Sony's 40GB PS3 due 28 October?
Evidence mounts for cut-price console
Rumours that Sony is preparing a cut-price 40GB PlayStation 3 may have been dismissed by the consumer electronics giant as "speculation", but evidence is mounting that just such a box is indeed coming later this month.
UK online retailer Play.com, for instance, is listing an unspecified PS3, clearly separate from the other models, and which is revealed when visitors to its website do a search for 'ps3 40gb'.
Play.com heralds... er... 666GB PS3
Except... it doesn't, despite online reports to the contrary. Most reports list this URL, which indeed appears to bring up a placeholder page for the 40GB console.
However, changing the search string embedded in the URL to, say, ps3+666gb, generates exactly the same page. Presumably, then, we can safely assume Sony is readying a 666GB version of the console.
But Engadget's publication of what it allegedly an entry in US retailer Best Buy's database showing a $400 "PS3 40GB SPIDER" product is much more compelling.
Engadget's Best Buy 40GB PS3 product listing
The product's due in stock on 28 October, and clearly refers to a console with a bundled copy of one of the Spider-man movies. That's no great surprise: Sony said at last month's IFA show in Berlin that it was preparing to bundle Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray Disc with the PS3, part of its strategy to drive demand for its favoured next-generation disc format.
This week's revelations follow the recent appeareance of a new PS3 on the US Federal Communications Commission website. That version had the model number CECHG01, not one seen on current and previous PS3 models, but the next one in the sequence.
COMMENTS
SONY FAILED PROMISES AGAIN??
REMEMBER THE PSX MEDIA MACHINE THINGY???
MINIDISC??
BETAMAX???
BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY MAY NOT BE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD BUT WHEN YOU HAVE SPENT YOUR HARD EARNED CASH ON MANY GAMES FOR THE OVER HYPED,TECHNICALLY OK PLAYSTATION 2 ONLY TO HAVE TO EITHER KEEP IT OR REPLACE IT WITH THE MASSIVELY OVER HYPED NOT PARTICULARLY WONDERFUL PS3.OH AND DONT FORGET YOUR NEAR USELESS DVD COLLECTION YOU WILL NEED TO BE RID OF TOO!!
IF ONLY SEGA HAD PUT MORE EFFORT IN WITH THE DREAMCAST,MAYBE SONY WOULD HAVE HAD TO WORK HARD ON KEEPING LOYAL FANS INSTEAD OF FOOLING PEOPLE INTO BUYING AN EXPENSIVE WHITE ELEPHANT.
I REALLY HOPE PEOPLE KEEP UP THE SUPPORT FOR THE WII AND 360 AS THEY HAVE GREAT POTENTIAL.AND NO THE WII SHOULDNT BE CLASSED AS COMPETING WITH THE PS3 , THE WII HAS THE EDGE OF INGENIOUS DESIGN (COPIED BY SONY) AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS.LETS HOPE THE YAWN INDUCING FIRST PERSON SHOOT EM UP GENRE DOESNT FLOOD THE WII.
OPEN YOUR EYES SONY, YOUR FANS WILL ONLY CRY SO MUCH OVER THEIR WASTED MONEY.
re: re: PS2 emu
"fyi: the PS3, as sold in the EU since launch, features no h/w emulation of the PS2 (as per Jap/US)."
fyi: The EU PS3 still contains the PS2 graphics chip. Only the PS2 'emotion engine' is emulated in software.
re: PS2 emu
fyi: the PS3, as sold in the EU since launch, features no h/w emulation of the PS2 (as per Jap/US).
Since emu is done via s/w, is there much to drop?
40gb PS3!!!
It's not just the HDD size that is supposedly being changed to reduce the price. According to most rumors citing documents filed on the FCC's website in the U.S., the new 40GB version excludes all media card slots and also has 2 less USB ports. Also (according to analysts) to make the PS3 an estimated $45 cheaper per console, sony has now gone to software emulation in the 80 GB version to play PS2 games as opposed to actual hardware inside the PS3 and that they might have done away with backwards compatibility for PS2 games altogether on this version which i could care less about anyway.
Pricing parity
I for one will never buy a next gen console until there is pricing parity across the markets, if this console $399 in the States I wouldn't pay more than £199 for it here.
