Survey says: PS3 too darned expensive

Given that the Xbox 360 tops out at $399 and that Nintendo's Wii probably won't cost more than $250, it's kind of a logical leap to feel that Sony's $599 price tag for its high-end PlayStation 3 is a bit hefty.

But now, according to Ars Technica, that suspicion has been confirmed, thanks to the good folks at the Japanese-language game and entertainment magazine, Famitsu.

They conducted a survey and discovered that 88 percent of readers said the PS3 will be too expensive. Even worse for Sony, the survey reported that 69 percent are most anticipating the Wii this holiday season.

This is not good news for Sony, which is hoping that it can ride a PlayStation love-fest to dominance in the next-generation console wars--admittedly not this year, but by 2007 or 2008. That's going to be a lot harder if folks are going to be shelling out their hard-earned ducats for the lower-cost Wii instead of the pricey PS3.

Of course, the survey seemed to be for the Japanese market only, so there's no telling what these figures portend for the U.S. or Europe. But if they are even a little bit similar, Sony is facing a serious uphill battle as it asks people to pay $599 for its machine.