SONY PS3 20GB Model Dead? (Yeap, It's Official)

[GrandAmChandler]

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6168876&part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6168876

So now what? They have furthered the price gap between it and it's competitors even more? I hope a price drop for the 60GB model is in store.....

[agbulls]

I think this is a clear move to streamline production and likely reduce the price later this year.

[heybtbm]

I read earlier this week that the 20 gig model was going to be phased out because of the need of several PS3 games to put large files on the hard drive (ex: VF5 creates a 1+ gig file on the HD). I guess 20 gb just wasn't going to cut it.

As far as price cuts, I doubt this will have any impact on the likelihood of that happening anytime in 2007. I still think Sony is waiting for their A-list titles to boost PS3 sales later this year. If that doesn't help (enough), then we'll see a price cut. I'm convinced that this is their strategy.

[Slate]

It looks like I won't Be Buying a PS3 for a long time. not until I can Buy one for $300 or less.

[jajaja]

There are some rumors that Sony will cut the price with $100 to compete with 360 elite (hey, that rhymes LOL), but its only rumors. I dont think its that unlikely tho. And if they cut the 20GB model for good, it will be "rare" in the future hehe. Only about 1 million or less have been made :)

[Poofta!]

i say good. microsoft should do this with the 360 core. what a tard pack that is. and its actually hurting the quality of games for the system since it prohibits developers from making games that have to use the HD.\

jajaja im pretty sure only like 400k of the 20gb were made... half a mil at most.

[jajaja]

Ah ok, i wonder if people will pay much for one of those in the future :)

[Three-P]

It looks like I won't Be Buying a PS3 for a long time. not until I can Buy one for $300 or less.

Knowing Sony, that should be a good 2-3 years away, yet. (Just an educated guess.)

[GrandAmChandler]

It's Official folks. The SONY 20GB model is now the rare PS3.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/sony-the-ps3-20gb-is-dead-251567.php

-GAC-

[8-bitNesMan]

Time for one of Sony's generous price drops... I bet the 60 GB model will drop down to at least $589.99 :)

[scooterb23]

So...does Sony killing the 20 GB PS3 make it one of the shortest lived consoles ever?

[zektor]

Ehh, who cares. There was a $100 price difference between 40GB (more), wi-fi, and a card reader. I would rather have all of these for $100 as opposed to not. I mean, look at what you get for $100 from Microsoft, 20 whole GB :)

[heybtbm]

I mean, look at what you get for $100 from Microsoft, 20 whole GB

Don't forget it comes with a headset, a wireless controller and a set of component cables.

[Gorez]

you guys think this will make 20 gig PS3's rare in the future? ive thought about picking one up just to have.

[staxx]

I think it will be rare BUT will it be worth the $499 price tag....

[zektor]

Don't forget it comes with a headset, a wireless controller and a set of component cables.


Does the Core unit come with component cables?

[ShenmueFan]

I read earlier this week that the 20 gig model was going to be phased out because of the need of several PS3 games to put large files on the hard drive (ex: VF5 creates a 1+ gig file on the HD). I guess 20 gb just wasn't going to cut it.

No, the reason why the 20GB version was dropped and never really produced in high quantities was because Sony actually lost significantly less with the 60gb version than the 20gb version. I know that sound slike common sense (it costs $100 more, right?) but when I read the parts breakdown of the PS3 on The Inquirer site awhile back Sony made more because the 60GB drives didn't cost much more than the 20GB drives but Sony could up the price of the whole system by $100. The HDD is one of the cheaper parts of the system.

I'm glad Sony no longer has two versions but I gotta say, that really sucks you have to dish out $600 + TAX + $60 + TAX for a game just to play anything now.

Sony simply can't afford to keep the $599 price tag this whole year - they're gonna have to drop the price to around $450 by October/November or they're dead this holiday season.

[tholly]

Does the Core unit come with component cables?


No.



and as for the drop of the 20GB.....everyone saw that one coming....I thought it would have at least lasted a few months longer than it did.....but, if anyone is surprised by this, I'd be amazed.....

[Anthony1]

Personally, I find this move to be somewhat of a head scratcher. The only obvious reasoning behind this is the fact that they take a greater hit per unit than the 60 gig model. But I can't imagine that this is the only reason for this move. It might be something that has no relation to video games whatsoever. Sony is in a partnership with a bunch of other companies in regards to Blu Ray, and these other companies weren't too pleased to have to compete with a $499.99 Blu Ray player. It's possible that could have had something to do with it.


Still, I think both Microsoft and Sony should be focusing on some way to get their prices lower not higher.

[PapaStu]

I think everyone is forgetting about the 'new' PS3 thats now in the works which is the 80Gig system.

My guess is that there will be a price drop for the 60Gig to $499 and it will take the place of the 'Core' system and the 80 Gig will be the $599 system.


Now what will be more remarkable is that someone can actually find a 20Gig PS3. I've not seen them in stores since RIGHT after launch, and i've seen nothing but 60Gig units for over 3 months now.

[MegaDrive20XX]

It's a smart move that will help them save alot of money I'd say. I'm impressed by Sony doing something right for once.

[ShenmueFan]

I don't understand how any of you saying positive things can see this as a good thing.

Like posters have said, why is Microsoft and Sony making their systems MORE expensive when they already cost an arm and a leg?

Ya' know, I could see if this was all due to inflation and games cost $100-$200 more than they did five years ago because everything's cost has gone up 25%-33%. BUT GAME SYSTEMS ARE THE ONLY THINGS MORE EXPENSIVE!

