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Really? Here are some leaked specs of the 360. But feel free to disagree. Here is one way to prove otherwise - find a torrent site hosting 360 games and locate a torrent containing an uncompressed iso that exceeds 7gb. I suggest Blue Dragon since that spans 3 discs making it fairly likely that disks 1 & 2 are close to full and therefore indicative of the maximum capacity.

From a PR perspective, I completely agree that Sony has screwed the pooch on managing consumer opinions, at least within the industry. Outside, however, the average consumer just sees a $499 60GB PS3 on sale.

I disagree with the people that insist Sony is driving for some "magic" $599 price point. If it were, I think the sales spike the will see from this price drop will convince them otherwise. The reality for Sony is that they have a huge number of 60GB systems collecting dust on store shelves. The still-born 20GB is largely vanished, and the 80GB isn't even available yet.

Now, if Sony was to announce the 80GB system at the same $499 that the 60GB has just been reduced to, how many of those 60GB systems would they be likely to sell, now or in the future? Not many, I'd wager, unless they planned to drop the price on those even further. The company would be foolish to do that, especially since the 80GB won't be around until August. The smart thing to do -- and what I suspect is Sony's plan all along here -- is to release the 80GB at $599 with the no-longer-in-production 60GB at $499 until the 60GB units are either depleted or nearly impossible to find (as opposed to now, where it's the only thing available!), then get another PR boost with another price drop lowering the 80GB to $499 as well.

So if an extra 20GB is worth an extra $100 or a few months waiting for you, go for it. For me, 60GB is plenty, and the hard drive is already pretty damn easy to upgrade way past the 80GB anyway, if one were so inclined.

The PS3 uses SATA hard drives. So ignore those prices, they are for PATA-6 drives.
http://www.gamersreports.com/article/43/

It wouldn't be so bad if MIcrosoft wasn't pushing XBLA as hard as they are. How can I expect to play SF2' Hyper Fighting with a 360pad?

Like this? I do agree, though. There's a distinct lack of fighting sticks for the 360 (the old Hori DOA4 stick was produced in limited quantities, so good luck finding one). Right now, the only real option is to buy or build a stick and hack an Xbox 360 controller into it. Hopefully we'll eventually get some better sticks for 360, especially if we keep getting fighting games on XBLA.

>> Down from $500? You're dreaming.

Sorry, I should have been clearer on this point. I was thinking of buying a Japanese PS3 on my next trip over there and bringing it back to the US. I do most of my gaming in Japanese because US translations of Japanese games (not to put too fine a point on it) suck.

And even if I were to buy one in the US, getting a PS3 on the cheap doesn't look too difficult. Ebay has numerous postings (example) for 20GB models going for under $400.

>> You could get a Mac mini for less. Read that again and let it sink it: it would be cheaper to run Linux on Apple hardware.

Yes, but can I play Final Fantasy XIII on the Mac Mini? Don't me wrong, the little Mini's kick ass. But they don't fit in too well with my plans for the living room: I want as few devices as possible doing as many things as possible. A PS3 fits this profile perfectly.

>> "But it does give users the ability to swap out harddrives... News to me"

You can change the hard drives out according to this guide. All you need is a spare 2.5" laptop hard drive, several of which I have lying around the home. I am also led to believe that this doesn't even void the manufacturer's warranty.

>> "Play all my PS2 games... So will your PS2."

But my PS2 won't play PS3 games (insert Cartman-esque "meeeeeeh"). In the medium term, there are several games i would like to play on the PS3. If I can get one console that does two console's worth of work for a small investment, I'm down with buying a PS3.

That said, you do make several valid points. I too am worried by the lack of rumble in the SIXAXIS controllers, as well as the paucity of good release titles. Like you, I will probably end up waiting until Final Fantasy and White Knight Story come out (i.e. until late this year). This should allow the Bluray/HDDVD format wars play out a bit as well.

I apologize if my original post seemed at all fanboi-ish... I was just stating the conclusions I had drawn after doing a bit of reading about the issue. I guess what they say is true: back up your conclusions or face the consequences!

Well, I believe it may have something to do with the ability to upgrade the HDD; that $100 could easily buy you a 120GB hard drive, if you're willing to forego the features you mentioned.

I'm not really sure what kind of purpose this would serve at the moment, but maybe people are hoping that the PS3 will soon be hacked like the PSP was...? ^_^

Well, apparently Nintendo said 20 within the "launch window" (whatever that means!), one third of them first-party titles.

The dual-layer DVD's hold around 9 gigs

False. Only 7 GB is usuable by the Xbox 360, due to security: "In a double-layer DVD for Xbox 360, 7GB is usable by a game." (http://www.gamersreports.com/index.php?sid=3138)

now its been proven that even the most absolutely mammoth games with 1090i HD resolutions will fit.

Absolutely false! Resolution has little to do with game size outside of higher-res textures. You can run old SNES games in 1080p, and they're still the same size on disk. I could build a 480i game that spans multiple DVDs by simply having a plethora of textures and sounds. Many developers, including Mark Rein (creator of Unreal Engine) and the GTA Devs have stated that their games in this upcoming generation will significantly exceed the capacity of DVDs. This is expected, as every console generation has seen an immense increase in game size (due to added content, higher res textures, etc.)

The PS3's one true weakness will be the Blu-Ray player. Its already been claimed that early standalone BR players will cost well over $1,000. There is no possible way Sony can create a console with a BR player and price it competitively with the 360 and have it released early this year.

Reminder to Mr. Microsoft Astroturfer - you already posted this same garbage in another thread today, so please stop spamming the Comments with it.

MGS4 trailer from TGS 2005 might not be such a great example of the PS3's power as you think: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000883068264/, http://www.games-digest.com/2005/11/kojima_says_me t.html, http://www.gamersreports.com/news/101/, where hideo kojima says that MGS4 could run on a 360.

Kojima never said that.

The only source for that is a video on 1up that has the editor saying he knows someone who claims to have heard Kojima say it. The only thing Kojima has said is that if he made an MGS game for other platforms he would build it to take advantage of those system's strengths.

The link (and I presume the computer guy nex) only seem to discuss PS3 footage from E3 2005. All the footage from that was rather suspect especially killzone 2 which has since been revealed by guerilla as "basically a representation of the look and feel of the game we're trying to make" not the actual game itself or what it'll look like at the end of the day (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/616/616591p1.html). The MGS4 trailer from TGS 2005 might not be such a great example of the PS3's power as you think: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000883068264/, http://www.games-digest.com/2005/11/kojima_says_me t.html, http://www.gamersreports.com/news/101/, where hideo kojima says that MGS4 could run on a 360. There doesn't seem to be any elaboration on what he means by "run" so you can argue about lower frame rates/graphics or whatever you'd like. I don't know what the PS3 is capable of and neither do you. Just please don't fall victim to the hype, you'll only be disappointed.