ps3 and 360 detailed technical analysis

[norm]

Deslock, I have a question that you might have the best answer for on the site. I'm confused about the PS3's pricing plan.

In the US
20GB $499
60GB $599

Japan
20GB $430
60GB $540

Europe
20GB (not offered)
60GB $796

From looking at the 360 the prices are pretty close, maybe 20 to 30 dollars difference across the board. Why is the PS3 so drastic?

[Kamui]

and I thought Japan would have an expensive PS3.I figure they have a strong economy(two dollars for small little cans of coffee)

[Deslock]

I'll have to check into it and see what I can dig up.

[norm]

Thanks man. I know prices for most things are different in each country, but I can't figure out what Sony's plan is.

[Zabka]

and I thought Japan would have an expensive PS3.I figure they have a strong economy(two dollars for small little cans of coffee)

the expensiveness of an item does not have to do with the strength of the economy. It has to do with the exchange rate. Normally one assumes perfect purchasing power in determining exchange rates. However, in this case, the goods are not identical in that often times, games and machines in one country are not playable in another country (I think this has to do with DVD regions that were put in place to help counter piracy). Beyond that, tariffs, demand and other aspects will affect a good's price in a given country.

In the case of Japan, the economy has actually been sucking wind for over a decade. Marginal interest rate is 0. That's right...money is almost for free in that country, but the economy never really recovered and exchange rates have been relatively steady for a while. Within the last couple of weeks, The yen has gained relative to the dollar, which has caused much disruption in the stock markets in part because there were a lot of people borrowing money in yen and investing them in dollars with the fixed exchange rate, this "carry trade" has been successful. But as the yen increased in value, borrowing yen was no longer so cheap, so people had to unwind their positions. That's why there has been some volatility recently (one of the reasons).

[Deslock]

From what I've discovered, Zabka is 100% correct in this matter.

What concerns me is that for Europe, they haven't made the PS3 backwards compatible. This decision will bite them in the ass in the long run, of that I have no doubts. Not a smooth move. At all.

I cannot fathom the decision on this.

[Zabka]

well, the emulator apparently plays 1200 old titles, so that should cover most games that people care about.

But the backwards compatibility is to increase the margins...the chipset used for PS2s cost more money from both a supply and a manufacturing standpoint than simply downloading emulator software. Sony is taking a bath in the near term on the ps3. They need to minimize the damage while they hope that bluray ends up being what they need it to be.