It’s fairly obvious that should you want to get a PS3 upon launch in the UK, you’re going to have to pre-order it. However, it looks as if you may also have to stump up a fair proportion of the asking price in advance in order to place a pre-order in the first place.

The word is that Sony is currently talking to UK retailers about a pre-order scheme which would involve Joe Public having to put down 150 GBP in order to confirm their order. That’s over a third of the price of the console, going by the current unofficial estimates of a 425 GBP price point. It’s also rumoured that only one pre-order will be allowed per household.

So why so much cash? One reason is that it prevents people from placing pre-orders in several different places, which can lead to retailers having stock sitting in their stock rooms which are earmarked for customers who have already bought a machine else where. Another reason is that Sony want to try and avoid the usual scurge of a new console launch, that of people buying machines with the idea of advertising it for sale on eBay straight away in order to make a fast buck.

Sony used a similar scheme when the PS2 was launched in the UK, but with a much lower deposit. This scheme was widely malligned for its complexity to the retailers, which presumably is why Sony have been in talks with them this time round.

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