No 80GB PS3 for you Europe, how about 120GB instead?

In an interview with Norway's Dabladet, David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, reiterated that a move from the 60GB to an 80GB PS3 didn't make sense for Europe. Unlike the US and S.Korea, "going up 20GB is not worth it." We know, that's a bitter pill for our more culturally astute gaming brethren to swallow. Still, take heart as Reeves went on to say that, "if you double it, it's worth it. So maybe you'll see something a bit later." Right, that's 120GB if we take his words literally. Of course, these bumps are inevitable, so some specific timing would certainly be appreciated. In defense of launching the new Starter Pack bundles (a 60GB PS3 with two Sixaxis pads and two first party games) instead of price cuts for Europe, Reeves claims that consumers in PAL territories are more concerned with "added value." Riiiight. Of course, this is the same man who said "the name of the game is not market share" only to predict that the PS3 will be "the winner" by March 08. In other words, anything can happen.

[Via The Inquirer]

[Totalfixation @ Jul 19th 2007 5:28AM]

Standardize your crap Sony. First we have the 20gb and 60gb, now we have the 80gb, and the 120gb? "Kiss" comes to mind when I see this type of business practice.

[Ant @ Jul 19th 2007 9:56AM]

Maybe you can clear this up for me. I don't own any consol yet but can't you just buy bigger hard drives off the shelf and put them into your PS3, I thought it was a notebook hardrive they use, don't they go upto 160Gig. Is that really all they are changing. As far as I can see you just pop the panel off the side pull out the cage put a new drive in and push it back.

[kjartan @ Jul 19th 2007 5:36AM]

PLEASE stop posting bullshit. There is no substance to this claim and is mere speculation. You're taking what he said WAAAAY too literally.

[Ceejay @ Jul 19th 2007 5:37AM]

thats like 5 SKUs in a matter of one year.... wow.

[Mak @ Jul 19th 2007 6:07AM]

Please show me 5 European SKU's

I'm waiting....

[DutchGuy @ Jul 19th 2007 6:01AM]

Give me pricecuts over added value ANY DAY. Europe gets ripped off enough as it is already. Wankers.

[L. Cyphre @ Jul 19th 2007 6:12AM]

Ripping off? Who's doing that? I mean, they cost $499 in the US and about £430 in the UK. It would only be a ripoff if the pound was worth, like, twice as much as a dollar or something.



Hey, wait a minute...

[alexhrose71 @ Jul 19th 2007 11:38AM]

How many times are we going to hear whining in here from europeans about their cost of living. You pay higher because :

1. You have a protectionist tarrif system which adds a significant portion (20%+) to the price of electronics. Take it up with the EU.
2. You have a joke of a tax system, 17.5% VAT in the UK for instance. Sales tax in the US varies by state and is not in the $499 you keep on comparing to. It probably averages out at around 6.5%. Take it up with the EU.
3. Your currencies are too highly valued....Take it up with the EU.

KthxBye

[Torben @ Jul 20th 2007 3:56PM]

@ alex:
I really and honestly appreciate all your talk about economics. As a matter of fact, you're right about a lot of the stuff you say in my eyes.

1. Yet, protectionist EU? Okay, true. Oh wait, protectionist US? Hmmm... not really? Well, why do you think LA hasnt signed FTAA yet?

2. High VAT? Oh, so true. All I can say is that Germany (where I live) has 19 % VAT on everything but food (7 %). I agree that's insane and prices could be a lot lower for that respect. Yet, luckily, life is not all about electronic gadgets. Or what do you do when you're without a job, ill or grown old? Rely on your savings, correct?

3. Overrated currency? True, we (in Germany... not in the UK) do have the overrated Euro. Why do you think we have high exports? Despite our "fairyland labor laws", we seem to be quite productive, right?

Yet again, imports of course cannot be cheap then too. So yeah, we cannot expect low prices for a PS3 as well. You couldn't be more right about that...

[Mak @ Jul 19th 2007 6:07AM]

Nice, Engadget posts it's usual FUD.

Lets create some confusion in the market by taking some words, twisting them around abit, and making some FUD.

