20 Gig Playstation 3 may have met its end
Gamedrift.com’s Editor in Chief, Alex, was recently troubled to discover that Sony’s 20 gig version of the 3 month old PS3 had seemingly gone missing. After a day of investigating, he was led to believe that – quite possibly – the 20 gig Playstation 3 had been discontinued.
Gamedrift, at this point, is still calling it “rumor”; however, the details behind this story will make even the most optimistic question Sony.
Alex started off by contacting all the stores in his area, not surprised to find that any were available. One store, which he labeled “one of the nation’s larger consumer electronics stores” had in fact told him that they had that particular console listed as discontinued.
Several Best Buy employees that I personally contacted do say that their stores list them as “discontinued”; although, this may only reflect what Best Buy is stocking in their stores, and not what Sony is or is not manufacturing.
After calling many electronics stores, Alex was clearly convinced that there was something going on. “When I was first told over the phone that the 20 gig PS3 had been discontinued after only 3 months, I was admittedly skeptical,” said Alex, “my suspicions began to grow.”
After a bit of digging into the Internet, Alex decided to phone Sony himself. He drilled the Sony representative while making mention of the retailer stating that the console in question was in fact discontinued.
“Silence. Had I stumbled upon a dirty little secret Sony has been hiding?” Alex added, “I was put on hold… When the call finally resumed, the Sony rep again repeated the fact that the 20 gig models were still in production and that my retailers were still just out of stock.”
So what would Sony have to gain by dropping their cheaper version of the PS3? iSuppli Applied Market Intelligence has pointed out that Sony actually has – not more to gain, but – less to loose by not offering their 20 gig model. At an estimated production cost of $805.85 for PS3’s 20 gig version, it would almost seem foolish to keep it in production.
It’s obvious that the 60 gig model is the better buy. I would gladly pay the extra money for the significant boost in enhancements; although, many gamers just aren’t ready to shell out the money for Sony’s 60 gig console, and would gladly accept the less attractive version for a more attractive price.
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March 4th, 2007
The 20gb version is coming to Europe some time after the 60gb version. Between the two, I have chosen the 60gb version as it is a more future proof package. If I was Sony I would release the 60gb version worldwide then, around one year later, I would release the 20gb version as the market for the 60gb version starts to shrink.
Although Xbox seem to be having no problems with their core 360 and their preimum 360. This may be due to the fact that the difference in technology and specification between the two may not be that much.
Robbie