SR19,863 to Play Ridge Racer

ALKHOBAR, 8 May 2007 — It all began with my husband and I having a simple goal — let’s play Ridge Racer on the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Five months later and SR19,863 lighter, the cars were finally drifting across the screen in our living room. It might seem unusual that two adults take great delight in whipping virtual vehicles around a track. Some people smoke hubbly bubbly to relax, others watch mind-numbing sitcoms at the end of the day. For us, once all our duties are done, it’s time to charge up on nitrous. As far as console games go, Ridge Racer 7 is harmless, rated “E” for everyone — no violence, no sex, no nasty stuff — just manic racing — and a ton of fun.

The decision by Sony to delay the release of the PS3 was a nasty move. Sony’s threatening notices about the dire consequences of purchasing a PS3 console on the gray market, almost pushed us to go out and get one in January. It’s really hateful when companies treat loyal customers like unruly children who must be kept in line. Some of our friends, after making an obscene gesture in response to the company’s warnings, did go out and pay SR4,600 for a PS3.

We waited and to this moment I haven’t decided if it was the right thing to do. Our console is a PAL machine which means it’s coded for Blu-ray Region B/2. While games are region free, Blu-ray movies are divided into regions. Consoles sourced from the US are coded Blu-ray Region A/1. Many movies are released earliest in the US market so there is a concern that in this region we’ll get the movies late or even not at all, and then we won’t be able to purchase them from the US because they won’t work on our console.

At this time in the Kingdom a PAL PS3 is available for SR2,499 with a one-year warranty. Tokyo Games is offering an NTSC PS3 for SR3,150 including a one-year warranty. Sony made a big deal out of the fact that users who bought gray market would be barred from registering their consoles, or using the PlayStation Network or getting a warranty. Users have registered their NTSC consoles and are getting third-party warranties on gray market product so that seems to have been a lot of huff and puff.

The Saudi launch of the PS3 did not go off ideally. The consoles came into the Kingdom without Quick Reference Guides in Arabic or English. The guides that came with the consoles were actually written in Norwegian. Users either had to download a guide from the website (http://eu.playstation.com/ps3), which happened to be overwhelmed due to the launch, or consumers had to go back to the place of purchase after a few days to pick one up. Sony World and its official resellers had a very small selection of game titles — just eight at launch — not the 20 promised. Now, Tokyo Games has the widest selection of titles and they claim to be bringing 80 percent of them from the US. Available games are priced from SR229 to SR299.

According to Hussain Al-Zakki, senior salesman, Sony World Alrashid Mall, the biggest problem is that popular gaming franchises such as Tekken and Resident Evil have not appeared, and there is as yet no hope for a football game. “In this market everyone wants to play football on their PlayStation. They are very disappointed when I tell them that there’s nothing available for the PS3. The console is nothing without the games.”

Sony World Alrashid Mall has sold 90 PS3s since the launch in March — mostly to young men. That highlights another problem with the console. Few of the games available have any appeal for female gamers and the majority of the games are rated for teenagers or adults. All the games coming in from the US market have the “T” or “M” rating. With the lack of “E” rated content available for the PS3 it is probably not a wise purchase for families.

As a launch promotion Sony advertised that purchasers of the PS3 in the Kingdom who registered on the PlayStation Network would receive a Blu-ray disc movie of Casino Royale free of charge. At this time, neither myself nor anyone else I’ve been able to find who bought the PS3 has received the free flick through the post as promised. Additionally, many PS3 users in the Kingdom have struggled with the PS3’s system software update process. Updating to PS3 version 1.6 required a 104MB download. The pitiful state of the Kingdom’s network could not have been highlighted in a better way than the fact that a simple system update of a gaming console required heroics.

Sony considered the 104MB update to be an acceptable move. If you are on a decent broadband connection it takes only minutes to receive such a download. If you are using the Kingdom’s Internet, then tricks are a must. First, if you are a dial-up user do not attempt to download the update. Go to the PS3 website and order an update CD. If you have a Saudi broadband connection then download the update using a download accelerator such as Download Accelerator Plus (DAP). Get it free from www.speedbit.com. Using the accelerator, download the update to a PC and then transfer the update to the PS3 with a memory stick which can be plugged into the console.

So how did my husband and I get from a SR2,499 gaming console to SR19,863 to play Ridge Racer? Most of the cost came from the full HD TV — SR14,999 to be exact. If you’re not going to buy the HD TV, then don’t’ buy the PS3. Plus there was the table stand for the TV and the HDMI cable to connect the PS3 to the TV. Next, add on an extra controller, a Blu-ray remote control and of course the game itself — and then hand over a bunch of cash to Sony. Delivery of the whole set up was free.

Do I have any regrets for the purchase? None — unless I can’t find the Region B movies I want. Have I used the much hyped PlayStation Network? I haven’t. Our home broadband connection lacks the power even to make exploring the PS3 website interesting. But then we didn’t buy the console for any of that. We bought it to hear the screech of tires around the turns and experience the thrill of the chase. With the Ridge Racer’s enhanced graphics, my heart is racing as I hit the nitrous and my car’s tires leave the tarmac. I can almost feel the wind in my hair and I hold my breath till my vehicle thunks down to earth. As a woman in Saudi Arabia this is as close to driving on the open road as I’m likely to ever get.