It wasn't yet confirmed when we talked about it in the PS3 thread. Now that it is, it might also interest people who don't read the thread regularly.

Still the price drop can only be good for Sony. And unlike Microsoft, when they see the 80Gig version not selling they WILL discontinue it.

Also the fact that most 360 buyers are going for the Elite system and that the PS3 is now only about $20 more + Blu-Ray, this will definately start bringing the hardcore over to Sony especially when LAIR and Warhawk come out.

What are your sources for this information?

Wasn't the Elite system some fairly limited release thing? This generation of consoles is so bloody retarded with the hard drive war.

No its a permanent SKU, they just sell like shit.

When I have some extra cash, considering I'm getting an HDTV I think I might get the Elite, though.

I've gone to stores with PS3 displays and most of them still don't work so that makes me not want to get one. Now I'm not sure if the people at the stores don't care to fix it or if it's just like that. Also from the one that I've seen work at Gamestop, I played a game (guessing it's Motorstorm) for about 5 minutes and my head started to hurt a bit.

I also heard there were heating and power issues, much like the 360 when it first came out. I guess they've gotten that fixed.

Yes I'm waiting for the game library to get better and from the looks of it, it's not gonna start happening till next year with MGS4. Also, besides MGS4, there doesn't seem to be any other exciting titles coming out.

No offense but you heard wrong. The consoles in the stores often don't work because they hide them in small non-ventilated areas which would probably overheat anything that needs to push out heat (since the heat won't be going anywhere).

The PS3 doesn't have any problems, there have been very few returns, not even enough to make a big deal out of it. It's fine to be weary because of the PS2 since it was somewhat shoddily built; but the PS3 is surprisingly well made and durable. I don't know anyone who has had it since launch that has had even the slightest problem with it.

It's great that you think the only worthwhile game is MGS4 but for people who actually give new series a chance there are plenty of great looking games coming out from the end of this month up to the middle of next year.

The same place as just about everything else this kid says: his imagination.

This price break sounds pretty good to me. An extra 20 gigs of hard drive space and a game does not equal $100, so the 60 gig model for $500 sounds a whole lot better than the one for $600. I like how these console manufacturers buy a bunch of overstocked, obsolete hard drives, probably for about five to ten dollars a piece, to put in their consoles and then expect the consumers to want to pay a premium for them. That said, we might not be all that far away from it being an attractive purchase.

It's not only 20 GB extra, there's also a "retail copy" of MotorStorm, booyah!

It's actually hard to tell how well they sell. I've not seen any specific Elite SKU numbers, but they often sell out extremely fast. A large part of that is due to the fact that production of Elites is really low, for some stupid reason.

I'm going to ignore everything else however since this thread is *already* a mess. How the hell does this always happen with the PS3 stuff?

Edit: I'll say some of it anyway.

This is useless. Last week, we had two SKUs. Cheapest was 500 bucks. This week...we have two SKUs, cheapest of which is 500 bucks. Granted, there's more to the cheap one now. 40 gigs, wi-fi, a card reader, and some WHIZZBANG WOWZERS CHROME FINISH, but since the PS3's 20 Gig model was never the useless retard pack that the ridiculous 360 Core was, there is little reason to call for it's discontinuation other than Sony taking more of a loss on that unit. I wish it was still available.

Have some 20 Gigs for 400 bucks and damn, now you're talking.

Price point, at this point, doesn't really matter. Because, like has been said quite a few times already ... there's no killer app for the PS3 yet. I agree with those that said Sony should have waited until they had that must-have game ready to come out before they dropped the price of the system. It would capitalize on the hype of the game, instead of making it look like a move of desperation. Consumers, while sometimes not the brightest bunch, can tell when a product isn't doing very well. And especially people that are likely to make a $500-600 investment on a gaming console. Usually they're going to do a bit of research before they make the decision to go ahead and buy.

So really, this is just Sony looking desperate.

Well lol I dunno Sony basically already fucked up everything they could, so this move isn't exactly their worst decision yet.

@Aardark
There's not much to go on figure wise, only trends. The trend around here is that most new adopters of the 360 and some already owners are picking up the Elite 360, simply because they think it's "better", (don't forget the US is the ONLY place with the video marketplace and I'm in Canada). How do I know about this trend you say, I work at a video game store, so while it's a small sample, it's something.

I also have friends who work at Best Buy and Futureshop and an EB games and they've also noticed the same thing. So while it may not be a NY TIMES figure or something, with the way MS is we'll never see real figures for it for another two years at the earliest (look how long it took for a failure rate analysis), so it's the best as a person can get.

That's the thing though. The Elite's HDMI output is really *the* reason to buy it, but you're right, the hard drive is completely useless outside of the US where no Video Marketplace exists. My hard drive still has 9.5 or so gigs free on it, and that's since launch, and I've bought or downloaded most of the major DLC for the games I've got. The space issue is kinda meaningless if you stream your content from your PC instead of rip it to the console's storage.

Same reason I kinda don't give a poop about the larger hard drive in the PS3. I'll never use all that space unless they start dropping full blown 6 or 8 gig games down the service on a regular basis.

Also, real sales numbers aren't usually provided by MS, it's mostly done by NPD. Unfortunately, they combine all the SKUs into one figure and don't give broken down sales stats.

Bad news guys!

http://kotaku.com/gaming/get-out-and...ion-276401.php

Newer PS3s which include the 80 gig versions are said to be using software emulation instead of ps2 emotion chips. That means shit backwards compatibility like PAL PS3s. I don't even want a PS3 yet but oh god I don't want shit backwards compatibility because I waited. Guh...

Additional Spam:
Oh wait...

http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc/

Seems, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus still work. Day is saved.

Bad news? European PS3s had software PS2 emulation from day one. Nobody cares.

Backwards compatibility is about 99% for hardware EE and 98% for software EE. No big deal. Some people say software emulation is superior because it's more flexible in terms of visual improvements and future updates.

Yup, I just read about that. Jumped the gun on that one. Still, backwards compatibility is important to me. How's 360's now?

Can you even call it "backwards compatibility" on the Xbox 360? I always thought of it more along the lines of "plays a select few Xbox titles, such as Barbie Horse Adventures".

I dunno, last I checked, the rate was at about 30%, with higher quality games having a smaller chance of being compatible for some weird reason. You can always check the official status page:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/back...ygameslist.htm

360 BC is limited because it's also software emulation. As various functions from the old graphics hardware become emulated, specific games that use those functions start working. They do not pick and choose what games to emulate.http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ages/ace/1.gif

No they don't however it seems that MS has cut the development team of the BC Compat project to three bums and a mascott at the pace they're going.

However there is now FINALLY Unreal Championship 2 support on the 360 which is what I was waiting for. Now I have 5 of 37 original games that play on the 360, Woo Hoo!!!