Sony pooh-pooh's the 80GB PS3

by Nick Doerr { Mar 30th 2007 at 3:30PM }

This will be a short one. A Sony rep responded to the recent reports about a filed 80GB PlayStation 3. What'd they say? Glad you're so curious today! "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). 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."

So there's nothing new really announced, but it's probably an idea for later down the line, much like the slim PS2. A slim PS3? It might actually be equivalent in size to the fat PS2. Anyway, in addition to the 80GB hard drive (which is a foolish change; any 2.5" SATA drive can be plugged in relatively easily), there's supposedly a Bluetooth module change in the works. No idea what that means, but feel free to give us your two cents!

Tags: PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Codepope @ Mar 30th 2007 4:21PM

What I suspect this is from Sony is much simpler. Remember that they buy hard disks as a bulk commodity, and I suspect there's a point where sourcing 80GB drives would work out as cheaper than 60GB drives, or that there would be a point where supplies of 60GB drives would be more constrained than 80GB drives. So at a guess, they are ensuring no interruption of supply by making sure they could easily ship an alternate drive in the PS3 and not get caught out by the hard drive chain.

El Payo @ Mar 30th 2007 4:24PM

The Bluetooth module change is probably to avoid being sued by the University of Washington, which apparently only has a licensing agreement with Broadcom. So I would guess that Sony is switching the PS3 over to a Broadcom module (and they might as well update to the newest Bluetooth specification while they're at it.)

mccomber @ Mar 30th 2007 4:52PM

Also, I'd bet that saying "yes, we will be changing out the HD for a larger one soon." probably wouldn't be good for sales of the 60gb already available. Why buy a 60gb when a bit of patience would get you an 80gb? I doubt they'll raise the price when/if they make that switch anyway...

bootsielon @ Mar 30th 2007 6:10PM

I think it's a stupid idea. They should cancel this model, and offer and the 20 Gig model, and offer 160 gigs on the low end, and 250 gigs on the high end, or if sony wants to save costs yet still make it a valuable choice, 120 and 200. That won't happen soon, but by Holiday season, with a relatively small price cut (100 bucks each), should be enough for ensuring mild success.

wompywomperson @ Mar 30th 2007 6:38PM

I am surprised no one is picking up on this but perhaps the Bluetooth module change is to finally fix the controller "hangs" that occur with all of the current PS3's. Anyone who owns a PS3 should have experienced the controller hang and this might finally be the way Sony fixes these issues, since if it was a software issue, it would have already been fixed. This would suck for all of the current PS3 owners if it was a hardware issue but for future PS3 owners, this could be good news.

Doc @ Mar 30th 2007 6:40PM

can't you just use the usb's to add HDD space?? or like the article said you can just change out you old one for a new BIGGER one..This would only make sense if the ps3 was closed like the 360 is.

2Perfect @ Mar 31st 2007 12:50AM

I don't really see the point in the 80GB anyway. Even if you do download a lot of demos and stuff, it's not like you'll keep it there forever. You're gonna want to delete it if you didn't like it, or buy the actual game if you did like it.

For everything else, you'd probably be better off burning it on a disc than keeping it there :P