Sony prepping an 80GB PS3, almost keeping up with the Jonses
By Paul Miller 
posted Mar 29th 2007 10:32AM
posted Mar 29th 2007 10:32AM
With Sony's position as the new-gen storage king being threatened by the Xbox 360 Elite, it seems only natural that Sony would at least try and stuff a few more GB into its console. At least that's the word according to a recent FCC filing, which was required due to a change in Bluetooth module, and has seemingly spilled the beans on an 80GB version of the PS3. That's about as much as we know, and of course, there's no telling right now how Sony is going to fit this into its lineup. But either as a replacement or an addition we're sure we'll be able to find something to stick on that extra disk space, though we have a fair idea what Sony would like us to be doing with it: buying crap. We're sure Microsoft is already planning a clever "we have 120GB, neener neener" retort as we speak, but let's just hope they keep in mind the fact that it took 'em 1.5 years and a $479 SKU to get with the HDMI program.[Thanks, Cosmo]
20gb? why when you can increase hdd size on your own. wonder the BT change?
Agreed. I wonder why Sony chose the number 80... Seems like a menial upgrade.
699.99 USD 699.99 USD 699.99 USD
RIDDDDDDDDDDGE RACERRRRRRRRr
Damn. Just when I got done mocking microsoft.
*shakes head in disbelief*
I don't really understand the "we have 120gb neener neener" bit, if MS decides to go that route. Mostly because my PS3 is sitting pretty at 160GB, and I didn't have to ask Mommy for permission. I just bought a nice, cheap 160GB and put it in my PS3's NON custom HDD area and BAM! Drive space out the wazoo. Superior.
All of the sudden, Sony's $500 20GB version isn't looking that ridiculous, eh $479 360? EH????@!?!?!
er yeah it does. The 360 is $20 cheaper and you get 100 GB more. So i don't reall see your point. (nothin personal)
And don't forget the ONE semi-good game you can play with your ps3.
Either way, I never play my PS3. And I don't use any of the 60GB I have. I also have 5GB left on my 360's "13GB" drive...which is plenty.
It sucks that a hack will have to be used, but I'm glad someone already figured out how we can use our own HDD's in the 360.
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEyAZlukkkkGLVUagB.php
Now we just need to get ahold of that 120GB so this guy can pull the info he needs off it.
Yeah, I don't even see the need for Sony to upgrade since you can easily put a huge drive in yourself.
Makes perfect sense to me...
eliminate the 20gb (which no one seems to be buying anyway) the 60gb will become the base model and the 80gb the high end model.
Drop the price of the 60gb to $399.00 and make the 80gb $499.00.
Do this in Christmas of 2007 and the PS3 sells like hotcakes.
Uh, nay, nay, Sony isn't going to be dropping the prices, but getting more bang for that six hundred dollars is indeed good.
especially if they smelled like hotcakes~!
Even though I only own 1 game for my ps3 and no bluray movies, i still think its a better buy on the technology per dollar basis then an elite. on a game basis, i hope to get a standard 360 soon so i can play some of the games, dead rising...
True, MS could indeed boast that they have a larger hard drive. Sony, however, could counter that they have a $10 wifi enabled card and bluray.
Meanwhile, the Wii could say it now has herpes and people would still buy it in drones. Glad to see some companies remember what a gaming system is supposed to do.
Hey look! Another article that puts a bad light on Microsoft from engadget! They should have a Anti-Microsoft category!
It is interesting that put a Sony article that shows support for it. Too bad they didn't link to this article in which Sony goes into a serious "we are better than you" speech upon the arrival of the 360 Elite. Read it...it is another example of the rudeness of Sony.
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/13112/Sony-Responds-to-Xbox-360-Elite-Announcement/
Microsoft isn't the only one being jerks about this console war...but you wouldn't know that by reading this biased website.
Did you even read the quote on that link?
Of course I did...that is why I used it.
