We were slightly taken aback by the general outcry on the web when the official announcement came through that the 60Gb PS3 would cost £425 in the UK – after all, Sony Computer Entertainment’s UK managing director Ray Maguire had said that he “expected” it to cost £425 as far back as last year’s E3 Show.

But we can see why the controversy arose – after all, the PS3 costs roughly £300 in the US and (an anomalously low) £250 in Japan. So there was only one thing for it: to seek out Mr Maguire himself and get him to explain. Oh, and while he was at it, he revealed that there will be 220,000 PS3s in the shops at launch – an awful lot more than people were expecting, and possibly the highest ever number of consoles available at launch. Anyway, this is what Ray said.
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