"Could the days of the $400 Playstation 3 be numbered? So says financial analyst Michael Pachter, who predicted this week that Sony will trim the price of its cheapest Playstation 3 pack to a "more affordable" $299 in April, and that an Xbox 360 price cut will follow by June." http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/ps3-will-be-299-in-april-analyst-predicts/1279759
I'd probably buy one too if it dropped to $300, assuming I wasn't busy playing anything else at the time. There are a few PS3 games I would like to play but none are wortha $400 console.
Ironically the Japanese Launch 60GB hardware BC PS3 at Y59,980 at the then exchange rate of 220 Yen to the Pound meant it cost me 276 pounds (I bought it second hand at Sofmap, although it was brand new), even if the current model drops to 35,980 Yen at the current exchange rate of 130 Yen to the Pound it will be about 4 quid more expensive... so I think I did well to buy the machine near launch and still get 2 years of solid gaming from it. In fact as the 60GB machines are in demand and are now selling for 20,000 Yen more then they were new I could sell mty 60GB machine and still make a 300 quid profit...
well only since the latter part of 2008, back in August it was still over 200 yen to the pound. Although in the latter part of 2007 it peaked at over 255 yen to the pound...
So the pound has literally halved compared to the Yen over the last year and a bit? Madness. If I'd have known the exchange rate was that high, I'd have gone on a spending spree.
Depends on how you look at it. The yen is freakishly strong against everything, and right before it got all crazy, the pound (& Euro) were quite over valued as well. Even the dollar yen looks like a disaster hovering somewhere around it's 16 year low even now (about 90 yen/1 USD), but before the shit hit the fan it was 123/$1. Definitely not record breaking - I actually remember one day it was 148/$1 ages ago. GBP/JPY 10 year graph USD/JPY 10 year graph The 148/1 was in 1998, so it's not shown. If you live in GBP, your view point is going to be nothing short of disaster. Steady climb against the yen for 8 consecutive years is really impressive, whereas the dollar yen is all over the fucking place.
Should've visited last year. Fuck's sake. Cheers for the graphs anyway, I see what you mean. What a mess.
Yep. Me and my girlfriend actually changed our holiday plans this year as its so much more expensive.
If the PS3 drops to $300, I'll finally get one. Maybe the Wii will also be really cheap by then as well.
Don't hold your breath. The Wii is more popular than drugs, and has been for some time. The $300 price tag is likely to happen over here in December 2010.
Tell me about it, it's dropped to the lowest it's ever been to around 124 yen to the pound, it's so pathetically weak that I am going to sell things in Japan as things I bought when the Yen was good will still be more vaiable then withdrawing cash from an ATM. Be sad to see it go but I think in the long term the pound will strengthen again so I can always buy the items again. (This doesn't include my PS3...)