I'm not saying the 120GB unit won't happen, it may do, later in the year, as in Europe, we only have 1 SKU (not the 5 that some idiot posted about).

Either way, it's not REALLY a SKU, as it's only HDD size, and the PS3 lets you put whatever HDD in there you want (as long as it's 2.5in SATA). I myself have a 160GB PS3, it cost me an extra £55.

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[JP @ Jul 19th 2007 6:17AM]

I thought the whole point about dropping the price for the 60GB unit in the US was to get rid of stock before the inroduction of the 80GB unit? But now the 60GB unit is still the only option available in Europe, that means they're still being produced, so there will always BE stock?

Sony's right hand, please pick up shotgun and aim for left foot...

[Solarcanine @ Jul 19th 2007 6:40AM]

Er...you really can't sell the European 60GB units too well in the US, seeing as the television format, power supply, etc. are all different. So the US 60 GB and the UK 60 GB are, for all intents and purposes, two entirely different units to begin with.

[pigfister @ Jul 19th 2007 7:37AM]

they are not selling which is why they have loads left.

[JP @ Jul 19th 2007 7:41AM]

Solarcanine, surely the core is the same, and the PSU and V-Out is a minor part of the production process?

But as was mentioned below, anyone can slap in their own HD, which makes the US upgrade a bit (or rather, completely) pointless.

[cxp3 @ Jul 19th 2007 6:21AM]

Doesn't extra hard drive space count as added value then?

[pigfister @ Jul 19th 2007 7:35AM]

not when sony are having to use them because "old technology" becomes increasingly harder to source, as the price difference between a 60 and 80 gig drive in not even $10 its more of a relaunce to make ppl believe they are getting a great deal for $100 more when you think that the emotion engine has been removed and the 80gig ps3 actually costs less to make than the 60!

[cxp3 @ Jul 19th 2007 7:41AM]

the PAL 60gb already has the emotion chip removed anyway!
Its just stupid the way we are supposed to pay more 100s more for a inferior product.

[Xander @ Jul 19th 2007 6:25AM]

If you guys keep complaining about Engadget's news coverage, THEN GO TO ANOTHER SITE.

It's so annoying reading comments when most of them are losers whining about Engadget.

[ssuk @ Jul 19th 2007 6:30AM]

Bullshit. He only said what he said because Sony would rather charge us $850 for something that's really worth only $500 and fob us off with a few games which to sony, cost tuppence to make. It's bullshit like that which makes me hate Sony more and more, and this is coming from someone who was pretty cool with Sony when the PS2 was around. Then they have the nerve to say we're their "Biggest consumer market"... Laughable.

[shaun @ Jul 19th 2007 6:42AM]

What's all the fuss about?

I thought that everybody knew that all PAL consumers are identical and all want exactly the same thing

We all unanimously hate price cuts and 20GB of extra storage is not enough as our downloading habits are all equal

jeez....

[pigfister @ Jul 19th 2007 7:31AM]

great vid of phil harrison stating that sony are the leaders because they pass on the saving and the 80 gig is the way to go for heavy downloaders.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6290000/newsid_6294100?redirect=6294176.stm&news=1&bbwm=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&nbram=1

wtf now David Reeves states a change from 60 to 80 gig that costs very little as older hard drives come down in price isn't worthwhile because the gap is too small, don't you hate sony pr spin.

if sony are passing the saving on to customers, why when the US 80gig that costs less than the 60gig to make because of the removal of the emotion engine, losing full backwards compatibility on the "IMPROVED" ps3's, and the general lower cost of hardware including the laser diodes, is the price still $599?

cheers Phil for passing the saving on and removing hardware, you're the man!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations#Spin

[bob @ Jul 19th 2007 8:32AM]

This is very simple.

The $100 price drop in the US is necessary to increase sales. The 80gb model will come in to replace the 60gb model in a few months but the price will NOT change. customers will be getting 20gb more for the same price so the $499 price tag will seem even more reasonable.

Eurpoe does not get a price cut . They get a few extra things for a few months till before xmas when the price does drop perhaps to 399 or 380.

At the moment we at sony corp believe that the US is the most crucial market to capture since history has shown that most console sales occur in the US. Europe is a huge market but generally has greater wealth than the US.

