Sony has been putting a lot of focus on it's 40GB PS3 model lately, discontinuing the 20 and 60 GB models in Japan within the last couple weeks and thus sparking the fear among Western gamers that a similar move will soon be made in the states. It appears our fears may be realized sooner than we thought.
A scan of an internal document, supposedly made by a Best Buy employee, surfaced today stating that Best Buy will no longer be carrying the 80GB version of the PS3 as of January 28th, and assumes that 60GB models will be cleared from the store by that time as well. Leaving only the crippled 40GB model to be sold in stores.
Far be it from me to jump headlong into the thick wilderness of rumorland, I decided to see what confirmation I could get for myself. A brief call to one of my local Best Buy's confirmed my suspicions. A sales rep (who probably realized his mistake about two seconds too late) informed me Best Buy will no longer be receiving 80GB PS3 models and will not be taking any reservations for the stock they currently have. The salesperson did not however, confirm a specific date at which they would cease carrying 80GB models.
Remember that 40GB models of the PS3 have only two usb ports, no memory card readers, and most importantly no backwards compatibility. So while this rumor is only half confirmed for the time being, anyone holding out on picking up a PS3 that also has a feature considered a standard by most, would be advised to go pick one up, soon.
[Via PSXextreme--Thanks, Jonathan]
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52 comments + 134338 views
Would make sense quite frankly. On several occassions SCE execs have said that they only want 1 SKU on the market to minmise confusion.
Who needs backwards compatibility anyways?
1 SKU?...and they went with the 40...WEAK
@BuckF1tches: uh..anyone that wants to play ps2 games on their ps3? Not even having the option seems ridiculous.
I strongly believe that there shouldn't be multiple SKUs out there to confuse customers, but choosing a crippled 40GB PS3 is not the answer. Stripping away features is weak! I'd like to think that Sony has more sense than this.
Glad I bought the 80GB when I did, if this turns out to be true.
Sony gives us the big fat finger yet again. Am I surprised? Not in the least bit. They kept that one because it's the cheapest for them to manufacture and turns the biggest profit. I don't see XBOX having any problems with 3 different units.
This is just ridiculous, could they really be that stupid to drop BC all together?
I just hope this doesn't end up inflating prices for the 60 and 20 on ebay otherwise I'm never going to end up with one.
Geebus this is stupid! This better not be true. Why would they get rid of backwards compatibility with the most successful console to date. Seriously the PS2 majorly owned, and the PS3 majorly sucks. Why get rid of the few things it actually has going for it?
I've been waiting for some games to come out for the PS3 and also for me to get less poor to get one. But if they cut the 80 gig and don't give me any backwards compatibility? I'll wait until the damn thing's dead to buy one.
I don't know, it would be kind of stupid to go with the 40 gig and abandon the 80 gig PS3 (unless Sony really wants to save money). I always thought that document was either fake or they possibly meant that Sony was just getting rid of the 80 GB BUNDLE (w/ Motorstorm) and not the system itself.
This is stupid. I was thinking about buying a PS3 this summer but with no BC I'm not sure. Does anyone think they will be announcing a 40GB with BC?
Hmm a bad move by Sony, BC is I think a big influence in peoples decision on what console to get, and if they aren't going to be able to play PS2 games on their 40Gb PS3 then there will be a lot of unhappy people.
60GB versions were out of stock in our area in the first week of November last year. They only carry 40 and 80GBs now.
I'm happy I got at least an 80GB since the ten that were at the two Best Buys near me sold out the morning I decided to go pick one up.
Correction to my confusion above: I'm happy I got at least an 80GB since the ten 60GB PS3s that were at the two Best Buys near me sold out the morning I decided to go pick one up.
Damnit!
This better not be true, I'm flat broke and will be for a couple months. =/
Damn holidays (I'm looking at you valentines day, Christmas is cool).
I saw this today. I think it's a good idea.
wtf 40gb sucks
I would think charging an extra $100 for 40 extra gigs is actually beneficial for Sony. Surely it doesn't cost them that much to have a bigger hard drive. Perhaps they just want one model going forward (which I support) and they are just choosing the cheapest one (which I don't support).
i don't get it; am I the only one that didn't sell their PS2?
I guess they really don't want those PS2 sales to slow down. I can understand that obviously but I think it's eating into the PS3 sales a bit. Not to mention it's making people slower to adopt the new stuff.
i really doubt this is the end for BC.
sony knows people want it and too phaze it out completely
would be ridiculous. im betting we will see some sort of announcement of either a ressurection of the 60 or something that has BC in it soon.
i don't get it; am I the only one that didn't sell their PS2?
Nope, but it's really nice to only have 2 consoles with my flatscreen. I've connected my PS2 to my treadmill so I can watch movies or even play games while I run (has a built-in tv screen).
I really don't think the average person who is salivating over the ps3 is super stoked about playing all the old games they've been playing. Sure, it's cool to be able to do that, but the last time I played a ps2 game was probably 5 months ago. And I have had the 60Gb model.
Fanboy over-reactions are always a riot.
If the PS3 does not have backwards compatibility, I don't want it.
I still have my ps2 as well.
I no longer have any faith in Sony and PS3. They just keep doing all this crap like a retard is making these shit decisions.
BC needs to be in PS3, because if PS1 titles are supported and recent PS2 ones are not, it makes their double standard view 'that we aren't bothered by the lack of BC' ever so look bad.
Damn you Sony, how the hell can you create such a shit hot piece of tech like PS3 and then remove such an important and now standard feature of consoles like BC? This is exactly why I'm abstaining from getting a PS3. I don't trust them anymore.
