Sony: PS3 will be £340 or £410

Sony Computer Entertainment announced PlayStation 3 pricing and specific availability information and showed off the final version of the console's controller at a glitzy press conference held at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on Monday.

The PS3 will come in two configurations: one version with a 60GB hard drive that will cost $599 in the US or €599 (£410) in Europe, and a second with a 20GB hard drive that will come in at $499 or €499 (£340), SCE President Kaz Hirai said.

Those prices are significantly higher than Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has two versions, one with a built-in hard drive that costs £280 and another with no hard drive that retails for £210.

In an interview with CNET.co.uk's sister site News.com on Friday, SCE executive vice president and co-chief operating officer Jack Tretton said, effectively, that the company thinks consumers will pay whatever the next-generation console costs.

"People are going to perceive enough value" with the PS3, Tretton said, "that they're not going to consider the price to be a barrier to entry."

The PS3 is certainly a big technological leap over its best-selling PlayStation 2, which Sony said on Monday had recently topped 103 million units sold.

The PS3, which is based on the Cell processor, will play CDs, DVDs and include a Blu-ray drive. It also includes built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as Ethernet compatibility. Furthermore, it includes Dolby digital surround sound functionality and supports high-definition video up to 1080p.

The console also can run up to seven wireless controllers at once, and all PS3s will come with a built-in hard drive, either 60GB or 20GB.

Finally, it supports USB, Sony memory sticks, secure digital (SD) and CompactFlash.

In addition to announcing pricing, Sony also said the PS3 would hit store shelves in North America and Europe on 17 November, six days after its Japanese launch on 11 November.

And Hirai said Sony is committed to shipping 4 million PS3s by 31 December and another 2 million by 31 March 2007. That means -- if customers are not put off by the console's high price -- Sony could be in position to avoid the criticism Microsoft took for not being able to meet initial customer demand for the Xbox 360.

Meanwhile, Sony also unveiled for the first time the PS3's controller.

Visually, the controller looks much like that of the PS2, though it is silver rather than black.

Where it differs substantially is in the fact that it includes technology that ties character movement on screen to that of players' hands. That is, as players move their hands around, the controller automatically senses the movement and translates it to character movement on screen.

That is a significant innovation that the Xbox 360 does not have, and it is believed that Nintendo's own forthcoming next-generation console, the Wii, will have similar functionality.

That may be confirmed today, when Nintendo hosts its own gala press conference in Hollywood. Microsoft's E3 conference follows immediately afterward, also in Hollywood.

It is expected that, among other things, Microsoft will formally announce development of Halo 3, the follow-up to its best-selling Halo 2. It is also thought that Microsoft will show off HD DVD drives for the Xbox 360.

On Wednesday, E3 begins in earnest, and tens of thousands of videogame industry professionals will converge on Los Angeles for the annual marketing blowout.

In any case, the PS3, at a minimum of $499, is likely to hit Sony pretty hard on the bottom line. That's because, as News.com reported in February, it appears that the PS3's component cost will be at least $800.

Sony looks at PlayStation family consoles -- the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable -- as having ten-year lifetimes, and therefore, the company hopes that over time, component costs will drop enough to make a profit.

But in the short term, the consoles are likely to cost consumers significantly less than Sony is paying to make them, and that could squeeze the company as it pursues other initiatives.

Still, as the company made sure to point out during the press conference on Monday, it is still selling millions of PS2s and PSPs, and doesn't expect those sales numbers to drop anytime soon.

Indeed, Hirai said Sony expects to sell an additional 10 million PS2s. And it hopes to sell another 12 million PSPs by the end of the company's fiscal 2006, 31 March 2007, which would bring total PSP sales to 29 million.

In any case, for Sony to finally unveil pricing for the PS3 was an important move, as it will quiet speculation that has run rampant for months. And it will also give consumers six months to get used to the high cost of the PS3, something the company clearly hopes will lead to high sales figures.

Meanwhile, Sony also showed off a plethora of games that will be available either at launch or shortly thereafter.

Among the publishers it showcased was Electronic Arts, whose CEO Larry Probst, appeared on stage and said that his company was working on ten titles for PS3 including new versions of Madden NFL, NBA and Tiger Woods PGA.