PS3 concerns in Pakistan

Note : This post was originally published by me on www.munis.wordpress.com on 3rd December 2006

PS3 has just recently released in North America and Japan , soon this beefy console will be upon us, in this post i will give some thoughts of mine on the PS3 in Pakistan ,which are following :

1- First point is the price of PlayStation 3 in Pakistan , my best guess is about 47.5K to 65K(see update) depending on the SDK that you would buy(20GB/60GB wi-fied premium),according to reliable sources the price of a unknown SDK PS3 is 78,000 Pakistani rupees in UAE.

2- The PS3 would i think come here at the local market in Pakistan ,about in 3-5 months , its relatively late because of the Europe Launch and shortage of Laser diodes,I’m saying this late because of Xbox 360 which came here after 2 months of international launch here in local stores.

3- It will be useless to buy PS3 early because of many factors which are:
* The PS3 price-tag,65K is no small amount
* No mod-chip has been developed for PS3 ,it will be essential to play pirated games on PS3,Even if there is high probability of firmware hack in PS3 much like PSP ,the hack wont last long if you are connected to internet on the PS3.
* The game media would be priced too high ,if you buy original games it would set you back atleast 3000 rupees straight,and about piracy it would take much time because of the new-fangeld Blu-ray disks ,the BD burners are expensive and so are the disks themselves,the pirates would have to wait for cheap Chinese blu-ray burners here in Industrial area, which is the hub of pirated software.
*Lack of quality launch games,too be frank only good games are Resistance and Call of duty 3.

4- My advice would be to wait and then buy ,if you are low on budget then i would suggest you buy the PS3 atleast one year/nine months after the PS3 goes on sale in Pakistan ,while seeing conditions such as the console price and most importantly mod-chips/firmware hacks and availability of pirated games.I’m planning to do the same.

5- The last option for a lusting gamer would be a Xbox 360 ,it has indeed some advantages on PS3 “NOW” which are:
*Low price compared to PS3,its available for 25K for Core version and 30K for premium version,A guy was offering me buy an mint condition Xbox 360 premium with 2 wireless controllers and 5 original games for 19,500 rupees! just think of that.
*Pirated games available for 700 each and original for 2500 rupees in Rainbow centre,Saddar.

UPDATE : The price of PS3 (60GB) in Karachi is 37,000 (you can buy at Electronics market Saddar) and expected to go down upto 32,000 by summer 2007 , Blu-ray game CDs are said to cost 800 rupees.
NOTE: My views are not biased in any sense, because of i had both original Xbox and PS2 consoles, and i liked them both of them because of certain properties in each of them.Why i am preferring PS3 over Xbox 360 in the long run ,i’ll explain them in a future post.