Apparently, the PS3 is going to on sale in Australia at a retail price of $999.95!
It sells for US$ 599 (= AU$ 770 or 130%) in the U.S. and ¥60,000 (= AU$ 640) in Japan. So what gives with the high price for us Aussies?
If you want to go with the cheaper option and just import a version from Japan, you’ll be able to play games, but you won’t be able to play Blu-Ray movies (but who wants to do that anyway, I mean really?) nor will you be able to use the Aussie PlayStation Store. The article doesn’t mention anything about their “live” service for online games, though (or is that what PlayStation Store is? I hope not; that would be a silly name if it was.)
Remember, however, that when the XBOX 360 launched it went on sale for AU$ 499.9 for the Core version, which was equivalent to the U.S. price of US$ 299.99 (= AU$ 385) again, it was a 130% markup. So I guess us poor Aussies just have to suck it up.
Besides, nobody wants a PS3 anyway... do they? I certainly don’t want to pay $1,000 for one!