14 DAY TRIAL // Following the announcement of the discontinued 20GB PS3 in North America, a Sony spokesperson confirmed that a PS3 with a larger hard drive is being "considered." This announcement also follows Sony's filling an FCC application which referred to an 80GB PS3, several weeks ago. Sony's Satoshi Fukuoka said the decision was "in line" with their strategy as they had planned to "choose models based on consumer needs." Bloomberg also hints at Sony's intentions of "introducing the model with a bigger hard disk."
Other details aren't available at the moment regarding the new PS3, but what would an 80 gig hard drive imply? Hopefully, not another overpriced unit. Price is the PS3's biggest problem, that's why people aren't buying it in the first place. Why has the 20 GB PS3 been pulled out? Because the price difference between the two currently available models isn't significant in terms of the features each of them provides. It was obvious that people weren't going to pay just $100 less for the 20 gig SKU. If you're going to make an investment such as buying your very own PS3, you might as well go for the 60 gig model 'cause that's the least of what this SKU has over the lower-end PS3.
Anyway, this is what we know so far, in regards to the status of Sony's next-gen console: - the lower-end model of the PS3 (20 GB hard drive) is to be discontinued in North America (if it hasn't been pulled out already); - the 20 GB PS3 is still moving a toe in Japan, but we have all the reasons to believe it's discontinuance there too; - Sony was considering some time ago a PS3 unit with a larger hard drive (Why? Beats me); - company spokesmen have confirmed such intentions, but no official announcement of works on the new machine have been made available so far; - the PS3 has the poorest sales figures in comparison with its rivals: Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360
Ironical isn't it? Just as Microsoft's launching their new Xbox 360 Elite, Sony's pulling out one of theirs and now they're desperately trying to get back in the game. Good thinking nonetheless, but again, let's hope they're careful with the price on this one.