Sony : It's not our fault!!!

[Momma Bear]

Sony: it's not our fault PS3 is expensive

By [Only registered users can see links. ] / [Only registered users can see links. ] 12:01pm
In this week's Technology supplement, [Only registered users can see links. ] - and asks Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Ray Maguire what the reasons are. Maguire flips between the usual suspects; VAT, currency valuation and

"There's a compulsion within the media to look at everything as a snapshot, and do a calculation, normally based on just the RRP in somewhere like the US and just the RRP in the UK. What you should do with the RRP from the US is add sales tax."

But as Boxer points out, UK VAT would take the RRP to just £352. So instead, Maguire says that it's actually too easy to compare RRPs without taking into account corporate currency management.

"When businesses trade, they hedge. It depends what currency you're buying against. We don't buy anything in dollars, so the dollar can go up and down. If it were $1.40 to the pound as it was a while ago, then the PS3 would be a bargain compared to the US; if it's anything more than that, the UK price appears to be comparatively expensive. But we're dealing with euros and yen - it's about the relationship between those currencies."

From the figures I'm looking at, the last time the dollar was $1.40 to the pound was six years ago (less than a year after PS2 was released). Maguire also blames high living costs and staff expenses in the UK (as opposed to, say, Japan?).

Update: Over on the [Only registered users can see links. ], commenter Graham says "The GBPUSD exchnge rate ... has only been below this level on 15 days in the last 16 years."
Anyway, here's the point: the PS3 is hugely expensive, and more so in the UK than anywhere else it's is being released. Why can't Sony - and all the other companies who cash in on "rip-off Britain" - admit that it's simply the price that the company believes we will pay for the machine?



courtesy of Guardian Unlimited


and I hate to see people get ished on.

[QueenB]

Exchange rates, corporate currency blah, blabber,rubbish, crap - UK = charge us more, end of story. Every time the same so theres no excuse I'll listen to now.