UK retailers slash the PS3's price!

by Nick Doerr { Apr 4th 2007 at 11:30AM }

For those of you who went out and snagged a PS3 on launch day, you might want to cover your ears, click around randomly until this post magically disappears into some other realm, never to be heard from again until one day the Judges of Destiny decree that a hero needs to appear and this post is, inexplicably, "The One" to save the world wide web.

Why? WH Smith (not Will Smith as I mistakenly read it initially as) has become the first High Street retailer to slash the price of the PS3 by a whole £25! That's right, you can grab a new PlayStation 3 for the low, low price of £400 (well, 399.99 but that's just poppycock). This offer is only good until April 10th, after that tricky Easter holiday weekend. So, guys, let's beef up those sales numbers so we don't see another significant drop!

[Thanks, Colin McP!]

Tags: PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony, WH Smith, WhSmith

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

madgunde @ Apr 4th 2007 11:49AM

Great, here comes all the 360 fanboy comments about how the PS3 is doing so bad that retailers have to discount it. They'll completely overlook the possibility that WH Smith might just want to use the PS3 as a loss leader to drive traffic to their stores. Naw, that couldn't possibly be it...

ymmv @ Apr 4th 2007 11:59AM

This is really nothing special. Dutch retailers had all kinds of discount promotions for the PS3 launch like 50% off the price of your first PS3 game or a free Blu-Ray movie. Since just about all chains were offering a 30-35 euro discount on either a game or a movie it must have been Sony sponsoring those discounts. WH Smith is essentially doing the same except you don't get a cheap game or free movie but an actual discount on the PS3 itself.

andres @ Apr 4th 2007 1:46PM

So....slashing prices huh sure its just a single retailer chain. Sure it could be a loss leader. However still it is funny

Adam @ Apr 4th 2007 2:29PM

The thing about this is, WHSmiths is not really an electronics shop. my nearest one, which is one of their biggest stores, hardly has any games at all,and many don't have them at all. So many people will just decide to go to their nearest GAME, which will have a much broader selection of games, and they can take back their old games. Amazon is also offering discounts if you buy multiple games.

Xbox fanboys will probably ask why it is necessary to cut the price of the PS3 but not the 360. Its probably because they did not sell as many as they hoped at launch, and so want to get rid of their extra ones, which cost a lot more then the 360 to bring in.

Colin @ Apr 4th 2007 2:35PM

@Adam et al

I sent an update to Nick but incase it doesn't get posted....

Play.com has bettered WH Smith’s offer of a £399.99 PS3 by selling the console with extra items for the same price.

The online stockist includes an HDMI cable and a Blu-Ray film – Adam Sandler vehicle Click – in the package, which is sold for a full £25 less than Sony’s suggested retail price.

madgunde @ Apr 4th 2007 3:49PM

@Colin

This is what's supposed to happen in a market economy. The fact that Sony has produced enough units to properly satisfy demand means that retailers have to compete with each other. When everyone is guaranteed to sell every last unit they can get their hands on, retailers don't have to do squat, and can even gauge customers (forced bundles ring a bell?).

I wish the North American launch had gone like this, instead of 80% of the units being purchased to sell on eBay. The customer is the winner here.