You're not suprised, are you. No, we knew this was coming since last month, but now it's official: the new 80gb model of the PS3, packed with the off-road racing game MotorStorm, is now available in retail stores in the United States and Canada for $599/659 CDN. That's 20 more gigabytes of high-definition trailers of chick flicks, redneck comedy MP3s, and cute pictures of your dog!
"The 80GB PS3 offers expanded options in the PS3 family of products for those who want to enjoy more downloadable content," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing, SCEA. "The new model will provide ample storage space to meet the appetites of those who wish to download content today, and for many more years to come. With the expanded disk capacity and dynamic system upgrades, we have effectively created a system that is 'future-proof', providing consumers an exceptional entertainment value that will stand the test of time."
The same press release tells us that the 60gb model is being snatched up from North American stores after receiving a $100 price drop on July 9th. The system is showing a 113% sales increase from last month's numbers at the top five North American brick-and-mortar retailers. Sony predicts that the remaining stock of 60gb models will be depleted by the end of this fall, so you had better get out there if you want to play upcoming titles like Heavenly Sword, Lair, SingStar, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and many more.
Peep the release after the jump.
FOSTER CITY, Calif., August 6, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA) today announced the availability of a new 80GB PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) at online and brick-and-mortar retailers in the United States and Canada. The system, available immediately for a suggested retailer price of $599US/$659 CND, comes with the hit online-enabled off-road racing game MotorStorm™ packed in the box. Featuring an expanded hard disk drive, the new 80GB PS3 is designed to appeal to the online gaming and entertainment enthusiast, providing ample storage space to download more games and other entertainment content from PLAYSTATION®Network. There are currently more than 60 playable games and game-related downloads available through PLAYSTATION®Store, with expanded entertainment content coming soon. The new model features the million-selling game MotorStorm in the box, allowing up to 12 players to play online at one time, hitting the dirt in this visually-arresting, fast-paced racing title.
"The 80GB PS3 offers expanded options in the PS3 family of products for those who want to enjoy more downloadable content," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing, SCEA. "The new model will provide ample storage space to meet the appetites of those who wish to download content today, and for many more years to come. With the expanded disk capacity and dynamic system upgrades, we have effectively created a system that is 'future-proof', providing consumers an exceptional entertainment value that will stand the test of time."
The 80GB model joins the existing 60GB PS3 that has been available at retail since launch last November. The 60GB PS3 is currently enjoying a surge in sales following a price reduction in the US and Canada on July 9 of $100 to $499/$549 CND. Since that date, unit sales at the company's top five retailers have jumped 113% when compared to the average sales of four weeks prior to the price drop. SCEA will continue to sell the 60GB in the US and Canada at the new, reduced price until current inventory is depleted, which is predicted to be this fall based on current consumer demand. Throughout the holidays and this fiscal year, more than 120 new first and third party software titles will be available for North American PS3 users to enjoy, in addition to the more than 40 software titles currently available. Key upcoming first-party titles include Folklore™, Heavenly Sword™, LAIR, NBA '08, Ratchet & Clank® Future: Tools of Destruction™, SingStar™, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PAIN, and Warhawk™.
Both the 80GB and 60GB PS3 models come standard with Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.), built-in hard disk drive, 1080p high-definition output, Wi-Fi connectivity, SIXAXIS™ wireless controller and Blu-ray Disc™ player. According to Nielsen VideoScan, there are currently more than 270 high-definition Blu-ray Disc™ movies available at retail, including the recently released "300," "Shooter," and "Ghost Rider."
Contest:
8:42 AM on 08.07.2007
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Maybe Talladega Nights is in that five, lol. If it were two games and three Blu Ray flicks, then I'd consider it.
360 Premium = $400
360 WiFi = $100
Play and Charge = $20
HD-DVD + 5 Free Movies = $180
Total Package = $700
And that's not including Live and 3 times as much HD space.
And all those comparisons are and always have been ridiculous: not everyone buys shit like WiFi+5 HDDVD's for the 360 just because the PS3 has it. Just like not every PS3 owner will pay $100 for 2 rumble controllers when they hit retail.
USED PS3's are $370 at Gamestop.
$370.
For a BluRay player. You don't get the 5 free BluRays, but were you seriously pondering getting Chicken Little? Really? Or Stealth? Pearl Harbor, maybe? The only decent giveaway title on that list of freebies is Devil's Rejects, and you can get that for like $20.
This is the cheapest way to go BluRay currently too.
The PS3 also makes a hell of a media server. I never thought I'd say that. The file management (copy and delete functions) are miles beyond where MS is on their console.
Also, the internal drive on a PS3 is a notebook SATA drive, so you can upgrade the 20 to a 160GB for under $100.
http://www.destructoid.com/playstation-3-for-only-350-with-limited-time-offer-37677.phtml
It's funny to see how, by making some moves, Sony and its PS3 have regained the Dtoid crew's faith. Just check the comments a few weeks ago, no one "gave a shit" about "da fugly PSTriple lolz!" and now it seems that everyone has one or has plans of buying one. We're getting cheap.
