Hirai "comfortable" with US PS3 price points

With just over a week to go before the PlayStation 3 launches in North America, SCEA boss Kaz Hirai has confirmed that there will be no change to the price point of the system - despite the cut announced to the Japanese price in September.

"We are very comfortable with the pricing we have announced," Hirai told news agency Reuters this week, going on to claim that Sony has had "tremendous support" from retailers regarding the price point.

That means that when the PS3 appears in North America on November 17th - six days after the Japanese launch this weekend - it will be priced at $499 for the 20GB model, and $599 for the 60GB model.

There has been an undercurrent of speculation over the pricing of the 20GB model ever since PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi announced a significant price cut to the Japanese 20GB model at the Tokyo Game Show in September. In Japan, that version will now retail for 49,980 Yen - around $425.

However, the other change to the 20GB model which was announced by Kutaragi at TGS will benefit US consumers, as the HDMI video connector - which had originally been for the 60GB PS3 only - will be included on the 20GB version of the console in all territories.

The US is also getting a better deal than Japan in terms of availability of the system, with 400,000 units of the PS3 due to ship to US retailers for November 17th, while Japan will see only 80,000 units in stores this Saturday.