Sony is trying to act like they have provided a high quality product all along. By doing this, they say that Microsoft has not been doing this. I agree with this because Microsoft was able to get a quality product out when it was supposed to be. They also charged a decent price to it. Sony dragged their legs and put an overpriced product on the shelf. Sure it has Blu Ray and wifi and a bigger HDD, but the purpose (high quality) was not being acheived: playing great games. 360 has quality games and a quality device with a quality price. Sony can't beat that...even if they do have the bells and whistles.
Actually daschupa, you statement doesn't hold much water given the fact the 20GB is no longer being carried here in the US to any worthwhile numbers.
Good luck findings a 20GB model at a retail outlet..they certainly aren't any online, well except Fleabay.
JinKazama, my thoughts exactly.
arman, who was talking about the $499 version? It doesn't even come with wifi. It just seems silly to have these companies in a battle to enlarge their manhood in order to declare self-entitled supremacy over the other. All of this whilst the Wii doesn't even have dvd capabilities and it is outselling them all.
JinKazama: Thats what they are doing, I'd put 599.99 on it.
Haha, it's good to see that engadget writers jump on the "i hate microsoft" bandwagon too.
"but let's just hope they keep in mind the fact that it took 'em 1.5 years and a $479 SKU to get with the HDMI program."
This is true. But how fucking long did it take Sony to even get its console out of the door and competing with 360? Guess that fact and the fact that no one gives a shit about HDMI must have slipped your mind.
Why must people make comments when they have no idea on what the big picture is.
I am in agreement with JinKazama(although I don't think they will drop the price that much by Xmas 2007, maybe $50 off each model?)...
I am guessing that they will scratch the 20GB and instead offer the 60GB with the same features as the 20GB model. The 80GB model will replace the current 60GB model.
Of course I am "guessing" so only time will tell.
Love the optimism Jin but I really doubt that Sony will drop the prices of the PS3 that much. I don't ever recall a console maker dropping the price of their console by that much in one cut while the console was still viable. A $50-100 price drop is more realistic.
I could be wrong but I assume this is because hard disk manufacturers have moved to from 60GB to 80GB platters. This is based on an observation that in the past drive sizes were all divisible by 60 (120GB, 180GB, 300GB etc) while now all drives are divisible by 80 (160GB, 320GB, 400GB etc). Presumably then 60GB platters have gone out of production so the drives will be 80GB regardless, and there’s no point selling an 80GB drive as a 60GB drive.
Sorry, but that's simply not true. 60 GB drives are still being made by the hundreds.
The $479 isn't that bad of a deal actually. I made a little calculator on my website that figures out what's the price of the SKUs based on your needs. The elite was cheaper than me taking a the 60GB Playstation 3. Granted I don't want an HD DVD player or Blu-ray.
Here's the link to my calculator. http://www.sjheckel.com/nextgenfight
your calculator has a flaw... a $499.99 60 GB ps3 + 59.99 official PS3 HDMI cable = $659.98.. its should be a $599.99 60 GB ps3... the math is right.. just not the listing.
"er yeah it does. The 360 is $20 cheaper and you get 100 GB more. So i don't reall see your point. (nothin personal)"
Actually, it's $120 cheaper for the system itself, which makes it $280 cheaper if you compare apples to apples.
$200 for an HD-DVD drive
$100 for a WiFi adapter
Throw in a 250GB SATA drive for the PS3 just for fun and you're still at $40 less than a comparable Elite, more storage capacity, (supported) booting into linux, and more shiny than you can shake a stick at.
Grr - I'm guilty of bad math. I RUE THE DAY! The PS3 is $180 cheaper if you add WiFi and HD-DVD, and $100 less after adding a $80 250GB SATA drive (which is what they're going for locally)
"I wonder why Sony chose the number 80... Seems like a menial upgrade."
'Arman''s got it I think. I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a COST SAVING measure.
I doubt any manufacturer is keen on the idea of continuing to dedicate factory time/space and resources to producing what are now low capacity drives. I wouldn't even be surprised if Sony in fact got a GREAT volume rate on a large stock pile of 80GB hdds that were sitting in a warehouse somewhere simply because retailers and conventional OEM PC makers just don't want them.
