Sony Officially Dropping 20GB PS3 in North America 144
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.'"
Outselling the 360 for the past few weeks... (Score:5, Informative)
Wouldn't that mean asking Microsoft to drop the 360 as well? The PS3 has been outselling [eproductwars.com] 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.
I agree (Score:3, Informative)
However, there is one small bit of anecdotal evidence that backs up what Sony is saying. Amazon had at one point a lottery to get a chance at buying a PS3 from a shipment, you could enter either a lottery for the 20GB or the 60GB model (you didn't pay anything, but could only sign up for one or the other). They displayed the odds of winning a purchasing slot, and the 60GB model had about 8x more people signed up for a chance.
The one thing I could see that would make it more appealing is the WiFi support which would make it easier to hook into a network, since so many people have WiFi... even if it's not your own!
Re:Responsibility but nopt the choice (Score:2, Informative)
There's a fundamental difference you're missing (or rather, ignoring). The Sony board are legally responsible for the actions of their employees. My father is not legally responsible for my actions.
Well color me miffed (Score:3, Informative)
When I first heard about the different PS3 models, I was all for the "why would I buy a gimped version of the PS3?!?" argument. Then I started considering the prices.
The benefits of the 60 gig are:
+40 GB drive
memory card slots
Wifi
And it costs 100 dollars more.
I have a wifi router in my house. My entertainment system is close enough to my router (for my Xbox, et al) to connect with a cable. I connect it, BAM I have WiFi access to my PS3.
A USB Memory card adapter is $10 at the Electronics store.
So I'm left paying $90 for 40Gigs of storage? I'd rather shell out the extra $30, get a 500Gig drive, and plug it in myself (standard SATAII cables, doesn't void warenty).
So, the 20 Gig was the only version I was actually looking at to buy.
That and the fact that upgraded versions of the PS3 have a good chance of being "Software backwards compatible" like in the UK, which is to say "not backwards compatible at all"
I can only hope that they won't get rid of the 20gig here as well.
Look again (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Makes sense to me (Score:3, Informative)
The cheapie @ 75USD:
http://www.provantage.com/microsoft-b4b-00009~7MS
The fancy ones at $99 USD
http://www.shop.com/op/~MN_740_Broadband_Networki
What do $7 mail-in-rebate junkie wireless cards for PC have to do with this discussion? Nothing.
JON