All depends on the hardware.

I reckon $599 will be the price here. I base this on no research, just a hunch, but it just feels right. Might be a cheaper bare-bones type offering for cheaper, but I reckon the standard one that most will be getting will be pegged around $599

that reported £300 point would convert to only around AUD$450 at today's rates.

One cannot simply convert the amount, this is Australia!

Interesting. I'm still a bit pessimistic on these rumoured prices, what with the current rumoured specs being quite high for both the Durango and the Orbis, each having an apparent 8 core AMD CPU and some near current modified GPU. Guess we shall just have to wait it out until Thursday, but really what will sell these consoles is the games.

While I love my Wii U, its not doing so well game wise this month (obviously that will change next month with a fair few high titles releasing) but I'm still getting a heap of enjoyment out of New Super Mario Bros. U, ZombiU and Scribblenauts. What I'm going to find the most difficult is choosing between the Orbis or the Durango for their exclusives, though most likely leaning towards Sony's console just because I'm not a big fan of Halo or Gears of War.

All depends on the hardware.

For mine, this is far from the truth in the 'next generation console wars'.

I really don't think the PS3 needs that big a step up in performance (perhaps with 4k around the corner, but I doubt very much that any of the inbound generation of consoles would have that on their radar at all).

What the PS4 needs is a far better refined 'experience'... that is to say, consider the XMB in the current range of 'Playstation experience'... if I could charge Sony 1c per 5 seconds I've been staring at that menu 'load/rendering' over the past 6 years, I'm sure I'd have a few bucks to show for it.

Whilst the only development house that I'm currently excited to see the next range of consoles for would be Rockstar (as most everything else is readily available on PC). I'm looking at a 'tighter' menu system, with less annoying login 'loading' screens and better menu structure. (I know PSN 'auto-updates' games you've got installed for you, but that shouldn't really be a premium feature. For mine the current consoles kinda suck for 'pick-up-and-play' because the first thing you're met with EVERY-FUCKIN-TIME you want to play something is 'there's an update to download' and then... at least the AU PSN... you standing there, with your dick in your hand staring at a 15mb file that takes /too-fuckin-long/ to download.)

Sorry for the wall-of-text... I tried to think of it in a more structured manner... but it kinda came about as a rant.

EDIT: on looking over this post it doesn't really relate to the OP... but I think we're kidding ourselves if $600 is the guesstimate on the release price of the console in AU.

PSX launched at $700+ and the PS2 was similar as I recall. Then there was the PS3 @ $999.95.

Yeah, but I think people are even less willing to pay that now for a console than they were then.

What do you factor that on? The wii? The rise of tablet's meeting partial demand? Other low end players like steambox+ouya?

a large gfc in the middle there as well, people we're still suffering from

gfc also caused global warming