Import a US PS3 like I did.

It’s available now.
It’s cheaper than the Euro version.
Cheaper games.
More backwards compatible than the Euro version.
An excellent, cheap (by Blu-Ray standards) and most firmware updated Blu-Ray player.

If it dies on me, warranty may be a hassle maybe.

I have to say the online experience is awful. It’s a like a webpage circa ‘95. There only seems to be driving games available, though Gran Turismo HD is sweet.

There’s no downloading in the background yet which sucks. No download manager for incomplete download continuation, which sucks even more.

You do get the impression that with time and firmware updates this could get really good though.

I bought it to play Blu-Ray films and Gran Turismo HD. It does both of these very well.

Lee

Lee was really pissed about the PS2 compatibility drop, since he’s just sold his old one in preparation and wants to play FFXII on it.

I’m still holding off making judgement here – although this is clearly a cost-cutting exercise that really should have resulted in a price reduction (that would have been much more readily accepted and would have been good publicity instead of bad), I think in the round most people buying a 400+ quid console isn’t going to be that worried about PS2 compatibility. After all you can buy a PS2 for not much more than the price of a PS3 game.

It’s just yet another publicity gaffe by Sony (they’re great at them) which probably won’t hurt them that bad in the round. Most analysts are saying the situation won’t be at all clear until at least mid 2008 – even the PS2 didn’t really take off until the first couple of price cuts.