Sony Playstation 3, now in India

29th April 2007

Posted in Gadgets, Games, News, Review |

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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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Games, News, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On May 3rd, 2007, Aditya Balaji said:

can u tell me i am intending to buy a PS3 from Finland so can u tell me will it be a problem to run in india and will it be able to play pirated games as u know that an original game cost about Rs 3000 & we can get about 100 games with the same price in the grey market i am not willing to buy my console in the grey market as u rightly told that they switch the parts & also even if i buy from gey market it will cost me about Rs 30000 to Rs 40000.so i am willing to buy from outside could u mind to tell me how much it will cost me from finland.please tell me soon so that i can think from where to buy the console .

thanks

posted on May 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 pm

2 On May 4th, 2007, kishor said:

Hi Aditya,

Well, I would recommend buying a PS3 from India itself rather than Finland since you would have several advantages by buying it locally.

Also by buying it from Finland, you would be required to pay import duty since only gadgets worth upto Rs.25,000 are exempt from tax.

You will also get a warranty by buying it locally.

posted on May 4th, 2007 at 6:56 pm

3 On May 8th, 2007, Karl said:

600 usd is

posted on May 8th, 2007 at 3:12 am

4 On May 8th, 2007, kishor said:

600 USD is equal to around Rs.25,000

posted on May 8th, 2007 at 5:54 am

5 On May 15th, 2007, Anand said:

Import duty is not 35% but 54% for gaming consoles.
(Source: Xbox India Marketing Head in an interview to NDTV)

posted on May 15th, 2007 at 8:20 am

6 On May 15th, 2007, kishor said:

Thanks for the information Anand, I will add it to my post.

posted on May 15th, 2007 at 10:47 am

7 On May 20th, 2007, Sai Sharad said:

Nice report….thanks for talking about the PS3. It seems that Logitech is releasing motion-sensitive PS3 controllers.

posted on May 20th, 2007 at 9:17 pm

8 On May 21st, 2007, kishor said:

I think you mean that Logitech is releasing motion-sensing AND vibration enabled controllers.

posted on May 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pm

9 On May 21st, 2007, sankar said:

hi , my problem is my tv has only one output(av)which i have been using to connect cable(tata sky)and now i bought ps3 recently so i have problem connecting them both (every time iv to change the connection from cable to ps3 and vice versa) and im afraid if it can cause any damage to the tv or ps3. can u tell me a way with which i can connect them both(ps3 and cable).

posted on May 21st, 2007 at 9:34 pm

10 On May 22nd, 2007, kishor said:

Hi Sankar,

I would be able to help you better if you told me which model of TV you have.

Anyways, generally, most TVs have an input in the front too and you should be able to plug in your PS3 in the front.

posted on May 22nd, 2007 at 7:08 am

11 On May 23rd, 2007, varad kale said:

hi there could u pls tell me the official price of ps3 in india and would it decrease within a minth

posted on May 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm

12 On May 23rd, 2007, kishor said:

The official price right now is Rs.40,000 as mentioned in the article.

I dont think that Sony will decrease the price in a month, it will take atleast a year before they decrease the price.

posted on May 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 pm

13 On May 24th, 2007, sankar said:

hi, kishor im using a onida 25 inches multiview tv. so can you plese help me how to connect both ps3 and cable at the same time.

posted on May 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

14 On May 24th, 2007, kishor said:

Well, Sankar, I’m not too familiar with Onida TVs but I am assuming that there SHOULD be two inputs in your TV.

You can connect your TATA Sky to one of them and your PS3 to another input in the front of the TV.

An input in your TV is a socket which has ‘yellow’, ‘red’ and ‘white’ colors, please check for these at the back and front of your TV.

posted on May 24th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

15 On June 6th, 2007, karan said:

can i buy ps3 from abroad and get it chipped in india,as i am not willing to pay Rs 2800 for each game.Since it will cost me only 25,000 abroad and can u also tell me where exactly chip can be found in india (delhi).

posted on June 6th, 2007 at 11:38 am

16 On September 30th, 2007, Bunty said:

80gb ps3 is so better than ever but i think it cost 80000 here in india.It have a free game called moterstom.

posted on September 30th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

17 On October 27th, 2007, scott said:

Hey, the PS3 today costs 28K + Taxes as of today for the 80 GB

posted on October 27th, 2007 at 1:01 am

18 On November 12th, 2007, Raj said:

hi..
I am planning to buy PS3 from Dubai.. Its cheaper here.. But the thing is i want it for india so the games are too costly so often cant be afford to buy.. can any1 help me weather grey market has a game for PS3 which are much cheaper than original game

posted on November 12th, 2007 at 1:53 am

19 On November 30th, 2007, Bunty said:

Now sonyindia selling 40gb ps3 in india cost of 24990 k .And plez sony

posted on November 30th, 2007 at 11:51 am

20 On May 10th, 2008, sunny said:

hy///can i buy ps3 40gb from canada as it would cost me around RS 16000 ..i live in india so what kind of problems i could end up with if there is any. basically i think there would be voltage difference issue and secondly what about import duty…….
waiting for ur reply

posted on May 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

21 On May 10th, 2008, Kishor said:

The voltage difference issue can be solved with a converter, as for import duty, if you are travelling into India with the PS3, you will be asked to pay some import duty at the airport, I’m not sure how much it will be though.

posted on May 10th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

22 On August 11th, 2008, Karthik said:

Hi Kishor,

I would like to seek your advice on this matter:

I bought a brand new PS3 from Singapore during May 08..I checked it over there and was working perfectly..I bought it to India..and here also it worked fine..I just used it for less than an hour..the unit suddenly turned off..it is not powering on at all..but it shows the red LED during the standby mode..and if I try to power it on..the LED turns green for a split second and goes into a blinking LED mode..I have tried contacting Sony India and Singapore..and Japan as well..they only advice me to send the entire unit to Japan to get it repaired..if you know a solution for this problem..kindly suggest..

posted on August 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

23 On August 11th, 2008, Kishor said:

Hi Karthik,

Sorry to hear about your problem, I’ve read some online forums and it seems that you can do a reset by holding down the power button on the front. And if this does not work, then you can apparently do a hard reset by hitting a switch at the back of the PS3.

I hope this helps you out.

posted on August 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

24 On October 4th, 2008, Balaji said: