In response to a question regarding the high price of the PS3 in the United Kingdom in an interview with Sony’s UK managing director Ray Maguire, called the United States “a land of cheap people,” and the UK “a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium.”

“If you take what’s considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more. The cost of retail is vastly more in the UK than it is in the US and that’s before you even stop to consider the US doesn’t have VAT at RRP, they put a small amount on afterwards. Whereas, we get stung by 17.5 per cent. And pity the poor Irish and places like Sweden.”

Maguire then continued saying that the price of the system was best for the customers. We all know that the UK launch was a complete disaster, so Maguire simply says that every launch has its issues, similar to the Wii shortage. As for the bad media representation the PS3 has been receving from the public, he blames it on lazy journalists.

“Nowadays, with how the media works, not only does information fly around at the speed of light, so does mis-information. With blogs on the increase, people’s thought processes are transferred from one place to another and picked up by people who might be lazy when it comes to finding out whether something is true or not. The old adage of never let the truth get in the way of a good story is probably more prevalent than it has been before”.

As an American journalist, I am appaled. Did the man actually think that the only people reading the interview would be located in the UK? Journalists’ views reflect that of a community, so whatever is written is usually in the general public’s interest. As for the nationalist remark, we yanks are a wee bit cheap aren’t we lad?

Read (playfuls)