The news yesterday that the PS4 would cost US$399 was met with applause… followed by consternation that the Australian list price was $549. That always left importing with a direct shipper open as an option, but you may not have to go down that route, as it appears that Amazon might ship you one for the US price.
I’ve got to say “might” here, because while it appears that the PS4 doesn’t fall foul of Amazon’s own rules regarding regional availability — where there are some products they specifically list as shipping only within the US — it’s still only at the stage where they’ve listed it as a product they’ll sell at some point.
They don’t even have a price up as yet.
No doubt a firm as large as Amazon might be able to wangle some kind of special pricing, so it may even be lower than $399. It’s a promising sign, especially as the PS4 will be region free, but bear in mind that Amazon has a bit of a history of cancelling orders prior to shipping. Still, US$399 plus shipping will easily beat $549 unless the Aussie dollar collapses spectacularly in the meantime.
Thanks to Lachlan for the tip!
Comments
47 responses to “Amazon Might Be The Cheapest Place For Aussies To Buy PS4”
Yeah, I wanna get a US one when I finally take the plunge because of stuff like Persona 4 Arena.
I can just see a game I really want getting locked and us not seeing it for over a year later :-/
region free games dude.
P4A was the first region-locked game on the PS3. It’s possible.
my bad.
That game wasn’t region free, it was only one game, but chances are there might be the possibility of others not being region free on PS4
He means Persona 4 Arena was the only game that was region locked on PS3, who is to say one specific game wont be this time. At least with things like Catherine that were released 8 months later we could just import it, but if there is some game that is region locked again having a console from the states would be handy. Although, given the backlash to the P4A incident, I don’t see any games being region locked on Playstation anymore.
Sounds good to me.
Didn’t they do this for the Vita and then changed and blocked all international orders?
Looks like they sold out of Launch Editions. Mine’s showing up as ‘Launch Edition’ in my order history, so I’m suspecting this is a worldwide thing and Amazon is worried they’ll run out of stock.
BUYERS BE CAUTIOUS!! If you buy from Amazon, you are not entitled to any of the consumer protections under the australian consumer laws. So watch out!!
Ledlighting.com.au is Manufacturer and supplier of led lights panel, round panel led lights, tube light, led tube lights, electrical tube light, commercial tube light.
http://www.ledlighting.com.au/led-panel-light
I got a Vita from Amazon Germany…
I have to ask though, a US PS4 wouldn’t play region 2 or 3 blu-ray movies though, would it? Only region 1.. So that’s something you have to consider IF you don’t currently have a blu-ray player and want one but not a stand alone player.
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case since its like that with the PS3, me personally I’ll still be whipping the PS3 out to play Blu Rays and the games since theres no backwards compatibility.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Though now that blu-ray is now the next standard, Sony might remove the movie locking, hopefully they do.
That’s what I love about Blu-Ray, we’re the same region as the UK, unlike with DVDs.
Removing all region locking would be awesome, but I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon.
Yeah I love that, I was happy to know that when I found that out recently with Blu-Rays. Yeah I wish we were the same DVD region, it would make things a lot easier.
What region of blu rays it plays will be the deciding factor on whether to import it not for me.
Yeah i’m thinking this myself. I’m hoping Sony has done away with region locking for it, but we can only hope for the time being.
..and the way its going, our dollar is falling
I hope it holds out though
This. Wont impact it too much I think but you have to consider how closely our economy is tied into China, since we mainly dig up ore and sell to them.
This was what I was trying to explain to people yesterday. Parity is over – the US economy seems to be picking up, and the general agreement is we’ll bottom out at about 80c. This is very likely to happen by years end. If we’re wrong, we can still import.
Not sure about Aussie prices but NZ pricing (once you factor in exchange rate and tax) only comes out to be about $60 more. I think that is worth it for the getting to pick it up yourself factor as well as the insurance that it wont get destroyed in the post. So that is pretty decent if you ask me (and way less than the ps3 cost comparatively)
region free is rad but what about the power. will they be multi voltage? after you buy a transformer for your ps4, it’s gonna gost even more.
It’s very likely to come with an auto-switching power supply and the only difference is the end of the power plug. They are marked as 110V/220V when they do come with one.
Also, don’t forget
1) Shipping cost – I shipped a smallish box containing a CD, a DVD, a jar of Vegemite, a packet of Tim Tams and a block of chocolate to a relative in the US and it cost me 40 bucks, so I hate to think how much it would cost to ship a console.
2) You would need to get an adapter to fit our 240V sockets – I think they’re around $20 or $30.
3) No warranty – warranties are region specifc, If the thing blows up on you you’re screwed.
So you’d be looking at at least $80-$90 (depending how much it costs for shipping) extra on top of the $399USD price, take in to consideration the exchange rate and it’s a very minor saving indeed for so much extra hassle and risk.
I’ll buy mine locally thank you.
Also, please check before bashing
1) 12 dollar standard shipping and 24 for express shipping. Amazon have a standard shipping rate for almost everything.
2) PS3 came with universal adaptor, most likely they will do the same. Just need to get IEC lead which cost $2
3) Amazon does the warranty if it is faulty within a certain period of time. They cover the shipping costs as well. Unless you are saying it died 1 year or 2 years later then nothing anyone can do.
So you’d be looking at at least save $100 taking consideration of the exchange rate.
