If you have been reading the newspapers lately, you probably would have noticed the full page ads for the PS3 and the numerous amounts of articles of the press release.

Its been priced at Rs.40,000, which is almost $1000 and the games are Rs.2,800 and above, which is around 70$. In my opinion, that is a complete rip-off. The PS3 is only 600$ internationally and charging an additional $400 is unjustifiable. Well, Sony does make a loss on every PS3 but charging such an exorbitant price is not the way out. Sony says that they are trying to get the government to decrease the current 35% import duty but even with that much duty, the price should only be around Rs.32,000.

Although I, along with several others protest at the price, I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of people who would have gone and gotten themselves a PS3 by now. Sony has only shipped 1,200 pieces of the PS3 right now and I can see the shortage coming soon if people are willing to shell out that much money.

Sony plans to sell 10,000 units of the PS3 by the end of 2007 which means that they will be getting around 4o crore rupees from just console sales. If each owner buys 2 games on an average, thats another 5 crores. Obviously Sony wont get all the money from the game sales but they will get some royalty.

The gaming console condition in India at the moment is somewhat confusing. The Xbox 360 was the first next-gen console in India and has a strong marketing campaign. The premium version costs Rs.28,000 and there has been good sales.

The PS3 is the second next-gen console and it might overtake the Xbox 360 in sales since Sony has a good image in India and the number of Playstation fanboys is uncountable. I think they should have no trouble in reaching their anticipated sales of 10,000 units.

The Nintendo Wii might not be debuting anytime soon since they already have production problems on their hands and are not able to meet their international demands. To buy a Nintendo in the USA right now, one would either have to buy one at double price on Ebay or just wait till the next stock arrives.

The part which makes the whole console scene confusing is the grey market. All the 3 consoles were available illegally here just weeks after their international release at more than double their international prices. There are no available statistics of their sales and hence, one cannot correctly determine the sales of the consoles. Even though 2 of the consoles are now available legally, there exists a section of people who will buy them from the grey market since they will be cheaper there now and will also be able to play pirated games which are available cheaply. One thing that they don’t understand is that their warranty is void and most importantly is that the internal parts are usually swapped by the grey market sellers for low-quality ones which will cause problems in the long run and performance will not be the same as a legally bought piece. Whatever the companies try, the grey market will always exist and people will continue to be fooled there.

The gaming experience of the 3 consoles differs by a large extent. The Xbox 360 has great graphics but less features when compared to the PS3. The gaming is similar to the original Xbox since the controllers are the same but only wireless. The Xbox does not have any special features, its only advantage was the fact that it was released before the other consoles and may soon lose its market share.

The PS3 is a powerful console and the only capable of Full HD output.It has a whole host of features including a Blu-Ray DVD Player. The motion sensing controller is great too but only useful in few games and the lack of vibration is disappointing. The life-like graphics make up for that and there have been rumours about a vibration controller coming out later. Its the most expensive of the 3 but it is also the most powerful and feature-rich of the 3.

The Nintendo Wii is a very simple and basic console offering graphics just a notch above the original Xbox. The console is tiny in size but the star attraction which has made this console outsell the others is it’s innovative motion sensing controllers which require the player to move a lot. It has captured a wide range of users, including me, and being the cheapest of the 3, it has a great potential of released in India.

One of the good things about the release of the PS3 is that the prices of the PS2 and PSP have been dropped to Rs.8,000 and Rs.10,000 respectively. So, portable gaming is a lot cheaper now and people who cant afford a PS3 can opt for a PS2 which is a very good console, infact it was the best selling console of 2006 Christmas.

Update : The official release date for the Wii in India has been rumoured to be somewhere in 2008. That’s a long wait.

Update II :  According to Anand, the import duty for gaming consoles is 54%.

I have highlighted the various features of the current gaming console scene in India and it is upto you to make the decision on the console to buy.

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