Meanwhile in India: Playstation 3 Still Retails for More than $400
Filed under: Gaming News and Reportage 8 Responses
Sony Computer Entertainment has successfully turned the media tide in it’s favour with the announcement of the Playstation 3 Slim and long-awaited price drops for it’s flagship console. The rest of the world can be content with the system now retailing for $299; India’s Playstation 3, on the other hand, has received a price cut of about 20%, reducing the price to Rs. 19,990. The stickler? It’s still roughly $410 USD, about $110 more than the new pricing – almost like the much heralded price cut passed us over.
To increase incentive for purchase, the system also retails along with two free “Platinum: Best of Playstation” titles – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Impeccable timing, with the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Gran Turismo 5 in the next yearly quarter. This doesn’t change the fact that they were released 2 years and a year and a half ago, respectively. We’ve contacted Sony on the matter and expect a response shortly.
Update:
Sony Computer Entertainment County Manager for Playstation Atindriya Bose comments:
“While we strive to provide international price parity, we need to be cognizant of the Indian tax structures ( both the import duty as well as the VAT ). The high tax structure restricts us from maintaining complete price parity with all the global markets. However, with the festive season in India, we are offering 2 popular games worth approximately INR 3000 alongwith the new price of INR 19,990 for the PS3 – 80GB model.”
Here’s hoping we can expect the Playstation 3 Slim in India faster than it’s predecessor, the PS2 Slim, in the mean time.
8 Responses to “Meanwhile in India: Playstation 3 Still Retails for More than $400”
Here in Norway, a 80GB PS3 retails for 2,995 NOK, which translates into 487,79 USD. It believe that’s a tad more pricey. Soruce: http://www.elkjop.no/product/spill-konsoll/spillkonsoll/PS3CECHL04/sony-playstation-3-80-gb
in the uk its retails at £299 which is over $600
Considering India follows the European SKU, this isn’t much of a surprise. But we’re actually getting a better deal than them, as their prices start from 299 euros (roughly Rs. 21k). And let’s be frank, Microsoft India is a lot more guilty in their console pricing and bundles than Sony has ever been.
Microsoft has been as bad when it comes to pricing the consoles here, but the SKUs don’t exactly “follow” each other in that sense – just because it’s a PAL territory doesn’t mean that the prices are linked to European ones.
The idea is to charge as much as the market can take and then add on any explanation you can get away with, and they’ve been doing this for ages. High taxes and duties such as VAT and octroi are responsible for the difference, but even so, the real cost of owning a console lies in the games themselves…
Any idea how much the import duty is.. does it come to $100? That’s the only excuse Sony’s gonna give
Works out to about that much, yeah… Which is exactly what we’re expecting from their email
@gSathe
He he figured, so I didn’t even bother asking.. meanwhile Slim won’t be coming before November.. EU, US first preference
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