14 DAY TRIAL // As I've reported earlier, the Japanese PS3 launch just took place and the black next-gen consoles were sold in a matter of hours. This comes as no surprise given the fact that everyone yearns and craves for a PS3.
As they do every time, some swindlers tried to take advantage of poor innocent gamers and put up for sale some PS3s for twice their original price. Kotaku reports that some overpriced PS3s started to appear around Tokyo and Osaka. The original price for the 60Gb console was somewhere in between 58,900 yen and 70,000 yen while the price for the 20GB version was around 50,000 yen.
According to one of their Japanese readers, who also sends some pictures to support his statements, the 60Gb version goes now for about 110,000 yen, converted into a currency that makes sense to you that would be US$ 938, and the 20Gb version for twice its retail price. I'm not surprised, are you? In fact, the only thing that surprises me is that the price isn't higher, much higher.
In the picture sent by Kotaku's reader, the sign posted in the shops' windows shows that the 60GB PS3 is sold for 144,900 yen, meaning US$ 1,237. I guess the price will go higher as the stock runs out.