US videogame blog, Curmudgeon Gamer, has rendered into chart form what the rest of us have been trying to work out through memory alone: how does that controversial PS3 retail price stack up against console launches of the past.
Curmudgeon has produced two graphs: one showing 'absolute' console prices - i.e. the actual price tags placed on each console at the time - and one showing 'relative' prices based on inflation. In neither is PS3 the most expensive console. As far as the un-corrected price points go, Sony's machine comes in third behind 3DO and the Neo Geo. But when you look at the inflation-adjusted figures, PS3 sits at a more pocket-friendly seventh most expensive - this time coming in behind every listed console launched before 1982.
Suddenly, Ken Kutaragi's claim that the PS3 is 'probably too cheap' doesn't sound quite so unreasonable - history is backing him up.
Still, what has history ever taught us, eh?