Sony Australia’s Michael Ephraim has hit back at criticism over the high price point for PS3 by stating the console is in a different league than its competitors and, thus, should not be compared to Nintendo’s considerably cheaper Wii console.

“We think PS3 is not a product to be compared with Wii, it is a completely different product. This is a digital hub, that is a games console."

He also pointed out that the PS3 offers consumers great value for money straight out of the box, compared to that of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which requires additional hardware to function in a similar manner to PS3.

"To maximise Xbox 360, you need Media Centre, you need a PC”, he added.

“And now if you want to play high-definition movies (and we can argue which format is going to win) you have to spend another AUD $249 [EUR 150]. Xbox is significantly dearer than PS3 for what it can do straight out of the box."

Ephraim argued that there is "no other product on the market" that offers digital and Blu-ray functionality for the same price as the PS3.

“We firmly believe that once demonstrated, the price becomes almost insignificant. A Blu-ray player currently is $1500 [EUR 900] and above. Just on the Blu-ray alone, there's value.”

Concluding, Ephriam did state, "We will do our best to bring the price down as soon as we can."