Over the last week there has been a snowstorm of rumors floating around in regards to Sony’s PlayStation 3 console and their decisions to possibly discontinue the 80GB SKU from retailers worldwide. This all started with a leaked employee memo from a Best Buy and quickly followed suit by reports from a Gamestop employee who had said their store was discontinuing the SKU as well. Today, even more news broke about this supposed rumor that may finally put it to an end and give the consumers a more reliable answer.
Gamestop held a company-wide conference call today to discuss the matter. The call explained the details of the 80GB and confirmed that Sony would no longer be continuing the 80GB model. The speculation was that there would now be a 120GB+ model made available. However, with Sony denying the rumors that a 120GB model would be made available for the UK, it is unlikely to happen anywhere else as well. This puts further belief into the much desired 160GB model which would then provide users a larger startup space than its rival console fan base.
There is no news available as to when this upgraded version will be made available to retailers and consumers alike, fortunately there has been confirmation in a sense that this new SKU will include the highly anticipated DualShock 3. The DualShock 3 is currently only available in Japan, though some PS3 owners have imported the model to their home countries, this will mark the first time they have been released worldwide. The DualShock 3’s biggest appeal is the addition of rumble to the user’s hands. This was a big topic issue at launch and shortly prior to.
With GDC just around the corner, we expect them to make the announcement then, if not beforehand. Either way, it feels good to make some much needed ground on this subject.
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i guess a bigger hard drive would be good.
i think they definately need to throw in the right things to the package to make it work though.
wrong extras could ruin it if you ask me.
iE;giving two controllers bbut the games they give you are single player.
?
Meh don't care to much if it is 120, or 160, both would be enough for me, thou given the choce I'd do for 160.
"The DualShock 3’s biggest appeal is the addition of rumble to the user’s hands."
duh isn't that the only chang? (other then it in white)
j get ahold of an 60 gb and upgrade the hdd easy as!
yep. guess so. might be buying a 160 gb by the end of this year. i can't wait to get a dual shock 3 controller. going to definetly buy it for mgs4
So, would it have the same specs as the 80 GB model except with a bigger hardrive? Or would they strip it down to the 40GB model specs with just a bigger HDD?
whatever. just get it figured out sony. please. no more SKUs after this.
Why do you people care if they come out with upgraded PS3's?
Why isn't that a good thing?
5 years from now, a 40GB hard drive is going to be dinky. In fact, you could say it's dinky right now. If they are going to add more to the PSN and DVR capability, then the PS3 is going to have to sell with something bigger than a 40GB HDD.
If they are going to go BIG they may aswell go really big, lets face it the cost difference betweeen a 120gb HDD and a 320gb HDD is next to nothing.
PS3 doens't need a bigger HDD, PS3 needs to lower its price.
"Confirms?"...misleading title me thinks...
more rumors, but at least it's a feasible one. the DS3 is coming and the spiderman bundle has run it's course, time to look towards a different pack in. It has to happen logically just as every other system eventually changes it's offerings. Even the next configuration wont be the last one just get used to it.
The next ones wont be gimped like the 40gb, they want to offer a premium product, cant do that if youhack out features to make it like the lamer/cheaper model.
i think it's cool for does that havn't got a ps3 already but for those like me it's a shame to see ps3's sold with the dual shock3, guess i'll just have to buy one on it's own, i'll just use my sixaxis as the second controller when a freind wants to play aswell, i'm glad i didn't do the stupid thing to buy a second sixaxis controller, lol!
This is really getting ridiculous. They've made like ten thousand different SKU's and then there are different things in different countries. The fact that there are all these different kinds of PS3 might make people confused when buying them if they are total n00bs, and then they would get a 360 instead because it isn't all these different things. I really think they should just stop all this and leave it with a good version and a cheap not so good version(aka the 40gb)
This is a good deal. Hopefully this version also has some kind of BC. The 40gb for the blu-ray people, and the 160gb for the game-playing people.
I don't understand what's up with all the SKUs. Stick to one already. Whatever the new SKU is (if it happens), I hope they keep bc in it. Otherwise they might as well not even bother IMO
With there DVR service coming out, the HDD needs to be huge. 160GB is still too small, but would at least be decent.
psn id: gingo... probably a good idea to have a smaller smaller SKU and then a much larger SKU to give buyers real variety
Well it be an added assessory and what would be the running cost? I know the 360's 120gig is around 160-180 or so dollars.
I love my 40GB because i never owned a PS2 before so it was the right choice for me. but as encryptioncsta said i can upgrade my HDD easily to something much bigger than 40GB
I wonder what cell processor they'll be using for the new model. Hopefully a 45nm!
as long as the price does not go up, and it still has PS2 capability, this is fine. I personally think they should drop the cost to 450.
i want the dual shock 3 and a bigger harddrive
@gingo: you're a psu posting machine.....Anyways, need more HDD space, good move for Sony...
They don't make hardware announcements at GDC unless it was some like: "backwards compatibility for the 40GB will be made available via software emulation on xx/xx date". please note this is for an example and will probably never happen.
They better make the new models,65nm cell and RSX,since the 40gig still uses the 90nm RSX.