Didn't see this posted yet.

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/08/20/160gb-model-also-announced-for-america-499-november-release/

The 160GB model announced at Leipzig today will also be coming to America in a new bundle featuring last year's blockbuster PS3 exclusive, Uncharted. For $499, the 160GB system will include the new 160GB system, a DUALSHOCK 3 controller, a voucher for PAIN and a copy of Uncharted. It will be available in November.

"As PLAYSTATION Network continues to evolve with our recently launched video delivery service and more exclusive games, PS3 owners are demanding more storage capacity," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. "Consumers also are utilizing PS3 as an entertainment hub for their digital media, placing content such as their entire music collection on the hard drive. The 160GB PS3 system addresses this growing consumer demand in a compelling bundle that delivers significant value."

With BC, I'm there. No BC, no thanks.

Buy your BC unit now, or what's the point of complaining?

Thanks for the post OP. Uncharted deserves this star treatment.

if it's the same as the 80 gb @ $399, why not just buy the 80... buy a 250gb or 320gb hard drive for $100 and you have a free 80gb hard drive?

if it's the same as the 80 gb @ $399, why not just buy the 80... buy a 250gb or 320gb hard drive for $100 and you have a free 80gb hard drive?

The 80GB does not have Uncharted and many people are not comfortable installing a HD.

if it's the same as the 80 gb @ $399, why not just buy the 80... buy a 250gb or 320gb hard drive for $100 and you have a free 80gb hard drive?

I thought that one didn't have the Dual Shock 3 though. Or does it? I get confused with all the different configurations.

I think there's a good chance Uncharted will become a GH this fall, but that's still a $30 value.

Looking at the Specs, the 160 GB has only 2 USB ports and no memory card, so I'm betting it's exactly the same as the 80 GB but with a bigger hard drive. (SirDrexl: the new 80 GB Core @ $399 does include a dualshock too.) I'm betting the 160 will have the matte silver finish as well.

The big question is: does the 160 include the new 65nm graphics core? It doesn't look like the 80 has it from current reports.

I'm sick of waiting, so I'll probably pick up the new 80 GB unit and add a bigger hard drive when/if I need one.

500 gig hdd swapped into mine... :) who needs to pay for an over priced 160 gig drive, my 500 only cost 112$ from newegg :D

500 gig hdd swapped into mine... :) who needs to pay for an over priced 160 gig drive, my 500 only cost 112$ from newegg :D

Is that a 3.5 or 2.5 inch HDD?

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

What I don't understand is why they are discontinuing the 80GB w/ BC when the MGS4 bundle is flying off the shelves now?

While this is good news, I personally feel it would have been better if they had packaged the system with R:FOM or COD4 (I know it's a Third Party game) because their sequels are coming out in November too.

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

There is a $399 PS3.. Though it would be good to have even lower of course.

500 gig hdd swapped into mine... :) who needs to pay for an over priced 160 gig drive, my 500 only cost 112$ from newegg :D

How? The PS3 only accepts 2.5" hard drives. The largest 2.5" hard drive that I know of is 320GB. That's the largest one that newegg carries. And those are $100.

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

Exactly.

With the supposed 360 price drop looming...Sony announces another itineration of its PS3 with an old game and a bigger hard drive....and no price drop for their extremely expensive system.

20, 40, 60, 80, 160....and multiple "special editions." It is no wonder that there is a lot of consumer confusion about all of these consoles. Even here, on AVS, people ask all the time if this model is BC or that model has dual shock, etc.

How? The PS3 only accepts 2.5" hard drives. The largest 2.5" hard drive that I know of is 320GB. That's the largest one that newegg carries. And those are $100.

samsung had a 2.5" (standard 9.5mm) 500gb SATA hdd out for some time now. Newegg doesnt carry it, yet at least...

i knew it! i Recalled something about the rumors earlier this year when we heard abotu the 120/160gb hdd PS3. and when the 80gb was confirmed, i just had a feeling this was to follow.

If this setup was $400, I would be finally willing to jump into the BR side of the format. As it stands at $500, I will just wait for the OPPO BR player. Hopefully they will have a good deal around Christmas for this, as I would love to have a PS3 to compliment my Wii/Xbox360...but not at that price, (and yes the smaller HD models have little to no appeal to me atm).

