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Two console price cuts in but a single day. Looks like now's the time to invest in a second machine...

As expected, following Microsoft's announcement today that Xbox will drop in price to £99.99 from 27 August, Sony have revealed that PS2 will be reduced to £104.99 with immediate effect.

Commenting on the price change, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves said, "PlayStation 2 has enjoyed phenomenal success and the time has now come to go well beyond our 24 million PlayStation 2 owners. There are already over 1000 games titles available and many more new ones - like Gran Turismo 4, The Getaway: Black Monday, SingStar Party, EyeToy Play 2 and Killzone - all to be published by SCEE and titles such as GTA: San Andreas from Take 2, Burnout 3: Takedown from Electronic Arts and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from Konami still to come this year.

"This new price point of £104.99, together with this incredible line up of titles, will make it both affordable and exciting for everybody to enjoy the fun of PlayStation gaming and will ensure that PlayStation 2 continues to be the computer entertainment system of choice for an ever widening and diversifying audience."

Looks like the Christmas console wars have kicked off early this year - as far as Sony and Microsoft are concerned, at least. Nintendo, meanwhile, have told us that they have no plans to cut the price of Gamecube in Europe. "It is already at a great price and we have a very strong software line-up for the rest of the year including games such as Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Donkey Konga, Paper Mario 2 and Animal Crossing." That's all right then.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from Konami still to come this year.

YES PLEASE!

 

[Mama Smurf]

£104.99? What kind of dumbass pricetag is that?

 

[DaCocoBrova]

How do you convert that to $$? What's the formula?

 

[DSN2K]

£1 = $1.60

 

[Solid]

Perfect for those of you who wants to play Halo 2 and GTA:SA this fall!

There are already over 1000 games titles available and many more new ones - like Gran Turismo 4, The Getaway: Black Monday, SingStar Party, EyeToy Play 2 and Killzone - all to be published by SCEE and titles such as GTA: San Andreas from Take 2, Burnout 3: Takedown from Electronic Arts and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from Konami still to come this year.

Wait a minute, so MGS3 is coming this year in Europe? Awesome! Thanks Sony/Konami!

 

[Ghost]

Game says March for MGS3, id be most suprised if it makes it this year given Kojimas history with Europe, he normally likes to tune the games for the audience (ie add a new difficulty level)

 

[Suerte]

XBox: $182.33
PS2: $191.45

 

[Solid]

Game says March for MGS3, id be most supprised if it makes it this year given Kojimas history with Europe, he normally likes to tune the games for the audience (ie add a new difficulty level)

Yeah that's what I always thought. I wouldn't mind playing it next year though. This fall is filled with great titles... Now that I think of it I'd rather play it in march and get a second making of dvd and some extra stuff.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Damn, that's expensive...

 

[Midas]

That's probably with tax. You add tax to the price you see in stores, right?

 

[Kon Tiki]

How do you convert that to $$? What's the formula?

Exchange rates change every minute.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

 

[PhatSaqs]

Sony following MS lead again??!

 

[Kon Tiki]

£1 = $1.60

1 GBP = 1.82239 USD

 

[jarrod]

What's GameCube & GBASP? £79 each?

 

[cja]

That's probably with tax. You add tax to the price you see in stores, right?

It is. The sales tax rate depends on the country, here in the UK it's 17.5%. So that 99.99 Xbox for the consumer will only amount to £85 for the retailer which is ~$155. Still not as good as the US but European currencies have been very strong against the dollar recently.

What's GameCube & GBASP? £79 each?

GameCube yes, GBA was £99 until recently and while Nintendo don't seem to have officially cut the price it is widely available for £79 now.

oh and welcome to hours ago

 

[jarrod]

So GBASP sells for the equivalent of $180 in the UK?! No wonder the platform's lagging in the region, that's insane. :/

 

[Solid]

So GBASP sells for the equivalent of $180 in the UK?!

Without competition that's how it is

 

[MrPing1000]

the price in dollars is a bit exaggerated atm, its not as relative as before Bush fucked your economy

 

[Alcibiades]

that's only because over the last two years, the dollar value has become crap in exchange rates with the Yen/Euro/Pound, if the US was to start pushing for a strong dollar (which might hurt exports and jobs in the US, so don't count on it), the value would fluctuate, and the products wouldn't be as large in US Dollars cost...

 

[cvxfreak]

So GBASP sells for the equivalent of $180 in the UK?! No wonder the platform's lagging in the region, that's insane. :/

NOE sucks, ya know.

 

[jarrod]

Still, GBASP selling the same as XBox is insane, exchange rate fluctuations or not. I know software's unusally high there too, Nintendo needs to turn things around and slash prices imo... Europe is by far GBA's weakest region.

 

[Alcibiades]

Still, GBASP selling the same as XBox is insane, exchange rate fluctuations or not. I know software's unusally high there too, Nintendo needs to turn things around and slash prices imo... Europe is by far GBA's weakest region.

£99 is not equal £79

 

[thorns]

They really should make the games cheaper, new games are basically impossible to buy since they sell for 600kr here in sweden which translates to about $80.

I can never afford to buy games that cost more than 200kr-300kr (=$26-40) so I have to resort to buying old games. That's the reason why piracy is so rampant in Europe..

 

[Alcibiades]

my impression was that many people in Europe just imported GCN games and used freeloader since it's probably cheaper than buying them there (considering the weak dollar), I know in Australia that's it's cheaper to import...

 

[mrklaw]

£104.99? What kind of dumbass pricetag is that?

Just what I was thinking? Is this purely because Sony don't want to be seen to be copying Xbox, or want to be seen as the 'premium' offering? Why spite yourself with such a stupid pricepoint.

Or maybe they are playing hardball with retailers, expecting them to price at £99.99 but not wanting to shoulder the entire margin loss?

Any retailers announced pricing yet?

 

[mrklaw]

and really, this was an obvious next step. Most retailers in the UK have been getting more and more aggressive with PS2/Xbox bundles, effectively giving a £99 price tag for the console, but by bundling lots of software. Now they'll switch for a while to £99 solus packs and £120 bundles.

But I expect in the run up to Christmas for there to be at least one Sony-supported £99 bundle deal for PS2