Sony UK Boss Calls the US a ‘Land of Cheap People’ to Justify PS3 Price

[wraggster]

via playfuls (http://www.playfuls.com/news_06695_Sony_UK_Boss_Calls_the_US_a_Land_of_Che ap_People_to_Justify_PS3_Price.html)

In an interview with Martin Matt, from the popular GameIndustry.biz site, Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire calls America "a land of cheap people", while the UK is “a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium”.

When asked about the high price of the PS3 in PAL areas, especially in the UK (where Sony’s console is currently being sold for GBP 425- US $840- more expensive than anywhere in Europe) this is what Ray Maguire had to say:

“If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more. The cost of retail is vastly more in the UK than it is in the US and that's before you even stop to consider the US doesn't have VAT at RRP, they put a small amount on afterwards. Whereas, we get stung by 17.5 per cent. And pity the poor Irish and places like Sweden.

But we have to remember this is no different to selling a cup of Starbucks coffee or a McDonald's hamburger. This is the cost of living in the UK. It just becomes another barrier for us to get more product into the marketplace because the price needs to be set higher to get from our factory to the consumer.”

Maguire continued to defend PlayStation 3’s actual price of GBP425 by saying it’s “the best for the consumer” although he admitted Sony had thought at selling its product for a higher price, namely GBP 429.

Concerning PS3’s apparently disastrous debut in PAL areas, the Sony UK official admitted to some “issues”, but argued that every console launch had its tides in the past: “Well, it's certainly not been smooth sailing. I'd have to say that every launch has its issues. Sometimes they're behind the scenes so you'll see the grace of the swan above the water and not the rapid movement of legs beneath.”

He also put much of the responsibility for Sony’s bad press in the recent period on the media’s continuous hunger for sensational and biased articles, accusing journalists of being “lazy” when it comes to selecting information for their articles:

“Nowadays, with how the media works, not only does information fly around at the speed of light, so does mis-information. With blogs on the increase, people's thought processes are transferred from one place to another and picked up by people who might be lazy when it comes to finding out whether something is true or not. The old adage of never let the truth get in the way of a good story is probably more prevalent than it has been before”.

[Buddy4point0]

We are not the land of cheap people wtf.
yea i dont have a ps3 anyway

[factor remix]

USA is a land of people with money... at least they have good gobierno...

El ps3 aki ta como a 1300 el de 20gb y el de 60gb a 1500... esos gringos son unos suertudos...

[ish420ism]

Thats right . Y los pochos tambiem. culeros
Blame your Government, ***gots.

P.S. Don't worry European interest has control of the U.S market now anyway. 600+% increase in the price of homes in the last 10 years. U.S is ****ed as well. It will just take a stupid generation to let it happen. ??Am I correct you teens??
!!!YOU BET!!!

Oh yeah, **** "the queen" and the royals, you stupid ****s

[Totalitarian]

*buys above poster a brain*

[bullhead]

Thats right . Y los pochos tambiem. culeros
Blame your Government, ***gots.

P.S. Don't worry European interest has control of the U.S market now anyway. 600+% increase in the price of homes in the last 10 years. U.S is ****ed as well. It will just take a stupid generation to let it happen. ??Am I correct you teens??
!!!YOU BET!!!

Oh yeah, **** "the queen" and the royals, you stupid ****s
You most likely dont care so much, but you will get banned I reckon for that post...

[Cokemusic]

50% price decrease then i'll think about buying one.

[Shadowblind]

I live in the US, but I don't have NEAR enough money to get a PS3.

And same here, price goes down 300 dollars I'll have to save up for 1-2 years.

[Gene]

Or, save yourself the hastle and buy a wii instead.

I personally don't have one, but they seem to bring less, um...negetive feelings.

[Triv1um]

I have one and I know I over payed, but in my eyes I wanted one, so I done what I had to do to get one.

Btw, I'm not a 'rich boy' I had to sell a lot of stuff for it.

[Cokemusic]

I know what would make me wanna buy a ps3 !!!

A free bonous ps3 with it !.

[eazy-e]

i got a ps3 and itz vicious yall

[MicroNut]

expensive people vs. cheap people

expensive people = ? insert love value here
cheap people = ? insert hate value here

*lame*

Sony is generalizing and stereotyping people in order obscure the truth about its expensive console.

Yes. what's that?

Oh, its expensive. There is no way around it, no matter where you live.
So is the Xbox360

Its late to market. (a tough thing to judge in the revolving console market)
Xbox360 has more games, and there good too.

The Xbox360 is a great product, sorry it just is.
This does not mean the Playstation 3 is not a great product.
The Playstation 3 is an awesome console.
Its just a new product with a small collection of great games.

Stop whining and calling names Sony.
Your commercials suck and your public speakers are out of touch.

Sony "Do you know who your audience is?"
Whack!

Knuckle Up and get your game on Sony.
Better put your "A" players in or yur gunna loose.

[Anger]

and now sony is starting to hit out at everyone because of there woefull euro launch. ill bet now they wished the price was 4 quid less - im sure that would have made a hell of a lot of difference 0.o. </sarcasm>
flailing about like a bunch of wooden ducks afloat a sea of woe.
so sad *sniff* </sarcasm again>

[Torak]

If I cared what SONY thinks I wouldnt have homebrew on my PSP... So screw SONY...

[SSaxdude]

Sorry Sony, but in America we have capitalism. If your price is too high, we will spend our money elsewhere. That's competition, get used to it.