They also have a hdd cage that replaces your internal hdd with a esata port. Then you can use whatever size hdd you want, but it won't be inside the ps3. Bad for looks, good for heat. I've been tempted to pick one up for a while now, but my 250gb drive still has room.

They also have a hdd cage that replaces your internal hdd with a esata port. Then you can use whatever size hdd you want, but it won't be inside the ps3. Bad for looks, good for heat. I've been tempted to pick one up for a while now, but my 250gb drive still has room.

You don't need the $25 cage. Sata cable plugs right into PS3.

Exactly.

With the supposed 360 price drop looming...Sony announces another itineration of its PS3 with an old game and a bigger hard drive....and no price drop for their extremely expensive system.


Don't expect a price drop on either console this year, despite the fake $199 rumor. Both companies are trying to get some profit generated and cannot afford to slash prices. They will rely on improved value (60GB 360 premium and 80/160 GB PS3) and new games to coast them through the holidays.

Don't expect a price drop on either console this year, despite the fake $199 rumor. Both companies are trying to get some profit generated and cannot afford to slash prices. They will rely on improved value (60GB 360 premium and 80/160 GB PS3) and new games to coast them through the holidays.

I don't think the 360 price drop is fake.

The mole hasn't been wrong yet:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/08/01/mole-attack-360-price-cuts-on-all-hardware-in-september

And a screen shot:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/03/xbox-360-arcade-dropping-to-199-on-september-7/

I think MS wants to kick start sales in a big way for the holiday, and that certainly would do it.

Will this newly announced model have SACD support?

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

I think if they're going to maintain a premium $500 model, they should at least retain B/C on it. Is the hardware really that expensive? I mean, the difference in cost between the 80 and 160 HDs isn't much considering Sony is buying in bulk.

They need one with no HDD for $300!

Uncharted is a good choice for a pack in. Pain on the other hand is not. Sony has got to be able to add in something better than that.

Don't expect a price drop on either console this year, despite the fake $199 rumor. Both companies are trying to get some profit generated and cannot afford to slash prices. They will rely on improved value (60GB 360 premium and 80/160 GB PS3) and new games to coast them through the holidays.

You must have missed MS's profit on the division with the 360 in it. Amazingly this is not (As often mentioned) their "games" division. It holds lots of crap that does not sell, not the least of which of course is the ZUNE.

So even with the Zune tanking and taking $$$ with it the division posted a profit for 2008:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19475

That said a drop to $199 seems too good to be true. I remain skeptical.

Back on Sony... the PS3 is doing much better than it was. They still have eight years of selling the PS3. I doubt we will see anthing under $399 in 2008 or under $350 in 2009.

Will this newly announced model have SACD support?

I doubt it' SACD playback used the PS2 chip which is only available in the backwards compatible units.

They need one with no HDD for $300!

Except they can't because many games have required installs. The could probably do 8 gig + a flash memory one, but I suspect sony will leave that for when they "slim" it down.

I think if they're going to maintain a premium $500 model, they should at least retain B/C on it. Is the hardware really that expensive?

No it's not expensive, but it does mean that have to build two sets of boards (one with BC chips one without). The way they're going is to have every model share the same board, and just multiple HDDs. This will allow sony to increase production should it be needed as you can havbe multiple factories making the required boards for either SKU vs one factor for the 40GB SKU and one for the 80GB SKU.

Ultimeately cutting costs is somethign sony knwo they have to do, and savig $5 here, and $5 there is enough to make them do it, Sum that $10 saving per gen over four generations and you've cut costs by another $40. Multiply that by 14 million adn you have an extra 560 millioin dollars.

PS it doesn;lt work exactly like that, but it gives you a good idea of why they want to cut costs at every opportunity.

With BC, I'm there. No BC, no thanks.

80GB with s/w compatibility will be the last version to support ps2 games. I was talking to a Sony rep and he said that internal Sony stats show that ps3 owners aren't using the ps2 compatibility and so it wasn't worth keeping. At the end of the day, you can always buy a ps2 if it's that big of a deal.

