DeathX

What is annoying me the most, is that I won't get to play the game until March, because that is when it is launching in PAL regions.

I guess I can get it with my PS3...

Australia and Europe get so ripped off.

Jim N:

Sony has announced that their base online system will be free of charge, just as Xbox Live Silver is. However, they have also stated that online play will be a part of this free service along with friends lists, voice chat, messaging and other things. That is all they have announced. However, this is potentially a huge draw card for Sony. Think about it:

Xbox 360: $400, Online service: $60 per year, 5 years: $300 Total: $700

PS3: $600, Online Service: free, unlimited years, $600.

Suddenly, all this price advantage which Microsoft had is no longer really an issue if you are planning on taking the system online to play games. Also, if you are posting on forums about the system, I am sure you are playing online (you stated as such). Now I realize that not all people are going to play online but for the people who are it could be that extra incentive to get the system.

Also you state that Xbox Live is the best online system out there. Well, if you take console gaming as the only type of online gaming, yes, it is. But there is nothing to say that Sony's online system wont be as good or better. Now I am not saying that it will be or wont be, it is just something to consider.

Finally on the point of people wanting online gaming for free, I have two statements:

1. If you have the decision between getting a service for free or at a price, and a high price at that, which would you choose?

2. PC games have had free online forever (except in the case of MMOs). I play on my computer more that I do on my consoles at the moment and I get a huge community, and great online play for free. As the consoles become more like PCs, why should one cost money and the other not? If these new consoles are supposed to be the ‘computer of the living room’ why should they be treated differently?

People left, right and center are bashing Sony. I dont think they should discount them yet. We’ll have to wait and see what happens at TGS.

People should really stop complaining about the Playstation 3's price. It's $600US, if you dont think that it is worth it, dont get it, it's that simple. Also, before think about how much more the prices are outside the US and then count yourselves lucky. In Australia, where I live, the RPP of a Playstation 3 is $999, which, at current exchange rates is $772US. In Europe, its not much better, and in Japan the price isnt even fixed. For me, it depends on the launch. A lot of great looking games were shown: Assassin's Creed, THP8, Heavenly Sword, MGS4, FFXIII, Resistance, but obviously, these are not all coming out for launch.

haha, dont be jealous; at least this is a step in the right direction. As it was said before, we're still waiting for guitar hero, MGS3 came out in April 2005 (where as the American release was in November 2004), and Xbox 360 was delayed 5 months from the American launch.

Yeah going back to the comments on the worldwide launch by Sony, I really hope they deliver on their promise. Pretty much every console in history has come out at least 4 months later than the rest of the world ove here, it would be great to get a PS3 with everyone else.

Also going back to the Australian tax question by Aly, yes, our prices include tax. So in other words, unlike in the states, the price you see on the shelf is the price you pay. The tax is already added on.

X23 - "why? because all asians are the same? just because both the chinese and japanese have mr. spock haircuts doesn't make them remotely similar. racist prick. i suppose anyone with slightly browned skin are basically all the same as well? or anyone who is white? that's like assuming since people in the US like the Xbox 360... that naturally the market will be exactly the same in Germany." Whoa, calm down. I didnt say anything which you have accused me off. I myself live in Australia where the imigration rate from Asian nations is very high and 2 of my very best friends have heritage in an Asian nation. Yet you still call me a 'racist prick'.

Tell me, if you replace every 'Japan' in that post with 'US' and every 'China' with 'Canada' and assumed that we lived in a non english country and were speaking a different lanugage, appart from not being true statisitcally it would make perfect sense. I was mearly comparing China and Japan because the Xbox 360 is not/will not sell well in either of those countries and that is revenue lost for Microsoft, which is what this topic is about.

"just because both the chinese and japanese have mr. spock haircuts doesn't make them remotely similar" Now, ignoring that you yourself are making a ridiculus generalisation, I never said that they were the same. I was presented information: This article "360 not going to sell well in China" and the retail information that the 360 did not sell well in Japan. Then I said that Microsoft should try harder to sell to them as they are missing out on many potential sales.

"that's like assuming since people in the US like the Xbox 360... that naturally the market will be exactly the same in Germany." - I'm not assuming, I've been given facts and I'm commenting on them. I look at articles like this and sale numbers in places like the US, Japan and Europe.

Now, I could say that the 360 is selling well in the US and in Greece and that Microsoft has done well targeting them. Would that make me a 'racist prick'for saying that? And if so, please enlighten me.

I think that Microsoft should try to target every country that it possibly can. For example Neale, you said that "like japan, who actually cares if it sells well." which is a typical comment from an American so I'll continue.

In answer to your question Microsoft does. Look at the figures: Japan's population 127,417,244. Percentage of the population which play games: 37% http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/04/26/news_6094601.html
So 37% of 127,000,000 is 46,990,000 and if Microsoft got just half of that they would sell 23 million consoles. To put this in perspective the original Xbox sold 13.5 million units in the US.

Now lets say that they do better this time around and sell 20 million in the US. If they sell in Japan to half of the game players there they more than double the number of consoles which are in homes.

Now yes, that is Japan but its a similar senario in China. They have 1.3 billion people with a gaming pop of 20 million, http://english.people.com.cn/200506/30/eng20050630_193353.html sell to half, another 10 million. Microsoft wants, dare I say needs these territories to be in the running with Sony and Nintendo for Majority market share.