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40GB PS3 Coming to the States

Posted by Zonk on from the stop-monkeying-with-the-hard-drive-size-already dept.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America has finally confirmed that the 40GB PlayStation 3 sku will be released in the US. This release will coincide with a price drop on the 80GB sku, from $600 to $500. "The 40-gigabyte model has already made its debut in Europe and Japan, and was widely expected to come to the United States ahead of the crucial year-end shopping season that accounts for the largest single chunk of annual video game software and hardware sales." (Via GI.biz)

23 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn by Eponymous+Crowbar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wake me up when a compelling game comes out. I've heard decent things about Heavenly Sword, but it isn't my cup of tea. Everything else _so far_ has been a disappointment, delayed until 2008, or I can play it on another system.

    1. Re:Yawn by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Heavenly Sword is great if you need a game to kill about 4-5 hours with. But paying $500 (or whatever the PS3 costs) plus the $70 for the game for 4-5 hours of gameplay.. Give me my Wii, which for under $500 I've been playing constantly since it came out.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    2. Re:Yawn by feepness · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There are others, but if you only need one: Warhawk.

      Bagging on the PS3 for lack of games is so six months ago...

    3. Re:Yawn by AuMatar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The cost of high def- more time on engine development and art asset development means higher costs to make a game. And that cost is passed on. Wii games are cheaper, in part because they don't need to do HD.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  2. And now.... by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cue the scores of posters from previous threads who claimed that Sony wasn't planning a drop on the 80GB PS3 when the 60GB models ran out flooding this story with admissions that they were wrong...

  3. Where is my 500 gig PS3? by BiggestPOS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With the drives now RETAILING for around $100, I can't imagine why 40 gig drives are still being made. What is the point where the overall cost of the materials reaches the floor and the drives can't get any cheaper? Seriously, a 40 gig hard-drive is just laughable, they must be using up over-stock or putting refurbs in. Are single platter drives with that little capacity even being produced anymore in the 3.5" form factor?

    --
    What, me worry?
    1. Re:Where is my 500 gig PS3? by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Informative

      They use 2.5" drives, so you can't really get 500GB for $100... 40GB per head/platter-side is still the knee in the price curve on 2.5" drives.... A recent change from 30GB (Hence the move from the 60GB PS3 to the 80GB model).

      Regardless, user-upgrade of the hard drive in the PS3 is an officially supported process. If you want bigger, you can have it.

    2. Re:Where is my 500 gig PS3? by ucblockhead · · Score: 2, Insightful

      1) Buy a 500 GB USB drive for $109.
      2) Plug it into the PS3's USB port.
      3) Profit!

      --
      The cake is a pie
    3. Re:Where is my 500 gig PS3? by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sony is pushing it as a media center and not just a console. 40GB isinadequate for what Sony themselves are saying the PS3 is for.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  4. No Backwards Compatibilty == No Thanks... by nweaver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sorry, no backwards compatibilty == No Thanks.

    I've got a lot of PS2 games still, and I won't be getting rid of em. But there isn't space in my entertainment center housing for a PS2 and a PS3, especially since the PS3 can't have anything stacked on it because of its curvosity.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:No Backwards Compatibilty == No Thanks... by trdrstv · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Backwards compatibility has always been a nice perk, but seriously, I rarely ever use it. I think I used backwards capabilities on the ps2 to play ff tactics, and thats it. I think people put too much value in it. Besides, if you want backwards capability, you can still get it. Just cough up the extra 100

      Some people put A LOT of value in it. In fact if the PS3 didn't have either BluRay, or Backwords compatibility I would have zero reason to get one. As of now I'm waiting until "Some magical time in 2008" when the exclusives worth buying hit, until then I'm watching Movies, and playing PS2 games upscaled on it.

  5. But what about ... by trevorrowe · · Score: 3, Informative

    What about all of those $500 60GB PS3 units still sitting on the shelves. Will they get a price drop? IMHO the 60GB is the most appealing, as it still plays PS1/2 games w/out emulation.

    1. Re:But what about ... by rhartness · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Simple they will remain at $500 (if they exists). Purchasers will see both for $500 and opt for the 60GBer because its the same price and has more space. Retailers will place them side-by-side in the kiosks so that their buyer will surely see the two models and will draw the conclusion.

      That, my friend, is how they clean out your old stock. I've seen GameStop do this type of thing before with New games that are old rather frequently. They actually drop the price of new games that are no longer available from the distributor to the price of the used game. This quickly sells their stock and frees up the real estate in the new games section for games that have recently been released.

  6. With GTAIV pushed back to 08.... by the+computer+guy+nex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What SOFTWARE will help push the hardware? 360 is still cheaper and has more great games being released in a 3 month span (Bioshock, Halo3, Mass Effect) than any PS3 game.

    Also don't count out the Madden effect. Since EA couldn't get the game working right on PS3 (30FPS!!!) the 360 looks even better. Price cut won't hurt the Wii at all either.

