Sony officially discontinues 20gb PS3

coluigi

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The 20GB model of the PlayStation 3 has been quietly dropped from Sony’s official retail store SonyStyle, with many other chains also ceasing to offer the console, amidst further speculation that the hardware configuration will be discontinued.
taken from gamasutra.

With many forseeing a release of the 20gig console being released over here meaning more people will dip into their pockets to buy one, if the 20gig console is phased out (which I think is a sensible idea) will this have a negative effect?

Will people with 20gig consoles start to feel inferior and will there be a push for games that prefer the larger HDD? Will sales be threatened? Or is it all neither here nor there?
 
It is being phased out, removed from 2 main Electronic stores, and sonystyle website, but games don't need a big HDD, they're about 200Kb a save, and updates around 150Mb. if they feel they need extra space, and upgrade can be done.

Matt
 
The only reason I can see for phasing it out (which I believe would be a mistake...) is because Sony are pushing devs to utilise caching ont he HD more to offset loading times...
LIke I say, I think it's an error, 20 gig is enough, unless they want to use caching more and more.
 
I think phasing out the 20GB would mean, first the 60GB gets dropped to the price tag of the 20GB, and then Sony could bring out a PS3 with a bigger size HDD and maybe some other extra's.
 
The real money in the future is movie and TV downloads. 20gb isn't enough for that really.. that's why 60gb is rapidly becoming the base model and Microsoft put 120gb in their new model.

Not to mention it's getting hard to get 20gb laptop drives because they don't make 'em that small any more.. heck 60gb is only about £40 retail and you can bet Sony aren't paying that.
 
It is being phased out, removed from 2 main Electronic stores, and sonystyle website, but games don't need a big HDD, they're about 200Kb a save, and updates around 150Mb. if they feel they need extra space, and upgrade can be done.

Matt

You sure???

Oblivion installs 4GB to the hard drive! Thats a large chunk of a 20GB drive just for one game (but worth it for speed of loading sections). I've already put a 120GB drive in mine and already down to 63GB after putting on all my music/pics/vids plus Store downloads & some converted movies/TV shows (1GB for a 720p HD lost episode mp4 AVC file)
 
Everyone will feel inferior when the silver PS3 and the white PS3 come out because no doubt they will ALL be silent like when the silver PS2 came out and no doubt they will have some new features...like a 160GB HDD (take that M$oft)

This will probably be in time for all the new tv's to come out in silver and white to try and get everyone to upgrade those too instead of the fancy black ones people have...wonder if they'll release a silver PSP though?
 
Everyone will feel inferior when the silver PS3 and the white PS3 come out because no doubt they will ALL be silent like when the silver PS2 came out and no doubt they will have some new features...like a 160GB HDD (take that M$oft)

This will probably be in time for all the new tv's to come out in silver and white to try and get everyone to upgrade those too instead of the fancy black ones people have...wonder if they'll release a silver PSP though?

err....??:confused:
 
You sure???

Oblivion installs 4GB to the hard drive! Thats a large chunk of a 20GB drive just for one game (but worth it for speed of loading sections). I've already put a 120GB drive in mine and already down to 63GB after putting on all my music/pics/vids plus Store downloads & some converted movies/TV shows (1GB for a 720p HD lost episode mp4 AVC file)


and who does that normally? anyway, i'm doing it properly. the internal hard drive is for games and games only ( + linux install). my 500gb external drive is what everything else sits on;)
 
and who does that normally? anyway, i'm doing it properly. the internal hard drive is for games and games only ( + linux install). my 500gb external drive is what everything else sits on;)

Didn't think the PS3 organised music in Artist/Album/Folder or Pics in year/month etc. without copying to the harddrive :confused:

Oblivion is a Game (4GB on HDD) :confused: That can't be installed on an external drive!
 
They are probably phasing it out for three reasons,

1 - they lose more money on it
2 - there is no need for it since you can attach any hard drive you like
3 - they want to reduce the price of the 60GB version but wouldn't be able to it with a cheaper model below [without reducing cheaper model also - see 1]
 
Hmm.. making space for a little price normalisation?

OTOH it's Bit soon for after the EU launch though for that, and if they cut the price in the US without cutting it here there'd be a hell of a stink.

It's also possible they're right.. nobody is buying the 20gb model so it's not worth the effort of them producing it.
 
Love my Japanese 20gb, now 120 gb and wireless via a belkin gaming adapter. Never liked the silver go slower stripes on the 60gb jobby, so i'm happy to own a limited edition, faster internet, bigger hard drive all black beauty :thumbsup: oh, and the casino royale freebie before everyone else sweetened the deal lol.
 
nobody is buying the 20gb model so it's not worth the effort of them producing it.


We (Euros) didn't exactly get a choice did we. I'm sure they would have flown off the shelves over here...

Just goes to show. Yet another poor marketing decision by Sony.
 
Not really - if the 60gb model is outselling 20gb by 10:1 (and taking into account the price difference between a 20gb and 60gb drive is peanuts) they'd be stupid to keep making the lower priced one.

It's all about what makes money. I suspect they'd basically taken the decision to kill 20gb before the EU launch anyway.
 
Love my Japanese 20gb, now 120 gb and wireless via a belkin gaming adapter. Never liked the silver go slower stripes on the 60gb jobby,

If it makes you feel better..........:D
 
Not really - if the 60gb model is outselling 20gb by 10:1 (and taking into account the price difference between a 20gb and 60gb drive is peanuts) they'd be stupid to keep making the lower priced one.

It's all about what makes money. I suspect they'd basically taken the decision to kill 20gb before the EU launch anyway.

I think the 20gb one would have sold a lot better here where the prices are relatively higher. A lot of people cannot justify the 60gb price but would have considered the 20gb at a decent price - that is depending on the price it was sold at.
 
I think it was more a cost thing. I read not so long ago Sony was losing more on the 20GB version than the 60GB version.

The 20GB versions seemed popular on a couple of US forums I visit, except that most people were finding it difficult to find one.

I'm sure there are lots of people like me who don't want/need the card readers and wireless. I'd be tempted by the lower price.
 
If it makes you feel better..........:D


lol what? the all black look, the 120gb hard drive, the faster "wireless" connection and cheaper region A blu rays make me feel Grrrreeeaaattt thanks! don't be jealous now :smashin:
 
Not really - if the 60gb model is outselling 20gb by 10:1 (and taking into account the price difference between a 20gb and 60gb drive is peanuts) they'd be stupid to keep making the lower priced one.
And how much for the card readers and wireless?

Personally I was glad to be able to buy the cheaper model and not have useless features. I don't need wireless as it's awful in my house for some reason and I can just plug a card reader into the USB slots if needed.

This was rumoured a while back, so no real surprise but it is a shame.
 
Not really

Which it is and that's why sales of PS3 in the US are basically static. It's just too expensive.
Also, as I understand it. The retailers didn't exactly push the 20gb version as they made less money on them...
 
They knew they'd get that anyway.. ps2 got the same reaction (in the google archives from 2000 there's lots of posts by people that are convinced the ps2 is doomed because it's way too expensive).

It's the way Sony seem to do business. Worked for the PS2... no idea if it'll work for the PS3. I have an uneasy feeling they've bitten off more than they can chew this time... maybe in 5 years it'll be £100 and everyone will have one, but it's not certain at all this time around.
 

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