40GB PS3 Does Bad in the UK

According to UK sales monitor Chart-Track this week, most PlayStation 3 consumers are still opting to get the 60GB SKU, rather than the poor 40GB PS3, featuring just two USB ports, no multi memory card slot and, the worst of all, no backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 games, even though a significant price drop occurred in the line of PS3 consoles, with the launch of this particular model.

jolt.co.uk is reporting that in the UK alone, 60GB PS3 sales figures rose from "around" 6,000 per week (before the respective SKU's price-cut) to "18,000 in the last recorded week." However, sales monitor claims that as much as 89 per cent of the console's most recent sales figures are owned by the 60GB version of the PS3. It doesn't take a math degree to do the substraction, leaving a mere 11 per cent sales for the low-spec 40GB SKU - not one unit above 2,000.

According to the same website mentioned above, HMV senior accounts manager Jason Brooks told trade magazine MCV that "The sales increase has been pretty phenomenal, with the 60GB offer particularly appealing to our customer base," adding that "a lot of [their] technically savvy customers will have been persuaded to buy now because of the additional functionality of the 60GB machine - demand has continued to be high. We believe demand for the 40GB version will increase significantly as we enter Christmas trading."

It's not hard to predict whether Sony will be selling inferior versions of the PS3 this holiday season without the promised 65 titles spanning all genres. You know how it goes: developers and designers start hitting their keyboards with their fists because Sony didn't provide them with the necessary development tools, games get delayed, 40GB PS3 doesn't see the promised lineup.

And it can be especially bad if some of those delayed titles are big ones such as Unreal Tournament 3 which has seen a couple of such delays already.