The only reason I am concerned about backward compatibility is the fact that I don't want more consoles hooked up than necessary. It's already a cordy mess. And I have a bunch of PS2 games that are backlogged because I didn't have time to play them, sure lots of others are in the same boat. So that's one reason BC is important.
Thanks to the super handy PS3 Venn Diagram, I decided to pickup a 60GB PS3 (the Premium model from launch) and I couldn't be more happy. Has every feature that has even be inside a PS3 box, and you can get them for less than the 40GB PS3 new in brick-and-mortar stores.
I don't even understand what niche the 80GB was filling: for customers that want a crappy PS2 experience and a larger HDD? This whole model was just a cost ploy on Sony's part.
The system is amazing, if Sony would just calm down and let the developers do that they are gifted at doing: selling systems.
HOLY SHIT YOU CAN'T PLAY PS2 GAMES ON NEW PS3's NOW??? Looks like anyone who is interested in that will have to get a PS2 which are actually pretty rare these days.....
GHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII!
no BC, no games = a Profile 1.1 blu-ray player that I don't want
I'm buying this with my 800 dollars, thanks Bushy
no BC, no games = a Profile 1.1 blu-ray player that I don't want
How the heck is that possible when I own more PS3 games than 360 games??!!
Honestly, the worst thing about the 40GB is the lack of two USB ports and the media drives.
@Quail,
I was being sarcastic. Many people care. this is bad if it is true
my ex wont give my ps2 back. :( i need that backwards compatibility sony!
they just said best buy which is stupid for best buy
but glad i bought my 60gb when i did
i love my ps3
but hey I call shinnanagins
marketing people
they got this idea from the burger king discontinued whopper commercial
I have a feeling that there will be an "ELITE" version of the machine coming later this year... at 80GB or higher... but most definitely a higher end model.
Or maybe I'm just too positive for my own good.
And here I thought Sony had learned how to do things right... one SKU makes things better, but why the crappy 40GB version?
@ChrisFurniss: I've got the ski-masks, you've got the car, let's roll.
@brainderailment et al.
I'm in the same boat. When I bought a 60gb PS3 I thought the back-compat was incredibly important. A year later, I've played a whopping two PS2 games on it, and one was just for a couple minutes to see how the upscaling made it look. Back-compat turned out to be less important than I thought, at least to me.
Evil Avatar has some more info on the decision and quotes from an interview with Steve Foster of SCEE.
God dammit Sony.
Oh well, I suppose I was planning to save up for a 60GB model off eBay anyways, but still, who gimps the console as the life goes on? Consoles should get more features, if anything.
I'm looking for a 60GB SKU at the moment. I want to get one before they're totally extinct.
Sorry to say this but, If you ever planned on getting a PS3 and haven't due to waiting for something better, your a fool.
Sony has been saying they will be dropping parts of the hardcore console to bring back some revenue per console (since we all know their loosing money per console sold) ever since they announced the 80G SKU.
If you ever planned on getting a PS3, now its the time. Don't worry about HDD space, you can get it your self for allot cheaper, cuz I would not be surprised a 120G SKU is on the way to replace the 80G one (Which is shennanigans to me cuz you can get 200HDD for $100, less if you get a newegg coupon :P )
I can see the 60g and 80g SKU becoming rare SKU's going on ebay to $1k+ again for the MOD's that will be happening this coming year.
I don't if anyone's noticed, but this is about BEST BUY dropping the 80 gb, not sony. I'm sure the 40 gb was selling a lot more, and they thought it to be in their best interests to cut out the 80 gb all together. And besides that, normal people (non-core gamers) don't really care about backwards compatability; they'll buy a PS3 to play PS3 games. Everytime someone tells me they want to buy the 40 gb, I tell them that it won't play PS2 games, and the general answer is "Oh really? Well, I don't really care."
Honestly, I was shocked and disappointed when Sony announced this new SKU, but it seems to be doing fine for itself. I think there's always the possibility for a firmware update to allow backwards compatibility, and I'm pretty positive sony will do that this year, if not in the next few months.
I mean...not like many Best Buy stores have the 80 gig in stock anyway. so I don't see how much this matters if it's just being released. (well in that sense I assume. still good news to know.)
so this just kills whatever chance I wanted to get a PS3 if they don't add backwards compatibility. Mainly cause It's just so much easier to buy a Japanese PS3 that can play PS2 games minus the swap disc/ mod chip hassle. But this is all cause sony was so confident in thinking they'd be the shit once they broke out last year. Might've been the shit but they still didn't have shit to go along with the console.
oh well I guess. in the end, sony just better hope they can find a stable pair of legs to stand and regain what they had last gen.
This is just dumb, but that seems to be Sony’s M.O. with many of their PS3 decisions. I’m so glad I got my 60 GB PS3 a year ago; I keep my PS2 around for Guitar Hero II, but otherwise, God of War II looks great when upscaled.
I don't know about you guys, but I already played my PS2 games. Also, if I want to play them again...I have a PS2.
Not a good idea. Any person technically inclined knows what they want and they know that BC is not included in the 40gb. Most people want BC, or at least people I know. Why would they want to do that anyway, don't they want more money? $$$ Console = $$$ for Best Buy I would think.
To anyone saying you'd rather have a PS2 than a PS3 with BC, thats great for you, but Id rather have less systems hooked up to the TV, and I'd like my games to be upscaled.
I think I'll start putting 60Gb hard drives in 40Gb consoles and sell them on ebay as 60Gb ones.
P.S. If you do this, you are neither clever nor will you make a cent doing it. Also you are fail.
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