Why didn't Sony cut the price of the PS3 in the UK?

Because it hasn't been on sale long enough over here, and it's the wrong time of year, says Sony. Despite the $100 price cut (that is, 17%) on the PS3 in the US, the UK hasn't followed suit. Why?

David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, told the Guardian: "We've only been on the [UK] market for three and a bit months. We're actually not doing too badly - we're not selling as well as [Nintendo's] Wii or DS, but seasonality-wise, compared to, say, the PlayStation 2 at the same time we launched it in 2001, we're doing quite well on a regional level. We thought if we reduced the price, we'd annoy a lot of people. In the US, they've been going for more than six months, so they took the decision that going down in price was a better thing to do.

"And if you drop the price in the summer, the sales rate goes up for a couple of weeks, but because there's not much demand out there, the sales rate comes down again until you get to the end of September, the beginning of October, and it all starts to heat up."

True, summer is traditionally a fallow sales period for the games industry. But with the Value Pack that Sony announced for the UK, you can now get a 60GB PS3, with two games and a second Sixaxis controller, for £425. In the US, a bog-standard 60GB PS3 (until that is phased out in favour of the new 80GB version) costs just £250.

Reeves argues that, in real terms, we're still getting value for money over here."The added value in there is £120 to £125. We know that most people anyway are going to buy two to two-and-half games. So when you do the maths, you have $499, which is £250, plus two games and a Sixaxis controller. Which is going to come up to £380 to £390.

"But there's VAT in Europe, so you have to take 15% off, and there's GST [sales tax] in the US, and the average sales tax is 8.5%. So when we did the maths, and this is the case in Australia as well, they are exactly the same."

But retailers, before Sony announced the UK Value Pack, were already selling PS3s with a game thrown in for £399. Play.com will sell you a PS3 right now, with three games and an HDMI cable for £399.99. "The situation in the UK is unique - it is so competitive. People are going to come out at £399 with a game, to get people into the store to buy another game and another game. That's the name of the game."

All this talk about now not being the right time for a price cut does strongly hint at one arriving before Christmas. So, when? "Our plans are in place - we know exactly what we're going to do and when we're going to do it. I'm not going to answer your question, because that would get me into tremendous hot water. But we have a plan and we're going to stick to it. We are confident but not arrogant about reaching a very, very good installed base on PS3, and having the same momentum that we had with the PS2."

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