I also learned that all the new models (80 and 160) are based off the 40GB hardware, so you'll see the same 2 USB ports and no SACD support going forward.

-Splints

If this setup was $400, I would be finally willing to jump into the BR side of the format. As it stands at $500, I will just wait for the OPPO BR player. Hopefully they will have a good deal around Christmas for this, as I would love to have a PS3 to compliment my Wii/Xbox360...but not at that price, (and yes the smaller HD models have little to no appeal to me atm).

You can get this setup for $350. There is a new $150 discount off the Sony credit card that you can use with this. The only difference for the 160 model is larger HD and DS3 controller. You can get a smaller HD nowadays and just upgrade the hard drive for a cheaper price.

Get the best of both worlds.

-Splints

Forgive me for asking, but isn't the MGS bundle a better deal at $399? I was tempeted to get another PS3 just because of that price. Spending $100 more for 80 more gigs, and a game that is good, but not as good as MGS does not seem like a good deal to me.

80GB with s/w compatibility will be the last version to support ps2 games. I was talking to a Sony rep and he said that internal Sony stats show that ps3 owners aren't using the ps2 compatibility and so it wasn't worth keeping. At the end of the day, you can always buy a ps2 if it's that big of a deal.

I also learned that all the new models (80 and 160) are based off the 40GB hardware, so you'll see the same 2 USB ports and no SACD support going forward.

-Splints

Splinters,

If you can get in touch with the Sony Rep again, could you ask him about the 65nm graphics chip? I really want to get a PS3 again, but I'm using it in my home theatre and really want it to be as quiet as possible! I had a 40gb but returned it because while it was dead quiet when the fans were on the low setting they didn't stay there all that long. The 65nm graphics chip would go a long way towards fixing that!!!

You must have missed MS's profit on the division with the 360 in it. Amazingly this is not (As often mentioned) their "games" division. It holds lots of crap that does not sell, not the least of which of course is the ZUNE.

So even with the Zune tanking and taking $$$ with it the division posted a profit for 2008:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19475

That said a drop to $199 seems too good to be true. I remain skeptical.


Here's a Radio Shack flier showing the Elite for $399 and the Arcade for $199:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/20/sources-xbox-360-price-cut-week-of-sept-7-60gb-299-elite-3/

Sony stats show that ps3 owners aren't using the ps2 compatibility and so it wasn't worth keeping. At the end of the day, you can always buy a ps2 if it's that big of a deal.
-Splints

My thoughts exactly on the whole BC issue.

I doubt it' SACD playback used the PS2 chip which is only available in the backwards compatible units.



Where did you get that misinformation from? There is nothing aside from licensing fees and the lack of consumer demand that stops Sony from putting SACD playback back in the current PS3s

I would buy a second PS3 if they did a 40G at $299. Holiday sales would go through the roof, but I'm not sure how it would work economically for Sony.

what the hell is sony is thinking like the corporation they are... they need to make the money because they are losing lots of money... i certainly cant blame them for doing this but not sure how the public will feel with a system that is capable already to be upgraded without having to buy a new one...

Nice to see Sony catching up with me! I swapped a 160 into mine a year ago. To those with pricing concerns, dont worry. Sony is leaving themselves room to move if they need to. MS will have to lower first then Sony will *probably* follow- all depends on how low MS goes.

crash44... not sure about that... i can easily buy a cheap ps3 right now and upgrade it and will still be under the money for what they are giving me...

This is lame. Make the system cheaper, not adding to the long list of hard-drive iterations. I want my gaming buddies to buy a PS3 so we can play Resistance 2 when it comes out, but noone is going to budge until the price gets in the ~350 range. I agree a 40GB for $299 would be perfect.....but it just aint gonna happen with that Blu-Ray player.

Splinters,

If you can get in touch with the Sony Rep again, could you ask him about the 65nm graphics chip? I really want to get a PS3 again, but I'm using it in my home theatre and really want it to be as quiet as possible! I had a 40gb but returned it because while it was dead quiet when the fans were on the low setting they didn't stay there all that long. The 65nm graphics chip would go a long way towards fixing that!!!

