Not the biggest surprise in the world - but consider me pissed off about it. They need to keep the basic cost of the machine down so they can sell in developing markets. Just like the psp, i rate they will do an package deal and a basic model. It is proven to work, even if it incurs amusement from the "serious gamer" end of the spectrum. Just hope they don't charge us the world for extras like MS are doing now. Oh and needless to say because of this little marketing detail - developers are now much less likely to use the damn thing for anything that benefits games. Ho hum, was far too good to be true. Lets hope developers are bold enough to make HDD only games. As for buying at launch, my launch ps2 and psp are still going strong-ish. My launch psp has 4 dead pixels. My PS2 plays DVD games well, but sometime needs resetting in order to persuede it to launch them initially. Everytime I clean it, it works better for about a month (not that I use that one anymore), so maybe there was dust gathering somewhere. Anyway the thing is, buying at launch is fun - especially if you are actually there (like I was for PS2). You get the buzz of the new console and the excitement that surrounds it. Obviously the amount of faulty machines is higher at launch than at any other time, and the price is the highest it is going to ever be. But if you want to get involved, run the gauntlet - it is fun! Just your chances of getting burned is higher.
That sucks! if they say that you have to buy a custom one from sony then they can kiss my buy (and a lot more Im sure) goodbye..... In those developing markets people make the amount for a PSP in two or three months, so I doubt they may buy a PS3.... Plus bluray is goin to be a bitch to copy, and we all know in those places piracy rules the market...
Xbox 360 core system Far from worryed about that, and it always seems to be more of small percentage of people who fear not being able to back-up there software.
Also, if there are loopholes and hacks based around the first version BIOS then you can be sure they will be patched on later models. Getting a first launch machine could make some things easier in the future.
I'm still waiting for official release of the PS1, PS2, PSP, GameCube, DS, Xbox in Brazil. The Xbox 360 was released in Colombia and not Brazil... A PSOne costs 180 dollars down here. That's right, 180 dollars! OH: The last officially supported console down here was the Dreamcast and GBA (for a year or so). Since them everything is imported from USA or Japan. And honestly i don't see the new generation being sold officially down here anytime soon...
I didn't realize that there wasn't any official support in brazil... I know the xbox supports PAL M, so i always thought it got a release down there.
So what? if the X360 has a custom HDD the PS3 cant accept standart ones? all I say is that it would be cool if the PS3 improved in that aspect. And in those developing markets the possibility to do copies of games is vital for the lifetime of a console. Damn, even in pretty developed market like in spain I heard gamers talking about the need for a console to run pirated games... Dude I wish we had the SMS support you guys got back in the 80s... And colombia? damn! well, blame the idiots on MS marketing dept...
Same here in Mexico, sir. I know the PSTwo did have an official release, though. Region 4 DVD, it comes in a cheap plastic blister with Winning Eleven as a pack-in-game. There might have been region 4 Xboxes, too But... there never was any official release for PSX, Dreamcast, Saturn (or any other Sega product) - and for many years, GameLa (Nintendo of Mexico, basically) kept a horrible monopoly here. And yeah, you still pay through the nose for everything, even if there's official releases. I think X360 is about 600 dollars here. PSTwo is 260 dollars, DS is around 250 dollars as well (though it can be gotten at some official stores for 150, too), and PSP is about 400 dollars. So yeah, I expect the PS3 to come to Latin America costing about 700 dollars at least. I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.
A plastic blister? damn like cardboard is such an expensive material.... I got a friend down in chile and he told me they had official SEGA support back in the day.
Some round of prices down here: PSTwo = 800 Reais = 380 Dollars GBA SP = 480 Reais = 230 Dollars Xbox 360 = 2500 Reais = 1190 Dollars Games cost around 130 to 250 Reais ( 61 to 120 Dollars) Now complain about piracy...
On the contrary, I reserved a PS2 at launch from Gamestop (where I live it's still called Software Etc), sold it, and made a profit of $100. If I remember correctly, I got it just about the time it released. Of course, I reserved it way, way ahead.
