@mnzy said:

@shenstra:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28seventh_generation%29#Sales_standingsLook at the numbers, 40mio 360 & PS3 in the US, 30mio in Europe (note that this is whole Europe, with about 700mio people, about twice as many as the US). Same with the Wii. Consoles are very much not as widespread in Europe. And yes, in the UK and Scandinavia that's different, UK has always had more consoles and Scandinavia has been more into gaming in general. Western and Southern Europe is ok and in Eastern Europe the PC dominates by far.

Nobody considers "all of Europe" as their market. They sell to Western Europe, roughly. That's where they make money. Whatever they sell in Eastern and Southern Europe is nice, perhaps even profitable, but no console manufacturer in their right mind considers Europe a market of 700 million people. You can roughly cut that in half (not literally, on a map, but just as a number), from a selling-games-for-profit point of view. I'm not putting anyone down or anything, but there's no way Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft keep their prices high because of all the cash they rake in in Poland.

Even putting that aside, the idea of keeping profit margins high in areas where your sales are low doesn't make much sense either. The only way to increase those sales numbers is to lower prices. If any country was (pre-crises) going to buy consoles at higher prices, it was the US. One of the reasons they don't lower prices in Europe in an attempt to increase sales, alongside the fact that they're selling gangbusters in Western Europe and can't lower prices in Eastern Europe without losing money in Western Europe, is that they can't risk a USD/Euro surge that would have them losing a lot of money all over Europe.

Basically all I'm saying is, they're not keeping prices high in Europe because hurr hurr let's milk European gamers. The price differences aren't as bad if you take sales taxes into consideration, as well as the general cost of living in some European countries. There are still an undeniable price differences between electronic entertainment in Europe and the US, but there are many reasons for those differences and it's more about economics than about differences between the actual markets. In fact, Europe and the US are more alike than ever before. We both have countries/states that are basically bankrupt, countries/states that are healthy, we both have problems with the underlying economy, we're both headed into pension crises, we've both been living beyond our means, we both have currencies that maybe aren't quite the bulwarks of financial stability and security that we thought they were, et cetera et cetera.

@squidracerX said:

My only question here is: isn't everything in Europe more expensive? Not trolling, just actually curious. Europe is huge so getting prices down as a constant might be hard. But how much is a new CD? Like who's a band we'd both have easy access to, how about the new Radio Head album. i will look it up now: If you go on USA amazon.com you can get it for $5.99 download, or $9.00 as a CD. Amazon UK is WAY more expensive. The download is 6.32, so like $9.48, and the CD new is 7.99 in pounds, which is like $12.00. And just going by the amazon list price, the new Rise Against album is $9.99 here but 8.79 in pounds in UK, so about $13. So yeah when i went to ireland it was the same, CDs were more. So is gas. (so maybe shipping costs are more there?). What about cars and stuff i wonder? I think you just pay more for stuff over there? Maybe not?

Looking at Dutch stores, CDs prices are pretty much the same as game prices. We pay as many Euros as you do Dollars. However, most European stores include sales tax in the listed prices. You should generally assume sales tax to be roughly 20% in Europe. As far as I can tell, from experience, the $1 = €1 rate is pretty consistent for most electronics and such. So when the actual exchange rate is €1 = $x, we pay a premium of x / 1.2. Last summer, the Euro hovered around $1.20 for a while, so converted prices were pretty much exactly the same in Europe as they were in the US. Right now €1 = $1.44, so we pay a 20% premium.

Gas prices are on a completely different level because we pay real taxes on fuel. You express your fuel tax in cents per gallon, we use Dollars per gallon (except we don't use Dollars, or gallons). Currently, the current fuel tax in the Netherlands in roughly equivalent to cost of fuel in the US (tax included). At the pump down the street, I'd have to pay roughly nine Dollars per gallon at the moment.

There's so much text in here...

This is awesome, I was just telling my brother that I bet they drop the price soon on the 360 or ps3.  Hopefully microsoft follows suit so I can pick  up a new 360 soon.  

