80 Gig PS3 Arrives in US 142
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."
I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose it. (Score:5, Funny)
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?
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Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose (Score:1)
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Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose (Score:1)
space is meseared in square metres and storage in cube meters !
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Re:I gotta get outta here, I think I'm gonna lose (Score:2)
Why? (Score:1)
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Download demos. In the 360 world they are tons to download, I can't speak of the Ps3 but I assume it also has lots of demos to try.
Movies, music, etc.
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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!
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MS and Sony have standing policies against "fix" patches. You can sneak it into a content patch though. I did notice a patch for resistance but it added futures (it may have also fixed bugs). It means out of the box old copies of games may not pro
No fair (Score:2)
The fact is, software is buggy. Games come on read-only media. In the old days of gaming, if the game had a bug then that was it. You just worked around it or didn't play the game. And it's not like you could return a buggy game, they simply refuse saying they didn't expressly imply its stability or quality in any way. And the retailers have ridiculous return policies (e.g., "If it is unopened we'll give you another unop
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Basically they are giving the consoles some of the functionality we have enjoyed for years with PC gaming.
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And yea I missed the load times, virtual memory, paging stuff, etc... Really can't believe I forgot that, dam OS class must have not sunk in very well. But thanks for pointing it out, that should be ab
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Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)
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I got a Wii because I wanted to play games.
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I play games directly from my PS2's hard drive. Less wear and tear on the laser . . . and I can keep my kids and their friends from scratching my games.
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US releases of those games had that functionality disabled for some reason. Tragic.
Unofficially, there is a hack
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A hard disk means downloadable content (including full games, music, videos), caching, new firmware features and more besides. Your PS2's functionality was frozen the minute it was manufactured whereas a PS3 could (and has) evolve
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It's also really nice to be able to download a demo for a game before deciding whether to buy it.
My PS3 has about 15gb of stuff on it. Mostly demos and trailers, but I've purchased three downloadable games. Whether that's a $400 advantage is obviously up to the purchaser.
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There's definitely a point, even if it's not always to the customer's advantage (such as with the new ability of fixing bugs after a game is shipped - seems lots of console games have started shipping with bugs recently).
Cool.....but when (Score:2, Insightful)
Profit? Are you sure? (Score:2)
The only way they can profit at the moment is to sell _fewer_ consoles.
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The only way they can profit at the moment is to sell _fewer_ consoles.
You and I have no idea and the article says nothing. Sony does not have a habitof selling things at a loss. Only Microsoft and Sega have ever done that for more then a few weeks (PS2 was confirmed ot be sold ata a loss for all of a month). Otherwise it's just analysts talking out their ass comparing "wholesale" part prices which don't reflect "manufactured inhouse" prices. They
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I'll keep things short. You clearly state, intelligently, that neither you nor the person you replied to are in any position to discern Sony's margins on their consoles, positive or negative. Next, you make a statement claiming something con
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Sony does not have a habitof selling things at a loss.
I find this an amusing case of discrediting one's own statements. It may be the case that Sony doesn't make a habit of selling at a loss; but as you yourself said none of us are in a position to say one way or the other.
The two statements are not mutually exclusive. Fross and myself have no idea of the true margin of the Ps3. From all released data, Sony does not sell products at a loss. No HDTV's, Not walkmans, not the Ps2, not anything. So both statements can be true. Sony does not make a habit of losing money on units sold and we have no idea of in this particular case if this habi
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The implication is probably not intentional, but it is amusing.
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At least it won't piss off their existing owners (Score:3, Funny)
Luckily nobody who bought a PS3 knows what "value for money" is.
Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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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.
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As for the rest of your post, gaming is a leisure activity, therefore you should only be spending expendable income on it. If you have the means to game, you can probably afford the 1080p TV anyways since it will go nicely with your HDTV and surround sound system. If you are making a choice between a new game and eatin
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Emphasis mine.
"The means to game" is a highly subjective measure, and you appear to imply that having the
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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 buyin
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Oh and this made me smile a bit "and exclusives coming soon". Awesome.
But anyone who thinks the ps3 isn't going to be an awesome console in a year or less is just crazy. It is in its ramp-up time right now, which is to be expected. And once it gets a lot of stuff worked out that xbox did in its fir
Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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My biggest point of jealousy over the ps3 right now is the psp integration you mentioned. I won a PSP at work, and have found it extremely fun and useful. I'm not sure I'd exactly need/use any of the psp-ps3 features but... ya k
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Best argument I've heard yet, very true. I've been considering upgrading my PC and yeah, it would cost quite a lot (I think you'd be hard pressed to spend over $1000 without going SLi or something) compared to any of the consoles out there.
I wasn't trolling in my original post, perhaps just purposefully touching a few nerves
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Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner (Score:1)
That's some nice trolling there. And funny how you contradict your earlier post [slashdot.org], claiming that Sony can only profit by selling fewer consoles. Selling units at a loss is pretty common for new consoles (although I'm guessing you already knew that). If you don't want all the features of a PS3, obviously you shouldn't buy it but to say that it isn't "value for money" is just ridiculous.