[Veskgar]

There is nothing wrong with marketing something to be geared towards the "upscale" wealthy crowd. However, a video game console is not the product for that. That will only alienate a lot of gamers.

Its a fact that more people want a PS3 than have the money for. So if the PS3 was cheaper or if more people had more money, you'd see sales of the PS3 doing better.

I myself see value in the PS3 due to the integrated Blu-Ray player and High Definition capabilities. Blu-Ray is superior and more popular than HD-DVD and if I wanted to buy a standalone Blu-Ray player it'd be at least $500.00 anyway. So I might as well get a PS3. Here is a link to support my Blu-Ray superiority opinion:

http://www.dvdempire.com/Content/Features/hidef_wars.asp

I gotta also say that so far I'm looking forward to the future of XBOX 360 the most right now. With Halo 3 coming this year, possibly a new hardware revision, among other things, I think the XBOX 360 will get the most playtime from me.

Sure, if people could afford it, they would likely have them all. PS3, 360, and Wii. But having everything takes some of the magic out of video gaming. Its like an over-exposure of the senses and you are constantly switching back and forth.

Gone are the days when you only had a Nintendo NES or Super Nintendo and everytime you got just 1 game it was the best feeling in the world. You'd play the hell out o fit and brag to your friends how great the game was.

Now, most games are created for multi-platform and the end result has been kinda disappointing.

The exclusive titles for the next-gen consoles will be what determines success the most. Just like Halo 3 for the 360, the Wii and PS3 will need their own extraordinary exclusive titles.

[Shadowblind]

Heck, I wouldn't mind having a PS3. For free, that is. Even 250 sounds...a little much, but I might be willing.

I'd really only want it for KH, Klonoa, and the DBZ Budokai series really.

[Tron_Fan]

Sounds like a misquote to me. I think he was trying to justify why the PS3 was so expensive in the UK.

[Andy6000]

How is this... 'good for the consumer' that it's more expensive in the UK than in other places? That's more like... Bad for the sellers, because if people are going to be getting a PS3, I'd sure as hell bet they'd rather import the damn thing, pay $30 for shipping, and save $200 off the normal damn price.

Also, I'm not really angry about the 'cheap people' comment, I'm just sort of... Confused I suppose. What exactly is he trying to get across with that comment?

Oh well. The PS3 was appealing to me only for Metal Gear Solid 4 and Devil May Cry 4. And now one of them has gone multi-console, and my aspirations for owning a PS3 have dissapeared. With that, and if I happened to have to pay $200 more than the rest of the world, the PS3 would look quite unattractive, like some sort of drunken whore abandoned by her date at the prom. Yes. Yes...

[bm4n]

That guy is a dick. He tries to blame the bad press about $ony on the press...by insulting Americans and saying that they can charge more purely because "other things are more expensive there." I would like to meet every $ony executive...and punch them in the face for being so BLIND. They are here to please their customers. Not even in an idealist sense, the way to get people to buy your junk is to make them like you and supply good product. $ony instead insults them and tells them that they need to buy their crap without taking the time and effort to make product that doesn't blow.

[Baboon]

There is no justification for the UK’s £425 ($840) PS3 price tag. Sony are simply having a fookin laugh at our expense. :(

I’ve played a few games on a mates PS3 now and to be honest so far I aint that impressed with it. For the ridiculous price tag I was honestly expecting something jaw dropping and totally amazing... ok the graphics were quite nice, but the games were pretty lame! lol ...Resistance Fall of Man was cack - seriously not a patch on Halo2, Virtua Fighter 5 was ok, and the only game I slightly liked was Motorway madness - but this was hardly essential.

I’ll give it a year a so before they release some decent games and then hopefully the price will also fall dramatically too.

[solid12345]

I think people are overestimating the value of blue-ray and hd-dvd period. I think the average consumer is going to stick with the regular DVD format for years to come.

I mean it is only in the last 3-4 years we've even seen a DVD player get in everyone's household. I think blue-ray and hd-dvd will go the way of SACD, only there for the purists.

[Stone Temple Pilots]

Heck, I wouldn't mind having a PS3. For free, that is. Even 250 sounds...a little much, but I might be willing.

I'd really only want it for KH, Klonoa, and the DBZ Budokai series really.

Damn straight brother. Save for the 250 thing. I'd buy PS3 if it was $200 cheaper. But yeah, they need another Klonoa game for either PS2 or PSP. Lunatea's Evil was a righteous game and IMO the best platformer ever... ever. And I mean ever. Klonoa 1 for PSone was very good too but I haven't played more than an hour of it total. Back on track though. If Sony can't stand the heat, stay out of the freakin kitchen. Giving people in the USA flak about not buying their overpriced system is pretty low.... and weak. Like their sales!

[pspfreefiles]

I wish someone would just give me a free one
LOL:)

[Basil Zero]

Correction: Land of the xbox fanboys is more like it

[mnky]

I think the point he is trying to give is that living costs more in the UK, and so they have to keep their prices high to pay their exe's.

[Cosmic3K]

Maguire continued to defend PlayStation 3’s actual price of GBP425 by saying it’s “the best for the consumer” although he admitted Sony had thought at selling its product for a higher price, namely GBP 429.
How kind of them to save us an entire £4, I guess we can all afford one now! :thumbup:

[emuking]

no no not cheap people fat people gosh get it right

[ish420ism]

these multi millionaires who put prices on things that they probably have not even tinkered with. Damn shareholders bite