Then why the fuck would somone buy a vita!! This is why the 3ds and vita will sell poorly and why the handheld market will die after they stop making those. Who would buy a handheld that costs the same amount as a console? Iphone killed the handheld! But even if you don't have iphone I dont see anyone having a need to buy this, cos  who would bring a gaming device with them when they go out, seriously!? 
 
also what about Australia?

Then why the fuck would somone buy a vita!! This is why the 3ds and vita will sell poorly and why the handheld market is destined to be nonexistent after this generation. Who would buy a handheld that costs the same amount as a console? Who would bring a gaming device with them when they go out!? Iphone killed the handheld!

@habibyjohnson said:

Then why the fuck would somone buy a vita!! This is why the 3ds and vita will sell poorly and why the handheld market will die after they stop making those. Who would buy a handheld that costs the same amount as a console? Iphone killed the handheld! But even if you don't have iphone I dont see anyone having a need to buy this, cos who would bring a gaming device with them when they go out, seriously!? also what about Australia?

This is not targeted at you, per se, but I'll trust Sony in their marketing department over users on a gaming website.

Then why the fuck would somone buy a vita!! This is why the 3ds and vita will sell poorly and why the handheld market will die after they stop making those. Who would buy a handheld that costs the same amount as a console? Iphone killed the handheld! But even if you don't have iphone I dont see anyone having a need to buy this, cos  who would bring a gaming device with them when they go out, seriously!?  also what about Australia?

Then why the fuck would somone buy a vita!! This is why the 3ds and vita will sell poorly and why the handheld market will die after they stop making those. Who would buy a handheld that costs the same amount as a console? Iphone killed the handheld! But even if you don't have iphone I dont see anyone having a need to buy this, cos  who would bring a gaming device with them when they go out, seriously!?  also what about Australia?

Maybe at $100 and there was at least five games at $20.  But even then, it would just end up in the box.

@Buzzkill said:

Nintendo buried them this generation. How the mighty have fallen.

Yes. Nintendo, the scrappy upstart they are, have completely outdone to goliath Sony. Now where was that damn Wii of mine? Oh right. No games, no fun, no use.

it's starting to look like this gen of consoles is finally wrapping up. maybe it really is only 1 more holiday season on 2004/2005 gen hardware!

it's starting to look like this gen of consoles is finally wrapping up. maybe it really is only 1 more holiday season on 2004/2005 gen hardware!

@Buzzkill said:

Nintendo buried them this generation. How the mighty have fallen.

Yes. Nintendo, the scrappy upstart they are, have completely outdone to goliath Sony. Now where was that damn Wii of mine? Oh right. No games, no fun, no use.

To ALL of you saying you JUST bought a ps3 and paid more than what the price is now, let me just say I have had this happen with several things in my life and if you just bring it back to where you got it with the receipt, as long as it wasn't like more than a month or 2 ago, you can always get the difference back. You'll either get it back in actual cash or a gift card depending on where you purchased it. So say you spent $299.99 at walmart a week ago. Put everything back in the box with the receipt, take it back to walmart, they'll give you $50 back. If for any reason they do not, google corporate, find their number, make sure to ask for a supervisor, tell them what happened with the price drop and they will ensure you receive your money! I 100% guarantee this will work! I've done this more times than I can count for all sorts of different priced things and at all different places, from best buy to walmart and yes, even gamestop. Heck, a lot of times if you speak to a supervisor at gamestop headquarters and you put up enough of a stink, they'll even refund the money owed and throw in a $25 gift card. I had that happen twice. So yeah, do this if you want money back. It WILL WORK!!!

How big is the drop gonna be in Oceania?

I was hoping for a bigger price cut, but better than nothing. It is aproaching a price I'm willing to pay.

So Microsoft's gonna follow suit soon right? Or am I being too hopeful?

Its 192 pounds on Amazon, i wonder if the ps2 will drop in price.

I hope MS will take the bait and price cut the 360 again. I need one that has wi-fi instead of a jet engine.

How do they justify dropping the price in the US to $249 and then only dropping the Australian price to $349 when we have the stronger dollar?