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Compared to today your average blueray film is £25 (I know I was out looking today) and the PS3 bringing back the old mega drive level of prices (£50, wh
Re:At least it won't piss off their existing owner (Score:2)
What are the other 2?
Kind of torn (Score:2)
On the other hand, if I do wait, there's a chance those will be all gone by next year.
Hm. Actually kind of a tough choice, because this isn't "OMG GIMME NOW!" kind of thing, but more a "If I don't act now, I'll wind up getting th
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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 ye
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The 360 gets by just fine with software emulation. And the PS3's software emulation does upscaling, something that the builtin hardware can't do.
The 360's a nice console, just picked one up myself. It really is loud as all hell though.
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I may be prejudice, but I just don't trust software emulation if it can be avoided reasonably.
Thinking of getting a 360 around xmas, hopefully I can grab a nice bundle or something. But I see no reason to hurry at the moment.
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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.
I've been pretty disappointed with the software emulation on the 360. But with what's coming o
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Do you have a source for that?
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The compatibility is certainly much much better than many blogs and forum posts would have you believe. I just can't imagine they would have to do much more to it to get the compatibility level to a place where it's satisfactory for the vast majority of users.
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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 i
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I have no personal exxperience but word is that most fo the peripherals have sketchy compatability. eyetoy, the guitars etc..
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I am not playing my PS-2 anymore for instance... and buying games on old technology is not very cost effective.
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There are still good PS1&2 games out there. And rather than dusting off the old PS2 when you want to play them, the PS3 can upscale them for HD (with optional smoothing).
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Sw is around 80% and improving with most of the incompatible ones be
Re:Kind of torn (Score:4, Insightful)
$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.
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It is annoying if your favourate game does not work though.
One feature of the PS3 is the ability to swap out your hard drive and replace it with a larger standard 2.5" d
The price is NOT right (Score:2, Insightful)
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 abou
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You might be shocked to find how many people will never buy a $500 GPU. The market for uber gaming pc kit is a lot different than consoles.
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I think the basis of many complaints is that they got one half of a complete package very cheap, but are still waiting for the other half.
The PS3, by itself, is worthless. It requires games or movies and controllers to be worthwhile. For a number of genres of games the PS3 has yet to receive any substancial titles. For people who are not fans of the genres that are represented on the PS3, they bought hardware and are still waiting to use it.
It doesn't partic
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Thus, they made assumptions and are now befuddled. At least that's a possibility.
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Over time it will only get cheaper and have more games available. There are no games for the PS3 that justify the purchase price for me. I think that is the key. People don't hate the PS3 because of the lack of games. They really dislike the PS3 because of lack of value. They where expecting to be shocked by some great games only to find that that they are currently just not that much better than what they are used too. Yes they are better but not so much better tha
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No when I say that there are no PS3 titles that I feel are worth the buy a PS3 it is a fact. You are guess that the titles coming soon will be good. As you said it is a gamble but I see it as
Of course they'll drop it (Score:2)
Of course they will - but just as obviously, there's no way they are going to price the 60GB and 80GB models the same until the 60GB are gone!
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An Interesting Way to Manufacture Demand (Score:5, Insightful)
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Last Chance for Emotion Engine (Score:1)
Does your bike have training wheels? (Score:2)
The reason they dropped the emotion engine is because they can do in software now what the hardware was doing.
No it's not quite as good - but software can be improved over time, and it's good enough now.
Once you learned to ride a bike, did you keep buying training wheels for new bikes or did you drop them with your bike upgrades
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Then again.... (Score:1)
But has anyone forgotten that you can swap out HDD's with out wiping the system? Guess so.....
Percentages in news articles (Score:2)
So, since we don't have the real figures, does this mean
or does this mean
? If we read it as it's written, it should mean the
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there are lies,
Damn Lies,
and stastistics.
-Mark Twain
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Weekly Sales:
July 23rd - 29th:
PS3 - 112,877
360 - 56,384
July 16th - 22nd:
PS3 - 89,242
360 - 54,350
July 9th - 15th:
PS3 - 91,632
360 - 57,023
July 2nd - 8th:
PS3 - 60,836
360 - 59,931
Not quite 113%, but PS3 sales near the end of July are nearly double what they were at the start of July (The price drop was on the 9th).
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I agree that the first interpretation is undoubtedly correct for the quote, but not everyone can
So many mis-informed posts here. (Score:2)
The manufacturers prefer to switch all models over to the newer platter size, it's actually cheaper to have just one assembly line manufacturing the 1 disk type (80gb per platter, up to 2 platters in a 2.5" model)
As for the way they are fiddling with prices, well it's unfortunate I admit but they are giving you essentially, 20gb more hard disk space and Motorstorm a 60$ US game and kee
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Anyway, the emulation is okay. I don't have any complaints from using emulation in the EU PS3 for 5 months now. I agree that if you have some weird collection of titles you may be best to get the 60Gb model (or just keep your PS2), but the 80Gb model still has pretty good BC.
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