Play.com taking Sony PlayStation 3 pre-orders

Online store play.com is taking pre-orders on Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 console at £550 ($1,020) a pop. This deal is limited to those living in Europe only. The high price is due to an expected European shortage, and there is no guarantee on deliveries before Christmas. The £550 is rather steep as Sony had announced earlier this year that the high-end 60GB version of the next-generation console should cost in the region of £425 in the U.K. Is the extra £125 quid worth the 3 games (Formula 1 ’06, Warhawk, and Singstar) that Play.com plans to bundle into the package? Needless to say, the games shipped with the console may change due to availability issues.