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Sony May Be Planning 80GB PS3
narramissic writes "Included in a filing made by Sony to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this month regarding a change to the PlayStation 3's Bluetooth module is notification of a new PS3 game console with a higher-capacity hard-disk drive. From the cover letter: 'The model CECHE01 to be added by the difference of the capacity of hard disk.' It then says the new model will have an 80G-byte drive. Of course, Sony is downplaying these rumours, saying that 'Application to the FCC has been made with various possibilities in mind, however, it does not lead to a new product announcement at this time.'
What?
The only difference between the 499 and 599 PS3 is the drive space, card reader, and Wifi. Otherwise they are exactly the same machine.
The newer PAL PS3s still have PS2 hardware inside. The EE half of the EE/RS combo has been moved to software emulation. All PS3s will soon move to EE software emulation with the PS2 RS still included.
Regardless, nice try at trying to spin this future minor drive upgrade as some 'bewildering and frustrating explosion of PS3 models'.
This goes for both Sony and MS. Both machines are not only game consoles, but hi-def multi-media machines as well. Why in the world would they skimp on hard drive space to begin with. MS should be truly ashamed. You can't even find a 20 gig HDD anymore. They just aren't functional. And out of all the system components, the hard drive is one of the cheapest parts. It is especially bad considering that MS has a huge lineup of downloadable media and demos that are at minimum 250 MB each. I'd say it was a horrible move for both the PS3 & Xbox not have 100Gig+ right from the start. At very least Sony started with 3X more disk space than the Xbox.
Personally, I can't make any sense out of why either would sell with such small drives. There isn't much difference in price between to jump to a 120 Gig drive, and there isn't a shortage or lead time problem with making such a drive. All you are doing is pissing off customers and preventing people from downloading premium online content because they are out of disk space.
They want you to use the game console as media center. They want you to buy video and music from their online stores.
Frankly I still don't understand why you can not take video from the 360 and put it on your Zune.
Microsoft and Sony see the console as a way to get into the living room and replace TV. Nintendo sees consoles as way to play games.
I keep wondering when Sony is going to let you take video from the PS/3 and put it on your PSP.
It seem logical the PS/3, 360, Zune, and PSP all have wifi seems like a logical jump.
The other reason for big hard drives would be for downloading games. Sony and Microsoft would love that. No more Gamestop and no more used games.
Bandwidth and lack of HD space is the only thing stopping it. Now if Microsoft put a burner in the 360.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Xbox offers game demos at ~1 Gig each. They have an impressive & growing library of TV shows, Game & Movie Previews, and movies you can download as well. Much of it is offered in high def. High def video takes up some major disk space. I had 20 gigs filled on the Xbox very quickly. Since I don't have any hi def cable or disk drive, I'd like to download certain things just to check it out. However, I can't because I'd have to delete a bunch of stuff I don't want to.
The PS3 allows you to add any media you want to it. You can rip DVDs on the computer and put them right on the drive. (Xbox isn't as easy) Fills up pretty fast.
Also, the hard drive isn't exactly a very expensive part of the machine, no need to skimp on that, especially since a larger drive encourages users to download premium content.
Yes, without voiding the warranty.
Right on the main Sony PS3 overview page it shows where you can upgrade the harddrive. Sony execs have been talking about user upgradeable harddrives since the PS3 was first introduced.
The PS3's power supply is designed to handle larger harddrives - that's why there have been these erroneous power draw reports for the system because people see the max power draw for the system and assume that is what the 20 and 60 gig standard models draw. The PS3 is right aroudn 190w when playing games.
And the cooling system is probably the most advanced version in any console every made and there have been virtually no reports of PS3s overheating. People have been running large harddrives in their PS3s since the very day people picked up their systems and poped in larger harddrives.