Slashdot Mirror
Sony Officially Dropping 20GB PS3 in North America
An anonymous reader writes "Sony has just announced they're officially ditching the 20GB model of the PS3. 'Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in North America. In addition to the larger internal hard drive, the 60GB PlayStation 3 features added storage media slots and built-in Wi-Fi not found in the 20GB system. Based on retailer and consumer feedback, we have decided to focus our current efforts on the more popular 60GB model.'"
I think that most people who would be willing to shell out $500 for a console wouldn't mind having to pony up another $100 for built-in wireless (I think that's usually about $100 to add on, at least that's what it is for the Xbox 360), an extra 40 GB of room on the HD, and some media card slots (not sure how useful these are).
Makes me wonder when Microsoft is going to axe the $300 version of the Xbox 360, which in a way is kind of crap since it doesn't come with any way to save games on it by default without shelling out at least enough for a memory card or a special HD (since you can't plug your own in as far as I know). With the new Elite version coming out in the future, why bother having this lowend version take up shelf space?
Although the PS3 sales are hardly strong, I honestly think the 20GB PS3 was more or less vaporware, from a practical stand-point. I swear to the Lord that I have never seen one in any store. Ever.
I've come across mountains of 60GB PS3's, but never the lesser one. Which makes me curious about this whole "more demand for the better one" thing. How would they even gage something like that, when it's seemingly impossible to find the goddamn things in the first place?
It's like General Electric making five toasters, selling out of them, and then saying demand was too low to justify building them because you only sold five at retail. What planet am I on?
- Scott
The 20GB model has:
GigE networking
A Hard drive that is user servicable and replaceable
The same AV connections
Anything else used to actually play games, lacking only a media reader for things like CF cards.
I was going to buy the 20GB model, and put a larger HD in it. So I personally think it was the superior option as it was more configurable and it did not have wireless if you did not need it. Lots of things are coming with wireless built in now which is nice, but I was going to wire it up anyway so as not to have the possibility of interference.
I can kind of see why they did it but I'm annoyed they are removing that option.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
if they're dropping it due to poor demand, they should drop the 60GB model too:P
Wouldn't that mean asking Microsoft to drop the 360 as well? The PS3 has been outselling the 360 every day since Amazon finally had them in stock a few weeks ago (scroll down to "Sales rank of the primary Systems").
And yes, the Wii is still trouncing them both.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The company with the rootkits is Sony Music, not Sony Games. If your brother robbed a bank should you go to jail too? Truly large companies are really lots of smaller companies that make their own choices.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Here is hoping that everyone has learned their lesson about releasing multiple versions of consoles. Just do one console at release guys. If you want to release another lower end version a few months later by all means feel free but for the most part anyone who bought the lower end versions of these consoles would have eventually bought the "higher end" version if the lower end version was never available after the first price drop. All you do is sow discontent among the people who were gullible... err.. trying to save some money.
I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
Now when we make price comparisons, we don't have to account for the $500 model any more! That makes it even easier to say that you can get an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the price of a functional PS3 system, because you don't have to qualify it. Sony haters rejoice!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I love how they decided to drop the 20GB model because of the "overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers" when I can walk into any retailer and buy a 60GB PS3 whereas the 20GB model has never been in any store or online.
Yeah, the 20GB model was practically a hoax, Sony released a few of them, here and there, so they could say, openly, that the PS3 started at only $500. It was all just a sales gimmick to get people to come in and buy them, and then when there weren't any 20GB models on the shelves, they'd just go "oh well" and buy the 60GB models. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. I mean, it's Walmart's tactic (get people to come in for the cheap stuff, but then sell them the expensive stuff), but at least Walmart actually HAS the cheap stuff, Sony didn't really even ever have a 20GB, there's little evidence that very many ever existed.
This also gives credence to the concept that the PS3 is not going to have a price drop for a VERY LONG TIME.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Do you think the Board of Directors approved the rootkit? Or even the president? Hell no. That was up to the division. That division made a bad call, and the Board is responsible insofar as they hired the doofus that made that choice for Sony Music. But they are not directly responsible, and Sony Games being yet a step further removed is less responsible.
Again I ask, if your brother rob a bank should you go to jail? Your father raised both of you, why shouldn't he go to jail? You talked to your brother at some point, surely you are to blame. All of these statements are as silly as what you are trying to say.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How am I going to conveniently categorize fanboy comments?! Seriously, did Sony ever think of that?!
Before, pro-Sony would refer to the PS3 as $500, anti- would use $600 (and sometimes $700). How am I supposed to ignore the people I disagree with?!
It's the same thing with Nintendo... back before they announced the price, people would say either $300 or $200 (or sometimes even $150!) depending on who they were rooting for... now... well, I guess they're still more than $300 on eBay, so this still works some of the time :-P
Thank goodness I can still tell how people feel about Microsoft! Especially with the new model coming out...
I am the man with no sig!
Good lord, you should apply for marketing at Sony or something. On that page, every other statistic shows that either the Wii or the 360 is selling far better than the PS3.
No, other entries say things like "There are more items for sale for the 360" Well, yes - that's pretty obvious - it's been out longer. And as the 360 has been out longer with more games the games they do have are also outselling most PS3 games. That seems pretty obvious as well. What is not obvious, and what is interesting, is that the PS3 every time it was availaible at Amazon, has outsold the 360. It just happens that that has only held true (Amazon havng stock) for any length of time starting around the end of March.
And even in your particular example, it's only based off the last 2 weeks of data, and in only one store (Amazon), and the difference between the "sales rank" is small (360 is 20, and the PS3 is 16). It's not that clear what "sales rank" even means.
You need to understand "the rest of the story". See all those times the graph is low? On every one of those days, the PS3 was not in stock and sales were from third parties charging $100 more for the console. That's every day since the start of the year.
As for what "sales rank" means, you cannot of course derive absolute numbers from sales rank. But what you can say is hat something with a sales rank of x+1 sold more units than something else with a sales rank of x. It might be only one more unit, or it might be 10k. But it is more. And ever since Amazon has had the PS3 in stock, it has outsold the 360.
The February NPD numbers show a much different story. Granted, the NPD values aren't complete either, but much more so than merely combing just Amazon. In any case, the March NPD numbers will be along shortly, so we'll see if your theory holds up.
The Feburary NPD numbers agree with the graph. The March NPD numbers will also agree with the graph, and should show the 360 with a lead (note the rise in the graph only started around the 23rd or so of March). It's the April numbers that will be interesting and will or will not bear out the point I am making.
Of course when the Elite comes out, that will probably push the 360 in front of the PS3 for a while again I imagine.
Let me be clear, I am making no judgements against or for any console with these numbers (I own none of them). I am just saying what the charts and obvservation of all three since the start of the year has shown.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've never seen the 20gb model in any store. I don't think retailers are big on giving consumers choices. Even if they carried both versions store employees would inevitably direct customers to purchase the more expensive version. I wouldn't be surprised is Sony released the lesser version simply an attempt to alleviate the shock of a $600 price tag.
Clearly, it didn't made a difference considering whenever anyone thinks of the PS3 price tag they only think of $600. The recent announcement of the Xbox360 Elite makes it easier to justify carrying only the expensive version.
Either way, I expect this to make no difference whatsoever. As I've mentioned, everyone already sees only one price tag for the console. What will make a difference is the library of games available and eventual price drops and those had better come sooner than later.