BestBuy.com is now taking preorders for 9 PS3 games including: Devil May Cry IV, Final Fantasy VII, Indiana Jones, Killzone 2, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Resident Evil 5, Tekken 6, and WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw 2007.  The games all contain a price tag of $60, in line with the Xbox 360 game pricing.  Please keep in mind that retail stores have not always been the most reliable sources of information regarding consoles and games, though now it is possible to make the preorders.  Also, it is worth mentioning that Best Buy will not charge your credit card until the item ships.  Therefore placing the preorder now will not cause your credit card to be charged until sometime in Novemeber.

EB Games and GameStop stores have officially stopped taking preorders for PS3, but it was not that their corporate offices made this decision, but rather Sony.  Sony informed the stores via a conference call that one million consoles would be available on launch day for North America, one million for Europe, and one million for Japan.  However, at the end of September, the Tokyo Game Show is scheduled to occur.  Could Sony possibly announce at TGS that they are ahead of schedule and have additional consoles? Yes.  Could they also announce that they are behind schedule and don’t have the 3 million consoles? Yes.  The point is that by waiting until after September, EB Games and GameStop will known an exact number of consoles that they will receive, thus allowing them to not oversell, and avoid an Xbox 360 launch fiasco.

Sony UK President Ray Maguire announced today in an interview that PS3 will cost GBP 425 for the premium model of PS3.  At this point in time it is unclear whether Sony will even sell the basic PS3 model within the UK.  This price announcement comes as a pretty big shock, especially when PS3 will be sold within the European Union for only 599 Euros.  Converting 599 Euros at the current market value to GBP, and the price is GBP 405, meaning a GBP 20 markup for all gamers within the UK.  Video game consoles have historically been sold at higher retail values within the UK, compared to North America, however they have typically always been priced the same as the prices within Europe.  It will be interesting the explanation Sony will give for this pricing strategy.