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80 Gig PS3 Arrives in US
Gamespot reports that the newest version of the PlayStation 3, complete with 80 GB hard drive, has arrived in the US. Along with 20 more gigs of memory, the unit comes bundled with the racer MotorStorm. This comes after last month's announcement of a price drop, and the subsequent revelation that the cheaper unit is being phased out in favour of this 80 gig model. "But while the 60GB console's days are numbered, its supply is holding up despite a massive increase in demand. According to Sony, sales of the console have increased 113 percent at its top five retail partners--Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and GameStop--when compared to average sales during the month before drop. Sony did not supply specific sales figures for the PS3, which sold 98,500 units in the US in June, according to the NPD group. So when will stocks of the $499 60GB PS3 run out? Sony predicts that, at current demand levels, the console will remain in the North American retail channel until fall."
GAH!! This is the sort of thing I expect from talking to average people about computers; I can grin and bear it when it shows up on non-technical news sources - but this is Slashdot, for fuck's sake. You know, "news for nerds?" What's next, we start seeing stories referring to the whole box as a "CPU" or "hard drive?"
It doesn't have 20 more gigs of memory, it's got a 20 GB larger hard drive. Is this so difficult to get right?
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
technically, the memory reference is correct. hard drive storage is a type of memory used by pcs and the like. the term memory can refer to ram, cache, hdd. so it's vague, and i agree that it's annoying; but it isn't wrong.
FOXTROT UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO
I had the same thoughts basically, heres my reasoning:
1. The emotion chip was critical, the lack of this feature really makes the 80GB version sub-par ($50 bucks for an extra 20Gigs? fuck off).
2. The 60GB version is out of production and is now quickly climbing most best-selling lists at various stores and sites, which may be due too...
3. Recent $100 price-cut of the 60GB in an attempt to closeout the current supply and replace them with a sub-par and more expensive unit (this was the clincher for me).
So yea I bought mine a week ago. As soon as the 360 drops another $50 bucks off their current price-cut probably gonna pick up one of those too.
"Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"
Luckily nobody who bought a PS3 knows what "value for money" is.
You're right - I am such an idiot for spending $600 on a next gen gaming console, hi-def movie player, UPnP media client. Add in the waste of $170 I spent on my PSP to play mobile games and access this $600 piece of junk from any WAP in the world and I feel like a total moron. Why do I even listen to myself when I should just call you instead? I mean, taking into account all the great mini-games available (Calling All Cars, Flow, Stardust HD) and coming soon (Echochrome, LBP, Pain) for the console, the ability to play games and movies in 1080p on my 46" TV and the ability to play FOR FREE the great online games both available (Resistance, Rainbow Six, The Darkness) and exclusives coming soon (UT3, Warhawk) shows what a big mistake this was.
How's your Wii Fit?
I agree! And why even have hard drives in computers?!?! My Apple II e didn't have a hard drive and I played Lode Runner on it just fine! Stupid technology costing us money! Mod parent UP!!!
This whole thing is a little cute, I think. Instead of doing something to actually make the PS3 worth $599 to consumers, Sony is essentially saying "better get one now before the price goes back up!" Is 20GB of hard drive space worth $100 to anyone? I know they are sticking Motorstorm in there too, but that isn't going to last forever.
I actually attempted to avoid all of the other hype stuff - no mention of Home, FF XIII, or Killzone (I'm still skeptical on that one). You have MGS 4 and MGS online, whatever/whenever that will be.
But why buy early? Because I was mostly a PC gamer with $600 but not $1500 to replace my mobo, processor, video card, and upgrade my RAM to get next-gen graphics on a 20" monitor. I'll admit it - I'm in for the eyecandy as well as the gameplay. So I don't see it as a $400 vs. $600 debate, I see it as a $600 versus $1500 debate. I mean, did I know in January that the PS3 would be good in a year - not necessarily. But $50 a year for XBL turned me off, I heard bad things about the hardware, and I had a PSP already. So why not just stick with what I had? And, I wasn't sure I was going to have that $600 cash available in six months, so I wanted to commit it when I had it in my hands.
That's why I bought a 60 GB PS3 last weekend. I never owned a PS2, and I wanted maximum backwards compatibility when I finally decided to pull the trigger (Planet Earth being available on Blu-Ray did the trick; had it been HD-DVD only, I would have bought the add-on for my 360). So now I'm playing through Katamari Damacy, Shadow Of the Collossus, and God of War. And I have to say, God of War is a damn good looking game, considering it's PS2 tech.
$500 was just low enough that the combination of Blu-Ray and PS2 compatibility pushed me over the edge (though needing to buy a separate cable for HD really pissed me off - and almost was enough to prevent me from buying...which means not quite enough for Sony to care). So far, I'm moderately glad I picked it up. Whether I later consider it a really good idea will depend, of course, on how many really good games become available for it.
The point, of course, is that they've created demand by dropping the price on the 60 GB version and taking away the Emotion Engine in its higher-priced replacement. But that's a temporary sort of thing, at best - if the supply of 60 GB consoles had dried up before I bought one, I wouldn't have made the purchase. $600 is too much money (and I say this as someone who owns all three current consoles and just built a gaming PC) for what you're getting, Motorstorm be damned. If that $600 included a second controller and freaking component cables*, I might have thought about it.
*While I went with HDMI + optical audio instead, I could have put off that purchase for a little bit if they had bundled components. As it is, the console is crippled out of the box, so it had to be a same-day purchase.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...