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.'"

xbox elite

[k_187]

Seems MS was right to put the new xbox at $480 then. Keeps the $100 premium for the PS3 intact.

Sound familiar?

[Mark Gordon]

So much for "20 GB is enough for anyone"

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: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:i wonder if...

[Applekid]

Exactly. I've seen estimates that extra parts and labor that go into the premium PS3 versus the regular is about $35 and the assembly lines can be diverted late during production to keep a variable ratio of one to the other. It would have been useful if they were having trouble keeping PS3s on the shelves but, evidently not. In practice, the 20GB version has been MIA in retail for a while... it costs $100 more so making all 60GB versions lets Sony takes about $65 less in red ink. It's a good way to mitigate the bleeding since they simply did not sell as many as they wanted to.

With the $480 360 Elite, if Sony REALLY wanted to, they could skip buying this year's ivory back scratchers and drop the PS3 to $500 and really put the pressure on the top end of the 360 consumer. Sure there'd be a lot of PS3 owners pissed off to see a price drop so soon, but, it wouldn't be the first time Sony's spit in the faces of their fanboys.

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.

Not surprising.

[MaWeiTao]

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.