Sony's Kutaragi: PS3 is 'too cheap'

Following Monday's pre-E3 press event, SCE head Ken Kutaragi spoke with Japan's IT Media and made a surprising statement regarding the PS3's price: "It's probably too cheap." Kutaragi also said SCE was planning on having two millions units available for the PS3 launch, with two million more to come before the end of '06. "Of course, this is a number that we announced having made sure we can definitely prepare it. There is the possibility of unexpected problems like earthquake or theft, so I won't say it's absolute, but if this type of trouble does not occur, there's no problem with this number," Kutaragi stated.

Here's the extended interview:

"This is the PS3 price. Expensive, cheap — we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines. Because the PS3 is like nothing else.

For instance, is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem.

When we announced the PlayStation price, it was said to be expensive. Same for the PlayStation 2. However, when released, both had sales that were unthinkable for previous game machines. This is because both offered experiences that could not be had on previous game machines.

With the PS3, you can have next generation game experiences that could previously not be experienced — things like next generation graphics and various services via the network. And, as with the PS and PS2, we believe people who like games will, without question, purchase it."