I got quite a bit of e-mail yesterday about this (from Gamasutra, but some version of this was everywhere):
A number of French consumer sites are reporting new comments from George Fornay, president of Sony Computer Entertainment France and vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, regarding the pricing of the PlayStation 3 in Europe.The comments were made on French radio station Europe 1, and indicated that the PlayStation 3 will be available for “around €500 [$613], in the range of €499 to 599 [$612 to 734].”
Here's why I originally wasn't even going to mention this: at some point today, Sony will deny that Fornay said it. His comments will have been "mistranslated." Just go buy some doughnuts, have a cup of coffee, and wait around for a little while, because it's coming.
Fornay also said something to the effect of "Sure, it's expensive for a game player, but not for a machine that also has a Blu-Ray drive." That's not an exact quote, but he was emphasizing the Blu-Ray drive as a mitigating factor. Again, Sony doesn't appear to understand that we do not give a shit about the Blu-Ray player as a "value add." The additional $100+ that the Blu-Ray player is adding to the cost of the console is going to cost them far more in unit sales than it will attract.
Last time: if the PS3 comes out at $499 in this country, it's immediately on life support. If it comes out over $500, it's DOA.