It would make sense to offer 2 packages for the european market , 1 with a £50 price cut and the other with added accessories. however , we are already cutting the prices in the US and are reluctant to cut prices in the europe aswell. besides , europeans are rich , so fuk em .

[Torben @ Jul 19th 2007 9:23AM]

"Europeans are rich, so fuk 'em?" Paleeez!

Thats like saying that "Americans" are exclusively from the US, that people from the US all live in NYC, Cali, Texas or Florida and generally all wanted the war in Iraq.

Idiotic generalization, not even mentioning that wealth as of GDP/capita has always been higher in the US than in any fairly sized european country.

If we do end up paying the price for a PS3 then thats because we love gaming and other cool gadgets. And those who love it, arent particularly rich, they're young, with rather low incomes, and from all over Europe. That includes nations from eastern Europe that have a dramatically lower income... ye know?

[bob @ Jul 19th 2007 9:39AM]

""Europeans are rich, so fuk 'em?" Paleeez!"

you can show gdp/capita all you want buddy but it dont make a bliond bit of difference.

teh fact is that there are only 200 million people in the US wheras there are over a billion in europe . forget 'per capita' , what you need to look at is how many people are ABLE to pay the higher price in europe compared to america.

when we took this in to account it was clear to us here at sony corp that there were many more rich europeans than there were rich americans . out strategy is simple : 1. keep the price high in europe and 2. fuk em

[Torben @ Jul 20th 2007 3:56PM]

For some odd reason, I feel like you aren't particularly great at representing Sony ("here at Sony").

First of all: there aren't even close to a billion people living in Europe. Even if you count Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan - which are neither particularly European nor "rich" countries - we just hit the 700-million-citizens mark. That INCLUDES war-ridden countries such as Bosnia-Herzigovina, Serbia and Montenegro or even Belarus and Albania.

Secondly: if we were such a huge market to Sony, then I (just) assume your CEO would rather not say "fuk 'em"...

You just might want to consider that ;)

[Dave @ Jul 19th 2007 8:33AM]

For some reason game companies always think its cool to treat pal consumers like crap.

Nintendo has been doing it for years...... We still dont have paper mario in Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However Sony just rips us off for cash. You know what you can do with your PS3

[JinKazama @ Jul 19th 2007 8:45AM]

You guys really pay too much attention to Sony. It doesn't matter what size drive is in the thing because you can swap it out to any size of your liking...Sooooooooooooooo who cares if they put 60, 80, or a terabyte of storage in the thing.

...and those complaining about the same price for an inferior product (no emotion engine) need to wake up. Every...I repeat EVERY manufacturer does this! They remove, tweak, update... their products to lower costs and 99.9% of the time nobody knows or cares. You guys act like removing that means the PS3 can't play PS2 games anymore.

So let's quit making mountains out of mole hills here and get back to blogging about some real cutting edge stuff.

[Geir E @ Jul 19th 2007 9:45AM]

I'm a norwegian and can add that although I love added value I can say that although you get a better deal - but still doesn't hide the fact that it's actually twice the US price to start with. I'd love one, but not before it's down to the current US prices.

[hurtlingturtle @ Jul 19th 2007 10:02AM]

Personally, I'd prefer to see a PS3 with no hard drive and the choice between internal sata or external sata so that I could plug my 320GB drive into it and upgrade the drive whenever I feel like it.

[h0mi @ Jul 19th 2007 10:19AM]

What exactly is the point of the extra HD space on the ps3? Does more space = better gaming performance? Otherwise what's the point? Are game saves that big?

[bob @ Jul 19th 2007 1:43PM]

"What exactly is the point of the extra HD space on the ps3? Does more space = better gaming performance? Otherwise what's the point? Are game saves that big?"

some space is needed for online , saving preferences etc . some space is needed for game saves and such.
I think most of the space will be used by games which copy data to the hard drive to speed up loading times . even more space id needed for any downloaded games and demos, which are gonna be big in this generation.
all that might not even add up to 50 gb for most people, or maybe it will , it depends what u do with it.
I can say from experience that the 20 gb..err i mean 13 gb that comes with the xbox360 is definately not big enough . all the games demos are between 300mb and 1 gig ..so a few of those and you've maxed it out.
add to that the possibility of internet and watching divx movies and stuff and even 60 gb might get cramped.
so , yeah it does improve performance for games by helping with load times .. but you wont need that much space.

