This isn’t why Sony is doing it though, their realistic worry is that the hardcore crowd will buy machines at Christmas from Japan because they are cheaper and available and then come their European launch the sales will be greatly reduced. Whatever Doom argues the FACT ™ of the matter is that only hardcore gamers will rush out at launch and pay the high price for PS3, the average consumer will wait until the price drops and availability is higher.

With the high price of PS3 there is a realistic margin for companies like Lik-Sang to sell a high number of machines. The price of the newly cut PS3 in Japan will be around £225 and even with import duty will be quite a bit cheaper than the EU version.

The other consideration is although Sony is a global company each market will be run as a separate business and the European arm doesn’t want to under perform on sales due to grey imports. Why do you think most consoles are region locked? They don’t build this in just for something to do.

I think realistically we won’t see Sony suing 15 year old kids for buying a PS3 off the internet. But we will probably see shops like Lik-Sang, Play Asia, Computer Exchange etc threatened with legal action over this. Then again who knows perhaps they will make an example of some individuals like the record companies have with MP3s.

“Sony reasons this by saying the Japanese PS3 versions won’t meet the strict EU safety standards, and there will be no warranty.”

I don’t know about you, but I doubt that a console is very dangerous cargo.