Sony sets PS3 price at $499, $636 in Europe

Sony is planning a worldwide launch of its next-generation Playstation 3 gaming console on November 17, the company said at the E3 gaming tradeshow in Los Angeles.

The device will be priced at $499 for a basic model featuring a 20Gb hard drive. Upgrading to a 60Gb hard drive will cost $599, according to a report on vnunet.com .

European users should expect to pay about $636 for the basic model, which amounts to a 27% premium.

Sony promised to have 2 mln PS3 systems available at the launch date and aims to sell 6m by 31 March 2007

The launch date puts the gaming console in stores 51 weeks after Microsoft launched its Xbox 360. Analyst estimates pegged sales of the Xbox 360 at about 1.3 mln consoles by the end of last year.

The Microsoft device was significantly cheaper than the PS3, with the most desirable Xbox 360 premium sets costing $399.

Sony however claims that the PS3 will outperform the Xbox through the use of a Cell processor featuring six processing cores.

The units furthermore will feature 256Mb of RAM memory as well as 256Mb of video memory. They come with integrated Bluetooth, Wifi and Ethernet networking, as well as a Blu-ray high definition DVD player.

Sony is currently the largest supplier of gaming consoles, with sales of the Playstation 2 exceeding 100 mln units since its introduction in 2000.