The guy I know doesn't have any influence he just gets lucky and gets to peek at useful info from time to time. Though it sounds like a lot of people have mentioned this to Sony and they are more likely to do it to cut costs than just to cut down on heat.

-Splints

This is lame. Make the system cheaper, not adding to the long list of hard-drive iterations. I want my gaming buddies to buy a PS3 so we can play Resistance 2 when it comes out, but noone is going to budge until the price gets in the ~350 range. I agree a 40GB for $299 would be perfect.....but it just aint gonna happen with that Blu-Ray player.

hehe, I won't blame Sony for wanting to make a little money on a system they lost so much last year on. If you and your friends want in below $300, now's a good time. $399 is the retail price, $150 dollar discount with the Sony Style Credit card and your down to $249, what's wrong with getting an 80GB PS3 for that price?

-Splints

There's always used/refurbished units. I picked one up (40gb) for $300 at the beginning of the year.

Shouldn't Sony be working on a less expensive PS3 vs trying to keep one at $500 ?

- Jason

My thoughts exactly. I dont understand how the price is still the same. I dont care if its more features. I cant convince none of my friends to buy it as long its $500 bucks!

I cant convince none of my friends to buy it as long its $500 bucks!

Than your in luck!

What's this $150 discount with the sony card? Could someone post a link?

My thoughts exactly. I dont understand how the price is still the same. I dont care if its more features. I cant convince none of my friends to buy it as long its $500 bucks!

Sony think they can duplicate the PSP's price strategy with the PS3. The reality is, the PSP only sells a lot of hardware because they're easily hacked, and easily broken. They run a two model SKU strategy to give the illusion of having a "cheaper" product, and more features has more value, but fail to take into account people comparing them to their competition.

Originally posted by imdjenk:
I would buy a second PS3 if they did a 40G at $299. Holiday sales would go through the roof, but I'm not sure how it would work economically for Sony.

I would buy a second PS3 if they would make one that runs cooler and has a 1.3a HDMI that passes bitstream.

wow

wow

dude

What's this $150 discount with the sony card? Could someone post a link?
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644488778

Sony think they can duplicate the PSP's price strategy with the PS3. The reality is, the PSP only sells a lot of hardware because they're easily hacked, and easily broken.
That reads like a fact, while it is actually supposition.

Has anyone used the offer for $150 credit on the Sony card? Can the $150 be used to pay for that first purchase over $299 to get the credit or do you have to purchase something else? thanks, DPF

Does anyone know if a deal like this is available to us Canadians?

Thanks.

I'm looking into the credit card thing myself for their new 7200DH HTiB (It process audio over HDMI, great for a PS3). From my best judgment, it looks like you sign up for the card, buy an item over $299 at Sony Style and in 8-12 weeks they'll credit the balance on your card.

FYI - They are currently also offering free shipping, no interest 12 months.

I'm looking into the credit card thing myself for their new 7200DH HTiB (It process audio over HDMI, great for a PS3). From my best judgment, it looks like you sign up for the card, buy an item over $299 at Sony Style and in 8-12 weeks they'll credit the balance on your card.

FYI - They are currently also offering free shipping, no interest 12 months.

Increase in HD space does nothing for someone like me who's going to continue waiting patiently until the price comes down. My original Xbox never ran out of space with it's 8GB drive. I play games, and that's it.

If the PS3 drops below 300 dollars, they would be losing too much money per unit, so they have to maintain a higher price to at least recuperate the money lost to build the system.

Increase in HD space does nothing for someone like me who's going to continue waiting patiently until the price comes down. My original Xbox never ran out of space with it's 8GB drive. I play games, and that's it.

Yeah, but none of those games had 3-5GB HDD installations. You also didn't have access to games to download, or extensive downloadable content.

You must have missed MS's profit on the division with the 360 in it. Amazingly this is not (As often mentioned) their "games" division. It holds lots of crap that does not sell, not the least of which of course is the ZUNE.



HEY! I own a Zune. :(

Wish I DIDN'T and went with an Ipod. Oh well, I use my psp for my music anyway. <__<