    1. Re:With GTAIV pushed back to 08.... by DrEldarion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Eye of Judgment, and Haze are all coming out before Christmas. Singstar (which is HUGE in Europe) and MGS4 are on the horizon. The 360 gets some great games (and I'm spending a ton of time playing Puzzle Quest in XBLA lately...), but really, it's nice to see a release calendar that isn't completely filled with FPS games with only the occasional odd other genre.

      Considering you can now get a PS3 80GB with PS2 upscaling, a game, and 5 blu-rays for $499 (or a less-featured model for $399), sales should definitely start to pick up. The hardware itself is by far a better value than a comparable 360 (Blu-ray, DVD upscaling, media streaming, not prone to death, etc).

  7. Re:What will you lose? by thebonafortuna · · Score: 4, Informative

    From what I've read, that is true for the 40 GB version only. The 80 GB version supposedly does feature the same backwards compatibility as recent versions, which I believe is through emulation, and not additional hardware. If I get a chance, I'll see if I can find an article confirming this.

  8. Woot? by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hooray, another PS3 I can choose not to buy!

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
  9. from impossible to improbable by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All this price cut does is highlight the fact that you can still get a Wii and a few games or accessories for that price. Add in the new first-person sword/lightsaber action here now or coming soon, and I can't imagine any kid that wouldn't rather get a wii. Super-realistic graphics on a car racing game pale in enjoyment compared to reinacting famous swordfights with virtual characters.

    --
    stuff |
  10. In the next month or so: by Tony · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
    Haze
    Assassin's Creed (also for the 360)

    Stay away from Conan, if the whole game is anything like the demo. It seemed like a cheezy ripoff of God of War. (Which is different from Heavenly Sword, which is an excellent ripoff of God of War.)

    Depends on your definition of "compelling." Me, I absolutely love my PS3. It's the best money I've ever wasted. (Granted, the Wii was a pretty damned good waste of money, too.) I play the hell out of Warhawk.

    --
    Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
  11. This is great by abigor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't care about backwards compatibility. I just want a cheapish Blu-Ray player and kick-ass game machine. I don't own a 360, so I don't care if the games are exclusives or not, just so long as they are fun to play and look amazing. There are a bunch of games out there for the PS3 that seem to fall into this category, and lots more planned, so this new PS3 variant seems pretty good to me.

    1. Re:This is great by vonPoonBurGer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To be honest, I think you're nuts. I can't imagine buying a PS3 when there are so many top-notch 360-only or 360-and-PC-only titles available right now. The only top-shelf title the PS3 currently has access to is Oblivion, everything else is essentially good but not great. Furthermore, with only 17% of the next-gen market currently, the PS3 has a lot of ground to make up. The quirky and interesting games that represent a risky investment for publishers are going to show up on the system(s) with the largest market share. I wouldn't want to buy into a platform that is unlikely to see this generation's Guitar Hero, or Katamari, or Shadow of the Colossus. I'm not talking about the sequels to those games, I'm talking about the wholly new games that no one's heard about yet, but everyone will be playing a year or two from now. In the previous generation, all of those titles appeared on the PS2 because its market share was so dominant, but that's not going to be anywhere near the case for the PS3 at this rate.

    2. Re:This is great by abigor · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, true, but the 360 won't play Blu-Ray movies. That's the dealbreaker. There are enough good games for this casual gamer to make the PS3 worth it right now.

  12. Re:Regardless of the lack of games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, in the same way $500 was once "cheap" for a VHS VCR, or a DVD player many years later.

    Yes, I'm a techie, and I do enjoy me some HD, but above that, I'm a cheapskate and advocate of hardware longevity. While I can understand (and even afford, with some discipline) the early-adopter lifestyle, there is no way I would personally spend $500 on a first-generation BR player that would have to share laser time with a game console I intended to use primarily as such.

    Other than cost, my concern is the same as with the PS2/Xbox and DVDs, and CD-based consoles with music CDs. These aren't PCs; the HD (if any) is the secondary, not primary, data retrieval device, and when the optical drive's laser dies, the system is worthless until manufacturer-repaired (not user-repaired) or replaced. Whereas those older consoles probably were never the most popular device of their kind for playing their respective media, the PS3 - as the trojan horse that Sony is betting on to push BR sales - is far and away the most popular BR player, implying that most BR playback hours are being logged on PS3s. I sure as hell never used my Saturn or PS as my primary CD players, nor my PS2 as my dedicated DVD player, due to both fear of hardware failure and availability of alternative (and superior) playback hardware. I think people are blinding themselves to Sony's traditionally poor hardware reliability, especially with the PlayStation line, if they think the PS3 is a smart buy right now even when considered only at this level, just because other single-purpose BR players are also ridiculously priced. I really think it's a lack of both perspective and patience that has led to this opinion. I think I'll wait until the life of the PS3's optics under typical shared use has been determined before buying in. And if standalone BR player prices fall to reasonable prices in the mean time, I guess that would just serve to sway my buying decision more towards the strength of the PS3's game library at that time, rather than just seeing it as the "best deal" compared to the other first-gen BR players.