PlayStation 3 60GB Model To Be Phased Out, New Pack For Europe

Wow, what a good deal.

425 UKP = $862.75
599 Euros = $820.63

And the US is getting teased by a "clearance sale" that really isn't. The PS3 still isn't worth $499 due to its lack of games.

Sony is the same company that produced music players from 2000 through to 2005 that could not natively play MP3, while everyone else's devices could. They market their consumer entertainment products around an Apple-esque reality distortion field.

This is not Akio Morita's Sony. This is Sir Howard Stringer's Sony. Kaz Hirai's Sony. And it's not necessarily circling the drain, but they're also not improving their image any by acting like complete fools. For any product that Sony makes, you can almost always get a better product from any other vendor.

Back in the day, I would have bought a new Neo Geo for whatever outlandish price they were asking, because the games and graphics were worth it. But PS3 continues to be Not Worth It -- to me, anyway. And I'm wondering if it ever will be.

Hahahahaha WTF Sony. I think now I understand why they were so reluctant to say they were "cutting the price" of the PS3. Good lord this company has been a PR trainwreck as of late.

Kaz confirms:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6175011.html

How important is Hardware Backward Compatibility?
True the 60 gigs have it, but if sony is going to support backward compatibility through software emulation from now on, it wont matter which system you have. So if this is correct, it means that your internal ps2 hardware wont even be used at all.
Does anyone have any information that proves the ps2 hardware will be used in the future, or will all emulation from now on will be software emulated?

Anybody know if the 80GB is going to be the silver PS3 or if they're going to release a silver PS3 anytime soon...I've been holding off because I figure if I'm spending top dollar...I'll get it in the color I want (and I'll get one at some point because I always get all the systems...already have a Wii, 360, and a shit load of older consoles and all the major handhelds...and a decent PC that will need to be upgraded around this fall.

ive got a big 'lol' for all the retards who gave me a hard time in the original price drop thread last week

Dear Sony,

Never in my life have I ever had to panic to get a next-gen console until the lid was blown off that you silly gooses were going to eventually nix the 60GB model for the 80GB model. 100 dollars for a pack-in game and 20 extra GB of HD space isn't that great of a deal for my personal tastes, only because MotorStorm wasn't high on my list of games to play on your system.

The only reason I went and jumped on this 'price cut' is because I would like to have an Emotion Engine for backward-compatibility for my PS2 library and not be a prisoner to firmware updates saying I can only play the following list of games.

After seeing the Sony Press Conference, your future with some of the innovative first-party titles made want to invest in what Sony'll have to offer in the future. That, and I'm a whore for MGS games :(. You're lucky MS finally took responsibility for their crappy engineering with the 360, or else I would probably be 'Jumping In' right now and playing Gears with all of my friends.

Yes, I'm absolutely babbling, but I don't think I ever remember console specs changing so much, ever. Why not just stick to your guns and keep it at one SKU for the sake of all of our sanity. Just because MS released multiple SKU's for their consoles, didn't mean you had to follow suit.

Suckered-in-to-putting-a-PS3-on-layaway-but-not-happy-about-it,

grayscale

[I just wanted to get that out, lol. I feel dirty now :o]

It's like Sony has the same PR team that George Bush does

this sucks... more the reason to get the 60gb now

As evil as it may sound Im pretty sure sony thought hard about this.

Ppl do want ps3 but it is too expensive , they drop it down 100 bucks and their is a surge in user base..... just in time of the new games coming out this year.

Hence ppl will be rushing out and buying the 60gb regardless of what the sony haters are saying.

After all sony is still losing alot of money on the hardware itself, Im pretty sure the contract with the 60gb harddrive has expried, and they are just tyring to optimize costs.

With a surge of sales in the system the 60gb owners will also have their games coming, hence initiating viral marketing. The larger user base of 60gb owners will sipmly just advertise their system to their friends with all the cool games coming out soon.

In the end I believe sony just wanted a large user base in time for the new games hence attracting more devlopers .

So people wouldve been more content had Sony pulled a M$ and announced a new "Elite"-like bundle @ $700+ rather than cut $100 off the mainstream SKU. And theyre not discontinuing it, since sensationailsm has decided to run amuck on the old Intarwebs and Sony bashing is the "hip" thing to do we'll just gloss over a few tidbits and run this story instead.

Truth is after the $100 cut they EXPECT a sales boom rendering current stock empty by end of July not that the end of July is the end of the unit itself. But which sounds better to the headline writers? Sony is out to fuck the consumer or Sony is trying a new marketing approach with a cheaper SKU for the masses? Oh thats right they stopped production on the 60GB models months ago so now more can be put on shelves... hmm whats that? They didnt? But I saw on the internet that Sony is ambushing its consumer base by discontinuing the 60GB so it must be true. Give me a GD break. Oh and M$ has discontinued the 40GB 360 also so they can target you with the Elite and Halo editions. Must be true cus its on the internet.