People still make the same amount of money they used to back in the early 90s in most professions and cars and homes are pretty steady also. If anything, it seems game systems are mimicking gasoline prices more than anything - prices are arbitrary and the only one who wins are the big wigs in charge.

I'm never going to pay more than $300 for a system...EVER. If a company as large as Microsoft or Sony can't get their technology to be economical and easy enough to produce at $300 or less, then they need to go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate what crap they're putting in that's making it so expensive.

This is ridiculous and just add this to another one of Sony's stupid moves.

BTW - The Sam's Club up near me has had a dozen or so 20GB PS3s for MONTHS now and none of them are selling. So whether it be 20GB or 60GB, no one's buying apparently.

[roushimsx]

I finally broke down and picked up a PS3 a few weeks ago and was bummed that I couldn't score the 20GB version from AAFES. I tried calling a couple of different ones to see if they'd ship to my local branch, but there were ZERO 20GB versions anywhere, which was my first tip off that I'd have to pay a little extra :(

The 20GB version was the more attractive option for those people that wanted an extremely low cost blu-ray player. The wifi was completely worthless to me (I have a wireless bridge at my tv that I have my PS2 and Xbox already plugged into), the card readers were pointless (seriously, who uses those? Plus, I already have some SDMMC->USB adaptors), and you can always pop in a larger hard drive later on down the road for less than $100.

Still, I wound up paying less for my 60GB PS3+remote+HDMI cable+optical cable than I would have spent on a 360 Premium+HDDVD, which is doubly nice since it looks like HDDVD isn't going to win the war (I know, I know...I was really hopin' for blu-ray to lose, too) and Netflix has an excellent blu-ray selection (why pay ~$30 per movie when you can pay $15 per month? :) )

But hey, I love all of the super educated internet business analysts that think they can accurately predict the inability for the PS3 to survive past this holiday season without a substantial price drop. It's just so CUTE! Let's just all forget that it's a good few hundred dollars lower than the cheapest blu-ray player and it's easily upgradeable via firmware to the most recent revisions, because it'd be absolutely prepostorious to presume that anyone would buy a "game console" solely as a silly movie player. Really, who the hell would do that?

...it's funny seeing how the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray sales numbers flipped (http://images.roushimsx.com/DVDEmpireTotal.jpg) once Christmas rolled around and people got their PS3s.

But hey, whatever. The PS3 is doomed because it's expensive and HDDVD is going to win the war because no one is going to back Sony!

[Oobgarm]

Can't say I didn't see it coming.

I kinda figured this was going to happen when I posted this a little while ago:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98747

[Flack]

I know everyone is saying Sony is dropping their "20 gig" model, but what I see is Sony is dropping their "non-WiFi, non-media card using, non-HD compatible, 20 gig" model.

The "average" gamer (not that any of us fall under that description) doesn't have network cables running to their living room. WiFi is a big feature. The Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge I bought for my Xbox was $89 + tax ... almost the price of the PS3's built-in wireless NIC right there. The lack of HD ports is a killer for me as well. Basically with the 20 gig model, you will never be able to do HDMI video. To limit a current generation console to no HD video when you're pushing around Blu-Ray and next-gen graphics is idiotic.

When you put out a piece of hardware that not everybody has (IE: PS2 Hard Drive) no one wants to develop for it because, from a marketing standpoint, you want to market to the lowest-common denominator (also known as the largest customer base possible). By eliminating the 20 gig PS3, we may begin to see games take advantage of the media ports, etc. We may also see a lot of pissed off 20 gig owners, and I don't blame them.

[Lothars]

I know everyone is saying Sony is dropping their "20 gig" model, but what I see is Sony is dropping their "non-WiFi, non-media card using, non-HD compatible, 20 gig" model.

Sorry Flack but The 20 gig PS3 did have HDMI ports as well

It was something Sony added in before the system even launched.

[Anthony1]

Yeah, I don't think the 20 gig model was a tard pack at all. In fact, it is one of the best values in all of consumer electronics. The thing can play Blu Ray movies and PS3 games and has a 1.3 HDMI output and can do lossless sound, etc, etc. All for $499.99. Only reason I got a 60 gigger was for the wireless, just cause I'm too lasy to run wire throughout my house. Otherwise I would have definitely gotten the 20 gig model. I also liked how the 20 gig model didn't have the silver stuff on it. I liked the all black look. Alot of people that got the 20 gig model have already upgraded to huge gigantic hard drives, so the hard drive part of the equation was a moot point. I thought the memory stick slots would be a total waste but I actually do use them. Had I got the 20 gig unit, I probably wouldn't have missed them though.

It still boggles my mind that these companies aren't focusing on trying to get their hardware price down as fast as they can. If Microsoft doesn't have the core 360 at $199.99 at some point during 2007, I'll be shocked. The first to $199.99 wins, even if it is a tard pack that is gimped from the start. Perception is stronger than reality.

[Slate]

So...does Sony killing the 20 GB PS3 make it one of the shortest lived consoles ever?

From the looks of it, Yes.


Knowing Sony, that should be a good 2-3 years away, yet. (Just an educated guess.)

Maybe I can find a deal on CAG... :)

[roushimsx]

I also liked how the 20 gig model didn't have the silver stuff on it. I liked the all black look.

Yea, I agree that the 20GB had a better look to it with the all black scheme. Double checking against Wikipedia (I know, I know...Wikipedia) it looks like they lost $60 more per console w/ the 20GB models (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/746/746482p1.html).

It totally wasn't gimped at all and I loved it for it. You still got a serviceable hard drive (unlike the 360), you still got the HDMI output, and you still got the insanely cheap blu-ray playback.