Kutaragi Says PS3 Will Be Expensive - Again

Saying it once makes us nervous, but saying it again makes us downright apprehensive.

Could gamers be in for sticker shock when the PlayStation 3 price is finally announced? All signs point to yes.

Speaking at Sony's PlayStation Meeting 2005 in Tokyo last week, company president Ken Kutaragi warned prospective owners to start holding onto those pennies, according to a GameSpot article.

"I'm not going to reveal its price today," Kutaragi said at the meeting on Friday. "I'm going to only say that it'll be expensive."

This is the second time in as many months that Kutaragi has warned that PlayStation 3 might be out of many people's reach. In June, Kutaragi said that while the console would be expensive, but that he hoped the impressive technology would spur people on to work a little harder to afford it.

The release date for PlayStation 3 has also been a subject of speculation recently, but Sony confirmed that its next-gen machine would be out next spring - at least in Japan. Sony will host the PlayStation Conference in February with the PlayStation 3 launching soon afterwards.

The company has been less talkative about when the rest of the world would be able to get their hands on the console, but David Reeves, Sony's European boss, hinted at a meeting in London in June that the Western release might not be far off the console's debut in Japan.

The next stop for PlayStation 3 is the Tokyo Game Show, which runs from 16-18 September. Kutaragi said last week that the Sony is hoping to have the console available for the public to try:

"We hope to use the Tokyo Game Show as a chance for everyone to get to know, or possibly experience, what next-generation entertainment is all about."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games