Personally, I think it's kind of silly to be putting sub 100GB (or even 120GB) drives into either the PS3or the 360 when both camps are trying to position them as general media devices.
because even though they probably are both getting clearing house prices for these realatively small drives they are likely getting rather poor value (which they pass on to the consumer). When you think about it, probably the first $30 - $40 of a conventional ATA/SATA hard drive is the chasis, controler, head /arm apeture,and stepper motor. It's very complex and precise mechanically speaking. The rest is the actual platters on which the data is stored. You're going to pay the base $30 - $40 just to get a functional drive. You still need the platters though. So add $10 for 80GB platters. Total cost ~$50 (if you can find one). Or you could go with 250GB platters and pay $30 on top of the base...total price ~$70. As far as platters go that's pretty fair. 3x the price, 3x the capacity. But as far as the retail price of the entire unit (including the parts that don't scale) goes that's a measly 40% increase in price for a 300% increase in capacity. Or about $0.88 per GB (in the small Hdd) as opposed to $0.28 per GB (in the large one).
Trust me, this isn't Sony trying to benefit the consumer (and probably not them trying to keep up with MS either), it's probably just so they don't have to special order drives from somebody...
Don't take that as Sony hate though, they revised the PS2 any number of times to cut costs. It's the same thing and it's a totally legitimite business practice, but this way you get (a little) more for your money. So value goes up slightly even if price doesn't go down...
This stupid rumor is started by some xbots to try and justify the dumb mistake M$ did with this elite, Think about it why would they have to bring out a knew system to have a bigger Hd when all you have to do is buy your own? they just proved that sony was thinking ahead and M$ rushed there planes with the 360. if you want proof go look up some old pod cast with major nelson . peter moore and the head guy in-charge of HD at M$, its a laugh, and its all there can't be denied, they brushed it off and said that they decided that using 720P was better then 1080P and all the developers also agreed , and that running games at 1080p at 60fps was impossible. lol and thats why they chose 720p and no one would be using hdmi bc its not supported enough in the market. lol after the TGS they changed there minds and brushed it off like "ya we have 1080P also, Next!" we all know M$ 1080p is NOT the same thing as sonys. ha ha ha bullshit M$ BULLSHIT!! the cool thing is that its all there recored at Major nelsons pod cast, thats unless he took it down. Major Nelson used to be cool when he only talked about xb360 but when he became a corporate mouth for M$ and started sounding like a M$ fanboy i stopped listening!.
you do realise that native and scaled 1080p isn't that different; it's just texture sizes. i'm also curious, how big your screen is for you to see the difference between 720p and 1080p.
my projector (optoma) is pointed at 106" screen, and from about 10' i see no difference. i can't even tell a difference from as far away as i can get (about 16').
They are just replacing the 60GB unit with a 80GB HDD because 80GB is a more standard size for laptop notebooks. There is more volume for 80GB notebook drives and they have little to no difference in price between the drives, Sony is probably just going to have a 80GB model for $599.
Sony:
"As mentioned when we made the product announcement for PS3, the system will have different configurations (thus, 60GB HDD with memory card slots and Wi-Fi and 20GB HDD without memory card slots or Wi-Fi both exist)," wrote a Sony PR rep in an e-mail to Next-Gen. "Application to the FCC has been made with various possibilities in mind, however, it does not lead to a new product announcement at this time."
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5065&Itemid=2
here's what Sony SHOULD do, and what Microsoft didn't
New PS3 80GB
+ Rumble feature
+ PS2, DVD upscale capability
+80GB harddive
*Make it the SAME price as the 60GB
*Lower the 60GB version to 479 (just to stick to "Elite")
*lower the 20GB version to 399.
Then Sony will have a great Christmas.
