Report: Sony France Boss Comments On PS3 Price

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]”. In the same interview, Fornay also confirmed that the PlayStation 3 would be launched in France, and presumably the rest of Europe, in November this year. He also repeated previous assertions that the delay of the console’s release (which in Europe actually saw its release date being brought forwards, thanks to the new policy of a simultaneous worldwide release) was due to last minute changes to the Blu-Ray format’s copy protection. Although Sony Computer Entertainment head Ken Kutaragi has made previous vague comments about the PlayStation 3 being “expensive”, this is the most specific price speculation yet made by a senior Sony executive. However, thus far, no indication of a North American price has been made, or indeed, any official confirmation that this statement is correct.