I’m buying mine internationally thank you.
Good for you.
Shipping FROM the US to Australia is often quite reasonable. The reason it’s rapey going back is because AusPost has us by the balls. Hope they all burn.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of a socket adaptor, you would need a step down transformer/adaptor from 240v to 110v, depending on the internals of the ps4 if it can handle 240v that’s fantastic, but if it’s 110v and you use your socket adaptor it will fry it. Having said that wouldn’t be surprised if you could buy one with the transformer/adaptor
If anyone is interestedhttp://www.tortech.com.au/product/100-watt-economy-stepdown/?PHPSESSID=37c2d9693f8637005d97d49943f3bf7b
Exactly my point.
Even if Letrico is right
$399 PS4
$12 Shipping
Subtotal $411 – convert to AUD $433.668
$2 IEC Lead
$39.90 Step Down Transformer
$5-$10 Shipping For Transformer
Total $480.568-$485.568AUD
You would save about 75 bucks, it’s just not worth it in my opinion, that’s IF the AUD doesn’t drop further. Besides, places like Big W will have special bundles including a game at launch for probably below the RRP of just the console anyway, they normally do.
Edit: I just realized that baron is wrong, you would need a step-up transformer, not a step-down, which is a few dollars more at $42.90.
http://www.tortech.com.au/product/100watt-step-up-transformer-su110-100a/
Edit: Deleted my rubbish comment – looking at the fact sheets, the universal PSU on the PS3 seems to be able to handle both, so it may not be an issue after all…
New cable is the only thing required.
This! You would be hard pressed finding an appliance these days, apart from home theatre amps, that aren’t auto switching voltage. I’ll bet my left testicle it will be 110-240v switchable.
Even with Shipito it’ll probably end up cheaper, but I’d rather pay the extra and have local warranty.
Shipping is $20, not $40, and that’s fast shipping.
Happy to buy it in aus, much more convenient if something goes wrong, I can just take it to store and get replacement that day.
Also keen to see what deals are running so I’ll wait til much closer before I comit to buying from a certain place
The only thing that stops me from buying expensive things like consoles from overseas is damage during shipping. The majority of games or DVD’s I have bought from Amazon arrive with broken cases and the disc loose. Do I just have really bad luck?
Seems like bad luck. I order everything I can from overseas just to make sure Aussie ripoff artists don’t get my money, never had an issue.
Fair enough, I might take the plunge.
…now that said, I don’t order anything that doesn’t have a local warranty. Apple hardware has a worldwide warranty so I don’t mind doing that, but I don’t know how Sony treats it.
Ah, thank you for that! I better check.
Will direct importers like Kogan stock these? Could be a massive cash cow for Kogan if he sells it for $450 or something.
Is it still region locked for blu ray movies though? Because I have a pile of local blu rays I’d still want to watch and the PS4 would be replacing my PS3 (which would get moved to a different TV) as my blu ray player.
Only region free blurays would play. Region Locked (region B in our case) would not.
The fact that it wouldn’t be able to play region B (Australia & UK) blu-rays would be enough of a deciding factor for me to avoid the US. Otherwise you’d run the risk of hiring a new release from Video Esy / Blockbuster and not being able to play it (for those that still hire blurays, like myself).
In theory a PS4 from the UK would be compatible, but the UK price point really isn’t much cheaper than the Australian price point, and that’s even before you add in shipping.
To be honest, I’m happy with $550 AU. It’s cheaper than I was expecting.
No price…? I pre-ordered yesterday from Amazon for “$399 (or less)” (thats what it says in my order receipt email).
I was hammering amazon all morning yesterday waiting for the preorder to drop. Hopefully the unit will be multi voltage like the PS3.
Amazon is always my go to place for console imports due to that fixed shipping cost. Having to go through another vendor for a US model Wii U meant I had to pay the actual shipping cost so my Wii U ended up being more expensive than what the PS4 will end up costing me.
i just placed a order for one on amazon, 399 for the console and 25 for global 2-5 day express shipping, pretty good deal if they go with it
You can order it from Amazon . Price is $399.99 plus $15 for shipping . Then you can either use a spare plug from monitor / pc or PS3 with them or buy a power cable from somewhere like Dick Smith for about $5 . all up about $420 a saving of about $130 not taking into account that the extras like games and controllers etc are half the cost of Australian retailers . OZgame shop even does free postage on the games
Will there be any issues with NTSC/PAL when importing it?
Well I just added the console and COD ghosts to my Amazon cart: $482 which includes shipping to AUS. But, like others have said, I believe bluray will be region locked, there will be no local warranty, and we are betting on the power supply being universal. This is $167 cheaper than ordering the same things from JB hifi. But TBH I’m still considering paying the extra to have local warranty and my Bluray in the correct region.
I’ve never bought anything from Amazon, and I’ve only ever bought off ebay with Paypal. In EB Games (Tasmania) the PS4 by itself costs $550, yet on Amazon it was $500 bundled with PS Plus and BF4. I’m not sure if that was American or if I could even buy it, as I’ve heard they don’t accept Paypal. Even if they did, I’m not sure I’d trust the site with so much money.
If I buy one from Amazon will I be able to play Australian games, access the PS store and play games as if it was an Australia console? or will there be some regional issues?
Led Panel Light