[alexhrose71 @ Jul 19th 2007 11:45AM]

True, especially now that they finally added proper media streaming support (PC to PS3) you don't need all that hard drive space. Its not as if they have hundreds of movies (HD and SD) available on PSN either, unlike XBL.

[Sean M. @ Jul 19th 2007 11:58AM]

OK, I think all of you guys need to realise that gigabytes in a PS3 are irrellevant when You can buy all the external drives you ever need. I bought a 120 GB Western Digital USB drive and it sits right next to my ps3 and it works flawlessly.

That's 180 gigs I will never be able to fill up because there is nothing to download on the playstation store yet. lol.

[DutchGuy @ Jul 19th 2007 12:45PM]

@alexhrose71: you sir, are an uninformed idiot and obviously you have no clue about the political and economical and fiscal systems in the *several* different countries that make up the EU/Europe.

Even after subtracting taxes, we pay significantly more than the US. And is has zilch to do with the reasons you list. And everything with the fact simple fact that the manufacturers get away with it. I could list proof and links (like that it also applies to good produced inside the EU, like our cars), but I can't be arsed right now.

[alexhrose71 @ Jul 19th 2007 12:55PM]

Bollox to you sir :) I know plenty about his being a UK expat in the US and having studied economics and trade.

Provide some proof. k.

[TyreDurgan @ Jul 19th 2007 12:47PM]

Could Sony just lock down a universal size already?

[alexhrose71 @ Jul 19th 2007 12:59PM]

And while we are at it, the cost of goods produced internally in the EU are naturally higher because of :

>Fairyland labor laws that keep unproductive morons in well paying jobs with too many benefits, to the detriment of product profitability : hence : higher prices

>An excessive degree of bureacratic BS and regulation that further drives costs

>Minute economies of scale due to the need to treat each country as a unique market with individual rules, regulations, language etc. If the US worked like that it would not be the economic success that it is.

Sorry you don't like the reality but I know both sides of the Atlantic being a european in America. You can take the high road with environmentalism, health care, education spending etc. but just remember, the bottom line is this is where you pay for it - at the store.

kthxbye

[bob @ Jul 19th 2007 2:56PM]

"Bollox to you sir :) I know plenty about his being a UK expat in the US and having studied economics and trade.

Provide some proof. k."

prove you've stidied economics and trade.or else you are nothing but a liar and thief

[Craggy @ Jul 19th 2007 6:20PM]

PS3 with 120G? Keep up Sony, we want PSP with 120GB..

[xl8 @ Jul 19th 2007 8:21PM]

whats all the fuss about, mainstream sata and pata drives are pieces of fkn junk that top out at a miserable 40MB/s and have been bottlenecking pcs for over 20 years, & are the principle cause of low frame rates and stutters in games because most games workloads are over 80MB/s and page the hdd constantly for textures and mipmaps, and need parallel processing like GPUS to mask their poor performance. Seriously who gives a
s*** about sata drives. boohoo

[Neil @ Oct 10th 2007 4:57AM]

If the price is such a big issue, why not just import from the US. The power supply is universal and Hi-Def is the same (there is no PAL/NTSC).

As for bigger drives, 60 instead of 80 is not a big jump so if you really want more storage, then swap out the drive yourself (although I did read there is a 137Gb limititaion due to the current BIOS), or add an external USB or Networked drive.

[incorrect @ Jul 8th 2008 6:32AM]

I suspect the reason it's 'not worth upgrading' the PAL versions is that they're already using the pseudo-Emotion Engine. The 80G 'upgrade' for the US version is more a diversion to hide the backwards support they've removed.

I wouldn't expect to see a refresh on PAL versions until they consolidate more of the transistors into fewer chips and rev the innards. If they really run short of suppliers for 60G 2.5" drives, they may just do what Microsoft did for the original xbox where they threw 10G drives in but only formatted them to 8G.