk of change considering you're paying it out months in advance of the consoles release (and if there is the usual shortage you may end up waiting even longer).
 
Psycho Ned said:
What deterrent is it though?

If im sitting at home now planning to spend £900/£1350/£1800 on 2/3/4 consoles with the 99% certain chance of making £100-£200 markup on each one why is putting £150 down in August rather than November gonna put me off? Its not like the consoles gonna cost me any more it just means I put £150 down now and £300 in November.
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Obviously it won't stop people like you. :/

But paying £150 for multiple consoles upfront without even being guaranteed that you'll have one before christmas will be daunting for most people.

Personally I hope ther is no shortage so that people like you will be stuffed with multiple consoles unable to sell them, unfortunately I don't think that will happen. :/

Boogle said:
As has been said, it won't stop the ebay people. Paying £150 down now per console means nothing, since it would be spent on the console anyway.

£500 for console - £150 deposit = £350 later, £500 total spent anyway - no change in overall cost. Sell on Ebay for £700, £200 profit, again, deposit made no difference.

Shops don't exactly stop buying in inventory because they have to put a down payment to secure the inventory. It won't stop the people who sell on ebay by any stretch. At the very most, it'll do what has been said earlier, stop people preordering all over the place to get a console as quickly as possible, and maybe selling the extra consoles instead of cancelling the extra preorders. Those sorts of ebay sales are in the minority however.
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It will put off people that don't have enough money for the deposit before christmas though.
 
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The 'con' for me is you'll be expected to hand over the £150 and be told you'll 'more than likely' get one for xmas when Sony know well and good you won't see one till March.

They're desperate to secure 'sales' and avoid the inevitable purchase of 'competition as it's not in stock xmas crowd'.

Sony are masters of manipulating the 'general gaming public' and it'll probably work.
Anyone who thinks they're doing this to stop the 'ebay' phenomenon and help the casual gamer is as deluded as someone who believes they're including blu-ray to drive gaming forward.

Lol, my 2p.
 
smcshaw said:
The 'con' for me..
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Erm, which con? Sony aren't gonna come and break your arm should you choose not to pre-order and hold out until they're filling the shelves like the 360 is now.

As several people have already commented on, proportionately it's not a great deal in terms of the full price of the console. I'm quite happy to divide the cost up over a few months.

Roll on November* :)

*or sometime soon after.. hopefully lol
 
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