C'mon Shack...Kotaku has the better headline.

The Great 60GB Phase Out Clusterfuck
http://kotaku.com/gaming/durr/the-great-60gb-phase-out-clusterfuck-278256.php

What the hell is wrong with the people at Sony? Seriously?

I really think after the 60gb is phased out the 80gb will be dropped to $499, it is really hard for a consumer to buy something for $100 more when they couldve got it for $500 a month ago.

WOW. I thought they were actually going to take a positive direction with their pricing, then they drop this shit on us.

Oh well, at least the PSP's still pretty neat.

What the fuck is wrong with this company?

Good synopsis: http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2007/07/console-post-of-week-in-which-sony.html

I don't know what to think about this, but I still want a PS3 after watching that assassins creed movie. It seriously looks better than pretty much anything i've ever seen, maybe not in raw graphical beauty but in the scope of the city.

Here comes the predictable denial
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6427&Itemid=2

False
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6427&Itemid=2

Sony just announced the following:
60GB model = $499
63GB model = $514
67GB model = $534
71GB model = $554
76GB model = $579
79.5GB model = $596
80GB model = $599
Sony just denied this now though.

Wait so, is the 60 gb still going to be available through August? It's not selling that well, right? Not having a ps2 is half the reason I wanted one. And I'm not paying 600. I could care less about an extra 20 gb and motorstorm. God Sony is awful. I feel like I shouldn't get a 60gb out of principle.

wow sony, could you fuck this up ANY more?

It's as if Sony wants people to think of the PS3 like an iPod - an expensive luxury piece of electronics hardware which will increase storage capacity and feature set over time while mostly maintaining the same price, which is the opposite of how the console industry's worked for decades now. I wonder what the public's reaction would be if Microsoft wasn't involved with this round.

This is ridiculous. This is also an example of when competition is BAD for gamers. Both MS and Sony rushed their consoles out before their time. I can understand if they revise hardware after a couple years, like the PS2 Slim.....but now there's too many hardware configurations and prices. It just confuses customers.

lawl

this is hilarious.

Okay, so hold on. No price cut. They replace their model with an 80GB HD, and they remove the hardware backwards compatibility which makes it cheaper. Presumably the HD prices have even fallen, so this is in the long term just to increase profit margins? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I would have thought market share was a their primary concern and this 60GB model business is only going to be until they sell them off.

This gives pretty strong backing to the recent rumors that there is another price break at Christmas. I couldnt figure out why you would do it again so close to this one, but now it makes sense. Dump off the 60gb sku very quickly (the price drop has indeed given it a surge of selling, check things like its jump in amazon sales rank) and then disappear it before its really noticed. average people walk in to buy one, oh look theres an 80 with a controller and a game but no 60, oh hum must be better!

im thinking the 60 is the deal right now, i want that hardware backwards chipset damn it. by christmas when more games are out and the 80 gets dropped in price (hopefully a 100 bucks again) it will be fine with a decent library finally showing up.

WTF Sony?

I really want to hear what some more Sony reps have to say about this. I just watched an interview with Phil Harrison on gametrailers and he talks specifically about the price cut. I mean fuck... they can't be so stupid as to announce it and then phase it out a few weeks/months later.

Interview here: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21949.html

I wonder when the real price cut will come. This is just lame.

Yep, exactly as predicted. Get the 60gb while you can (it's a great buy for $500 if you want an HD movie player too)

well, i'm not excited about the ps3 anymore (not that i was terribly excited about it before).

If they're doing such an offer to the European market that probably means they didn't sell as much as they say they did over there, right?

So Sony themselves won't call it a price cut?

Didn't they just say that they were selling more now that they dropped the price? Do they really think people are going to go to the store and see that it's got a whopping 20 gigs more (ha!) and say "oh hey, it may be $600 but it's got 80 gigs now!" I thought that they came into this E3 really strong with the price cut and some good news regarding games, but then they go and do this. Wow.

Wow. I couldn't believe all of those people in the last couple of PS3 threads arguing that this really wasn't a price cut. Turns out they were right.

I'm only getting a PS3 when all this nonsense is being ironed out.

What in the unholy name of fuck.

Way to prove the doubters and their price of entry theory right!

No PS3 for me for a couple of months at least.

Oh this sucks, but I got my ps3 at original price. At least this time they are including some games.

But it is still a price cut and it is still driving the current sales.

I think they are treating the ps3 like a computer, I bet sony got a special contract for cheaper 80gb's

IMO it is still a pretty good deal if they included 2 games , and in some areas free blu-ray movies.