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."

Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose

[XiticiX]

That's pretty sad.... I have lost all faith.

Cool.....but when

[Lotus581]

Its a good marketing ploy by Sony. And its bringing back huge profit, but will bringing the price back up be a good thing? I dont think so. With the price of the Wii being way below the price range of the other next gen systems, Xbox 360's price drop, I think Sony needs to see that the $500 price is the best thing that they have had for the system. Maybe drop the price of the 80gb in....what? Four to six months? Think about it Sony....

Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose

[loafula]

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.

Re:Why?

[Duffy13]

Well one reason is to remove the need for various memory cards, like the three I used to swap around. You don't need them anymore cause you got one giant ass internal one now. The second reason, currently this is more prevalent in the 360 and Wii then the PS3, you can download new content/old games/demos/music/etc.. which are stored, you guessed it, on the HD.

Basically they are giving the consoles some of the functionality we have enjoyed for years with PC gaming.

The price is NOT right

[alvinrod]

In case Sony hasn't noticed yet, a $600 pricetag hasn't been all that great for the PS3. Hopefully they're not stupid enough to keep the new 80 GB PS3 at $600 once the supply of $500 models run out. Then again, this is Sony that we're talking about.

I'm fairly sure that once the supply of 60 GB models is gone they're going to have to drop this package down to $500 if they have any hopes of continuing sales into the holiday season. First of all, for the extra $100 I get a an extra 20 GB that I don't care about and a game that I really don't want. They have some great games coming out between now and next year, but I don't think too many people are going to care if the only way to play them is on a $600 machine. $500 even seems like a steep asking price to me, but it's a lot better than $600. For $600 they'd really need to throw in an extra controller and any game of my choice. At that point it works out to about even in my book. If they really wanted to make a splash, drop it down to $450 and gain some good marketshare over the holidays.

Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner

[fistfullast33l]

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?

An Interesting Way to Manufacture Demand

[AbsoluteXyro]

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.

Re:Why?

[hal2814]

"Well patches for one..."

Exactly. Now instead of testing console games to death to make sure there are absolutely no errors making the game unplayable, they can just shovel crap out the door and throw a ton of patches your way like they currently do with PC gaming. All hail the hard drive!

Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner

[fistfullast33l]

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.

Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner

[king-manic]

Funny that it's a "next-gen gaming console" but you can't list a reason to play games on it *now* than minigames. I mean, you want to spend several thousand dollars to play fl0w in HD? Then you really do not know what value for money is.

Blu-ray, ninja gaiden sigma, Resistance, motostorm, use as a media center, spare linux boxen, and future potential. Value is relative. I doubt you'd find value in getting a Lexus Rx350 but my GF thought $67,000 CND + tax provided value. I doubt most would find value in buying a $2000 CND gucci purse but I felt it had enough value to get it for the GF. Similiarly the PS3 provides me with value on my two HDTV's. I make a modest slary. Likely less then you but I save well and skimp ont he unnessacary expenses and splurge on the big things.

Re:Kind of torn

[king-manic]

Just ordered one myself for the same reasons - my ps2 recently died, and although there's nothing I really want to play on ps3 at the moment, I still play a lot of ps2, and it seemed worth it to go ahead and grab one while the hardware emulation was in place.

The good news is the emulation on the ps3 is a lot better with only occasional quirkiness on a few games. FFXII and MGS3 work fine. As does odin sphere and a bunch of other have aboslutely no issues on my version of those games. The compatability list is available and even the "marginal" ones are playable with issues. Conversely the 360's compatability is less then 50% and even some of the compatable ones have issues.

Re:Kind of torn

[Control Group]

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.