European PS3 marketers are crazy

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]#1 The Europeans are screwed whether they buy the PS3 or not. The system is worse than ours, and $200 more. They have no option to buy what we have. (Most people don't order imports) They are screwed out of their choice.[/QUOTE]

Oh they have an option -- not buying the hyper-expensive console.

Again, if buying it is still "worth it" to them, then they can't by definition have been screwed.

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]#2 Sony gave away TV's because they know their PR is sh*t. They weren't being "nice". They are trying to repair their public image.[/QUOTE]

They were being nice to the loyal customer base who stood in line before midnight at their opening after all the crap that was shoved their way for months.  That kind of thing is basically a proof of a real Sony fanboy -- and giving them these expensive televisions was an obvious "thank you" to them.

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]But hey guys, believe what you want. You believe Sony is nice because it gave away 120 TVs. Awesome. High fives all around[/QUOTE]

Yes, they were nice to about 120 people.  Again, because it wasn't to you, it's not "nice" to hand out a free 40+ inch television valued at 2000 quid.  Feel free to put as much "SPIN SPIN SPIN" on this as you need to.

[Funkamster V]

Answer me this M0zart: why do Europeans have to pay so much more than Americans and the Japanese for a worse PS3? If you can't give me a good reason, the simple fact is that the Europeans are screwed. You may not think so, but you are not a 12 year old British boy... or the parents of one.

Simple facts= They is screwed. Sony isn't nice. You is wrong.
Funkmaster V

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=Funkamster V]Answer me this M0zart: why do Europeans have to pay so much more than Americans and the Japanese for a worse PS3? If you can't give me a good reason, the simple fact is that the Europeans are screwed. You may not think so, but you are not a 12 year old British boy... or the parents of one.[/QUOTE]

Here's they answer: they DON'T have to.  The PS3 is selling there because THEY WANT TO.  Even a 12-year old boy who can't afford something he wants isn't screwed.  That would be treating a want as a need.  There is no such correlation.

[Funkmaster V]

OK, I didn't think you had a good point about that. So I win.

Listen M0, I understand what a free market society is, sir. But Sony is taking advantage of people, you agree with that and you then you turn around and say they are being nice. I'm confused

Headlines read
"Sony gives Away Free TVs at PS3 Launch!"
and
"Record Sales in UK!"

And then you read between the lines and realize the truths:

"Sony tries to Cover Up Tacking on $400 to inferior PS3's by giving away 120 TV's"
and
"PSP Crushes PS3 Launch. PS3 still on Shelves!"

Funk

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]OK, I didn't think you had a good point about that. So I win.[/QUOTE]

You lose because my point was pristine.  I grew up as poor as poor can get.  EVERYTHING was out of my price range growing up.  If it weren't for my grandparents, I doubt I'd have had the few things I was able to amass.

I wanted many things as a kid.  I was only able to afford a few.  Yet I never felt "screwed" as you try to SPIN it.  And that's for good reason -- I wasn't.

Even when I started realizing that working on my own outside of just going to school would get me the money to buy the many other things I gathered over the years, I was never "screwed" for having to do so.  So you'll have to excuse me for not accepting it, even as your SPIN-word, on "market economics".

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]Listen M0, I understand what a free market society is, sir. But Sony is taking advantage of people, you agree with that and you then you turn around and say they are being nice. I'm confused[/QUOTE]
I said giving TVs to the 120 people in line was nice.  I am absolutely right about that.  If you are confused, it's because you don't understand the free market after all.  The free market is an individual enterprise, not a collective one.  It is made up of competing individual desires vs. competing individual wealth against competing supply of individual items.  It is not a collectivist enterprise.

So what's the point?  It is possible to recognize that the console is higher than I'd pay for it (though apparently not higher than the average UK consumer would pay for it at least for now, so in free market terms, not so overpriced), AND still point out that giving away free 2000 quid HDTVs to 120 faithful and persistent Sony fans is a good gesture to those fans.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

[feilong801]

Hmm. I suppose I misjudged this thread. A bit more heated than I thought at the time.

Just a technical side note: aren't the PS3's being sold in the UK different in respect to backwards compatibility?

-Rob

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=feilong80]Hmm. I suppose I misjudged this thread. A bit more heated than I thought at the time.

Just a technical side note: aren't the PS3's being sold in the UK different in respect to backwards compatibility?[/QUOTE]

Yep.  And I have to wonder just how big the opening would be if they hadn't made that dumb decision.

My manager is Israeli.  He flies in about once a month to have meetings etc., and does a lot of travelling still.  And he is the consumate Sony fanboy.  I can barely stand talking to him about video games because he just can't say enough good things about Sony.

Let's put it this way, he had a planned trip, fully purchased, to fly into London on the day of the launch and stand in line at Virgin on their midnight PS3 launch.  XBOX 360s are available everywhere in his country, but he wouldn't even consider purchasing one of those.  That's a Sony fan right there.

Yet when I told him the news that the PS3 wasn't going to be fully backward compatible, he was FURIOUS.  All of his importing of games has been through the PAL region.  One of the main reasons for buying a PS3 early for him when the system is bereft of good games was the backwards compatibility.  So what did he do?  He cancelled that trip to London.

Whatever decision he had made, knowing that it wasn't backwards compatible in advance means he can't by definition have been screwed.  Now if Sony had never announced this, and never told people who were buying it, that would be a different story.  That would be fraud, and thus it would be easy to point out that he would have been "screwed" if that term has any objective meaning.  But given the situation, there was zero "screwage".

Assuming that Sony doesn't keep up this tremendous sales force, the only entity that would be "screwed" would be Sony.  In fact, one could argue that sales would have been higher if they hadn't shot themselves in the foot with a target on their shoe so many times in the last year.  So either way, I think it's safe to say that Sony has "screwed themselves" rather than any willing consumers.

[Funkmaster V]

Sorry M0, you are so jacked up about so much on this subject I guess logic can't reach you.

Your point: Sony isn't screwing Europeans and they are nice, giving people.

My point: Sony is screwing Europeans and they think everyone will be Pro-Sony after they give away 120 TV's.

Funk

[feilong801]

That's interesting: the backwards comp. issue is extremely significant.

I know that for me, that factors into every console I buy.

Yet the price is so much higher... does anyone know why this is, if it is something other than Sony just charging a higher price? Does the UK have a VAT, and does that affect it?

-Rob

[bluemonkey1]

XBox 360 price difference compared to US: $56 (same quality machine)

PS3 price difference compared to US: $230 (lower quality machine)