How do they justify dropping the price in the US to $249 and then only dropping the Australian price to $349 when we have the stronger dollar?

@squidracerX said:

My only question here is: isn't everything in Europe more expensive? Not trolling, just actually curious. Europe is huge so getting prices down as a constant might be hard. But how much is a new CD? Like who's a band we'd both have easy access to, how about the new Radio Head album. i will look it up now: If you go on USA amazon.com you can get it for $5.99 download, or $9.00 as a CD. Amazon UK is WAY more expensive. The download is 6.32, so like $9.48, and the CD new is 7.99 in pounds, which is like $12.00. And just going by the amazon list price, the new Rise Against album is $9.99 here but 8.79 in pounds in UK, so about $13. So yeah when i went to ireland it was the same, CDs were more. So is gas. (so maybe shipping costs are more there?). What about cars and stuff i wonder? I think you just pay more for stuff over there? Maybe not?

Looking at Dutch stores, CDs prices are pretty much the same as game prices. We pay as many Euros as you do Dollars. However, most European stores include sales tax in the listed prices. You should generally assume sales tax to be roughly 20% in Europe. As far as I can tell, from experience, the $1 = €1 rate is pretty consistent for most electronics and such. So when the actual exchange rate is €1 = $x, we pay a premium of x / 1.2. Last summer, the Euro hovered around $1.20 for a while, so converted prices were pretty much exactly the same in Europe as they were in the US. Right now €1 = $1.44, so we pay a 20% premium.

Gas prices are on a completely different level because we pay real taxes on fuel. You express your fuel tax in cents per gallon, we use Dollars per gallon (except we don't use Dollars, or gallons). Currently, the current fuel tax in the Netherlands in roughly equivalent to cost of fuel in the US (tax included). At the pump down the street, I'd have to pay roughly nine Dollars per gallon at the moment.

I was juset planning on buying a PS3. Now I'm sure.

Got mine a year and a half ago for $215 on Ebay. The internet has won this battle.

Finally ...

@shenstra said:

@squidracerX said:

My only question here is: isn't everything in Europe more expensive?

most European stores include sales tax in the listed prices. You should generally assume sales tax to be roughly 20% in Europe.... so we pay a 20% premium.

Gas prices are on a completely different level because we pay real taxes on fuel.. At the pump down the street, I'd have to pay roughly nine Dollars per gallon at the moment.

SOMEONE finally understands the differences in taxes and economic structure that are the REAL cause of the price disparities.  It amazes me how people just assume that prices are lower because games companies just like screwing Europe over....

Id say gas prices are a huge impact there too then; for us to truck a game to a game store from the manufacture plant is WAAAAY cheaper than for you guys across the pond to do that, i was only bringing all this up because I know Australian games are more expensive because of shipping. So I assumed the European price difference was not just to screw you, but that there was a reason behind it :) And you clarified there was!

wonder why the vita is still gonna be $ 249.99 i dont know about you but i think sony just shot them selfs in the foot this time yet again

not only did they wait for nintendo to move! you never do that ,

but the same flaws psp had vs ds

it has again

3 hour battery life on max settings, -i mean come on this thing uses cartridge based media! not a disc spinning, and still sony cant manage battery!

if our launch line up is anything like japans wed have no good games besides uncharted 1 is not enough for me as you know same mistake again

now they go and drop the f bomb that is 249.99 160 gig ps3 the vita comes with no storage space

and we all know we will need it lol , unlike 3ds where its not neccasary to enjoy 3ds games the vita will have games that dont save to the gamecard, as said by sony them selfs ,

but 3ds came with a sd card to be generious also the psp came with a 256 mb one at launch why cant they just put a 1 gig card in there , for petes sake,

now we gamers gotta shell 279,99 depending on model we choose plus tax not including games which are not even priced yet , im bout to say screw this and just get me a new ps3 lol

i already got a nintendo 3ds and its amazing , at least i can play it for like 6 hours before running to an outlet versus 3 ,

i dont think 3 hours of my time is worth it for power , no thanks ill just use my ps3 ,

bottom line is , i ll gladly wait for a revision or price drop ,