Sony Ponders £150 PS3 Deposit Plan

How else will the company ensure all the launch systems don't end up on eBay?

There probably isn't anyone that believes Sony will be able to get a PlayStation 3 to everyone who wants one come launch day, but a report out this week suggests that the company is trying to make sure that only those people who really want one will get one.

If you want to pre-order a PlayStation 3 at a major retailer, you'll be asked to put down a £150 deposit, if a new strategy reported at MCV is enacted. Under the plan, pre-orders would also be processed at retailer HQs to make sure that households can only get one each.

The trade paper MCV cites two reasons for Sony's decision.

First, the company wants to make sure that it can better work with the stock it will have available. At most, Sony is expected to have 2 million PlayStation 3s ready by November for all three major regions, meaning Europe would get around 650,000 if that initial batch were shared evenly - and even that's not assured.

The other reason for the bold move is to battle the trend of new hardware going straight from retailers on to popular auction site eBay. By pushing up the deposit price, average buyers would be less inclined to sell it on.

Of course, if the launch of the Xbox 360 is anything to go by, the PlayStation 3 could go for twice its retail price in the early days after launch, meaning that even that £150 deposit wouldn't be much of a deterrence.

"There are two options," a retailer told MCV. "We can base pre-orders on low deposits and not guarantee that we'll have the stock to fulfil those orders. Or we can take high deposits and guarantee - as far as our stock allocation allows us - that we can give them what they want."

"Taking a substantial deposit means that we are selling the console to people who really want it."

The plan has not been cast in stone just yet, though. And Sony's David Wilson told GamesIndustry.biz that any reports to that effect are "idle speculation".

Wilson also reportedly confirmed that the UK would be getting both the 20 GB, HDMI-less and the full, 60 GB models of the PlayStation 3 - though not necessarily both at launch.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games