This most be a joke. Come on, I upgraded my PS3 HD to 125gb, by myself. So I don't see the point. May be or May be this could be speculations from a retard game reviewer or a retard idea from Sony. I bet it came from a retard game reviewer
Math 101 dude. $200 For HD-DVD, $499 XBOX 360, $100 wifi , 49.99 xbox live. You need about thousand dollars for at least get an updated hardware console. Sorry but your math are wrong. 400+200+100+49.99=749.99, not mention that this does not include an HDMI port. But at least Microsombies love there customers, they have a “super big deal” brand new black xsucks yea! They rocks!. Yea!. Now you can sale your newOld xsucks so you can upgrade to HDMI+GB HD. This is what I call. “The rapist Deal” That's Got To Hurt. Thanks god for Vaseline. Back to school dude.
Lack of high quality? How is integrating those ~$300 addons (HD/WiFi) for the 360, a larger universal HDD, the PS, card reader, BT, and HDMI for a mere $200 not higher quality? The reason why the 360 is better at this point is having a superb online marketplace/gameplay center and a maturing game library. In terms of HW, how can you really bash the PS3 vs. 360?
go to the US Federal Communications Commission and watch all the xsucks version.
iTV, FTW!!!
any HDMI cord works you do not need property HDMI
It looks lame just upgrading the thing for 20GB... but hey, it is their money and their shareholders' what is at stake. They sure are smart...
I don't know the US 60Gb package, but in Europe, we've got in the box(months later), the console, in shiny cheap plastic (black, of course), that type of plastic that seems to be easily broken or deformed by heat. A composite AV cable (for the love of God, that thing is an offense), an USB cable and ONE Sixaxis controller!, and the ethernet thing. Sure, it has WIFI and Bluetooh, 4 USB's and so on.
The software looks neat (as the old VAIO ZONE) and the soft that new receivers from SONY feature, and games like F1 or Resistance look just fine (not really a breakthrough from XBOX 360).
The point is, its innards should worth the price for future amortization, because I don't see why a normal household should throw away 600 EUR for this. Although the guys from MSFT don't seem to be smarter with the 480 EUR black thing... anyway Sony gave them the opportunnity to keep the price at the same level since launch. Because in this biz, a year is too much for the price to hold.
80GB?... who cares, man!!!
If you and your kids can survive, wait till next Xmas (XBOX price might go really down)... instead you can rent the thing some weekends. Besides, these games are not so amazing for 60 bucks.
I know that but if you went to his calculator youd see that it would only give you "the official ps3 hdmi cable" under the ps3 column... i was just trying to be nice and let him know that he messed up his coding.
Makes me wonder why Sony doesn't ship the PS3 minus a hard drive in the first place and say "Put in whatever size works for you!" and drop each sku by 100 bucks. Let's face it, only hardcore are buying this damn thing and they're going to have a HDD not being used as it is, or hit up newegg and buy one for less 100. Any of the unwashed who buy one will get one foisted on them by Best Buy or Circuit City.
As the newer article from Engadget has pointed out, SCEI has denied a larger HDD for the PlayStation 3, and I totally trust them on that. SCEI has repeatedly stated that there will be no newer versions, and there's no reason to believe that there should be. The reason why is because SCEI made the HDD in the PlayStation 3 end-user replaceable. Getting a larger HDD for the PlayStation 3 is even cheaper than getting the Xbox 360 Elite.
Plus, if SCEI were to release a PlayStation 3 with a larger HDD, they'd be screwing over their consumers, just like Microsoft. The way I see it, when people bought the Xbox 360 Premium, they thought they were getting the best model of the Xbox 360. But now if they want to stay at the top, they'll have to get a new Xbox 360. When SCEI releases hardware revisions, it's never a higher-end model, and I don't see why that would change now.
>Makes me wonder why Sony doesn't ship the PS3 minus a hard drive in the first place and say "Put in whatever size works for you!" and drop each sku by 100 bucks.
you really think just because Microsoft charges its loyal customer 100 bucks for a 20gb hd, it's how much it costs? :D
it will save people probably 30 bucks, and I'd MUCH rather pay that exta 30 bucks to have a 20GB inside than having to go outside and get on myself.