Ken Kutaragi warned us in advance that the PS3 would be expensive, and even suggested we ask the boss for more hours in order to get one. According to reports on the 'Net, one of the main culprits for the high price is the Blu Ray drive, which is set to cost Sony a pretty penny when the console launches.The Inquirer reports that the company will have to pay $100 for each drive, which is given perspective by comparing the price of including a DVD-RW in the Xbox 360 - a DVD-RW can be picked up in a retail store for $50 now, and MS would be able to bulk-buy them at significantly less than that price:
[...] it's a very expensive step that Sony is willing to take as it will increase cost of Playstation 3 unit dramatically. Sony said Playstation 3 is going the be expensive and this is one of the reasons why.
Microsoft is playing a safe game here, it will launch with DVD+RW but in some point in the future might release a new Xbox 360 version with HD-DVD or a Blu Ray drive. We don’t expect that this will happen anytime soon, but we are sure it will happen at some point in the next few years.
Playstation 3 Blu Ray drive will cost Sony $100+ via Slashdot
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