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.'"

Comments

Outselling the 360 for the past few weeks...

[SuperKendall]

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.

Different company

[SuperKendall]

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.

Here is hoping

[Durrok]

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.

Re:Here is hoping

[bluk]

What feature from the 20GB vs. the 60GB is not upgradable that you would want? The big 3 are bigger hard drive capacity, memory card readers, and wireless. The hard drive is user swappable and standard connections (unlike the extortion-like prices that Microsoft is charging for their hard drive). Memory card readers can be attached via USB. Wireless supposedly could have been expanded too via a USB adapter.

The Xbox 360 cannot use a HDMI connection without the Elite model. And while the Xbox 360 is upgradable, it is expensive to do so compared to standard PC parts (which the PS3 uses). That's why you can use bluetooth or USB devices on the PS3 to expand but have to pay outrageous prices for the hard drive, keyboard, etc. for the Xbox 360.

IMO, Microsoft made a bigger mistake by not including the hard drive as a standard. Developers can count on a hard drive in the PS3 which could be used in a few different ways (expansions, caching, MMORPG content, etc.). The missing wireless and memory card readers don't affect game development like a missing hard drive would.

That's great!

[drinkypoo]

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!

Re:i wonder if...

[7Prime]

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.

Re:Responsibility but nopt the choice

[asdfghjklqwertyuiop]

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 I wonder, after the rootkit scandal broke, did the board of directors or the president use their vast power to do anything, so as to discourage their other subordinates from making equally bad decisions in the future? Nope:

The uninstaller for the DRM had security problems of its own.

Thomas Hesse, president of that division, who said "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" still has his job today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy _protection_scandal

It is their responsibility of those people to keep the company in line and fix quickly when it isn't. That's why they have so much power get paid tens of millions of dollars a year (supposedly). By continuing to delegate their power to somone who wonders why people would care that their machine had been rooted, they clearly approve of those actions.

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.

And I ask, are you given power to control your brother's actions? Are you his legal guardian? Is he under 18 or mentally retarded? If so, yes, you might in fact go to jail. With power comes responsibility.