Granted, Sony seems to be getting back on track, but c'mon! Oh, and before anyone spits flames against me, I don't own any of the three consoles, and I plan to stay away from the "next-gen" frenzy until any of the three consoles really demostrates that:
1) Can bring more than USA-centric titles (sorry guys, but FPS and USA-style sports aren't my type) and, you know, just work for some time. Hear me, 360?
2) Can bring fun for... gamers instead of fat moms. I love the idea behind the Wii, but if Nintendo surprises me one more time with things like WiiFit I'll cry and punch my own balls in punishment.
3) The PS3 really shows what it was made for. The lack of games is just unbelievable, despite the price reduction I still consider it too pricey for the average gamer (yeah, yeah, it's meant for hardcore gamers blah, blah, blah). Months after its launch, Sony still seems top be confused about how to market the damn thing: "it's not a console, it's a computer", "blu-ray player that also plays games".
</rant>
Epitaph, your threshold is obviously not reached. Kudos to you for sticking to your guns. I'm enjoying mine though. Resistance and Motorstorm haven't gotten old yet (granted I've had them a month), and I look forward to Heavenly Sword and Rachet and Clank. The Blu-Ray player aspect does add a little bit of value in my eyes, but maybe not as much as Sony had hoped it would.
To me the media player part doesn't work as well as it should. For one it should support a wider variety of codecs for video and audio. I'm talking FLAC, ogg, avi (xvid/divx), mkv, etc... But, what is there is worthwhile.
I really wanted a 360, but the RROD scared me away and there was a lonely used PS3 with hot legs giving me "the look."
yet we still fight. it makes me sad. ]:
I got it for the BluRay.
It's the cheapest BluRay player out there. I could give two craps about the gaming parts of it. The media center added in with the player made for an easy purchase. The game assortment isn't too far off of where the PS2 was back in 2001. My memory serves me, but there were a scant 50 - 70 titles this time in 2001 for the PS2.
I'm not being a turncoat here because I own one now. I still think the controller is garbage, needs rumble and to not feel like a Dual Shock toy controller. I doubt I'll ever play it much outside of the odd exclusive that piques my interest, and then, I'll probably only ever rent.
I don't Sony's done much to "restore my faith" They never really had it. Ever. Sony's gotten so lucky in the gaming industry because they had enough cash to burn to make money in it. You ever stop to notice that there's a definite difference in gamers who are Nintendo/Sega fanboys vs people who bought in with a PSX or an Xbox? Nintendo and Sega foster a lot more positive images and respect towards the gaming industry than Sony or MS could ever achieve. And they did so by catering to gamers exclusively.
When you start using MPEG-4 compliant devices, you start forgetting about DIVX and Xvid. I can render one torrent download into something that plays back on my ipod, itunes, xbox and PS3. Yes, Xvid would be entirely more appealing because of open source, but how often does open source get media support from big companies? Find me a brand name MP3 player with OGG and FLAC support.
Batch video converters = FTW
The RIO karma
http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261
To skirt around the the whole codec problem, they could just give programmers an API to write codecs. Then unleash the fury of the internets on it and put a disclaimer about not their fault if you brick it.
1) Microsoft ships a broken system. Warranty extensions and whatever, but the freaking machine just doesn't work as it should. Or better, put, I doesn't work for as long as it should.
2) Sony treats us like idiots, saying that "even if we charge $1000 for the machine, players will buy it". What's next? We're gonna buy $800 Sony-labeled bricks?
3) Nintendo ships an interesting machine, and completely wastes the idea marketing it as an average Joe consumer product. I see WiiFit as a big, red-neon marquee saying: "Fuck those who put us here with their money and support. Welcome casual gamers". I've nothing agains casual gaming, but surely I could use more... hardcore (I beggining to hate this word) games, and a few new franchises for that matter.
This is what the console industry is offering us. And we keep giving them our money. For me, it's not enough. But you can enjoy your consoles and laugh at me :)
- 360 may die on you / you get a new one within a week / it's a cheaper starting solution / has evil evil MS who is doing relatively good PR work / will be handicapping PS3 multplatform games 2 years from now in the same way the PS2 did to the xbox1.
- PS3 is more solid as a machine / looking to be the new xbox1 mediacenter-wise / will one day have more than 5 good games / is a good choice for the HD enthusiast / has Sony to shit on you PR-wise / is doing more things right than wrong in the last few weeks (for a change).
- Wii sounded like something we all just NEEDED to try ourselves / wasn't much fun after Zelda / is pissing on PAL territories.
But at the same time, some of us just neeeeeeeeeeed to play with it ourselves. Those HD trailers you get these days... they don't exactly help either. Maybe there should also be a gamer version of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but more in the way of "I need to play BioShock now!".
But like Bhive said: props for resisting the urge! If anyone does laugh, you can always return the favor after xmas'08 :)
everyone is going crazy to spend more on the system to save 5$ on the movie.