It's Official: Cheaper PS3 For Christmas
BLOG UNDER: (Press Releases, PlayStation 3, Sony, Gaming Tech, Technology, Game Finance, Killer Apps)
by shoeless on Saturday, 6th October 2007 @ 03:52:01 AM
Sony Europe is the first to make the announcement, surprisingly, but now it's out there; there is a new 40GB, model of the PS3 hitting stores in time for Christmas, and the price is going to be a much easier to swallow €399, which means that a US$399 announcement can't be too far behind, putting the PS3 squarely at the level of an Xbox 360, but with a few caveats. 1) You're now looking at 2 USB ports instead of 4, 2) ZERO backwards compatibility. It also looks like the multiple forms of card reading are gone, the chrome finish from the front has been removed and the "Playstation 3" on the front of the console may now be painted on, instead of slightly raised "bas relief" thing they had going with the older model.
For early adopters, this isn't that big a deal, since the older models--particularly the 60GB--had built in Emotion Engine hardware for very robust backwards compatibility. Even the 80GB model released just a few months ago had somewhat less comprehensive backwards compatibility thanks to software emulation, but this one; sorry new PS3 owners, PS2s are pretty cheap now, and there's bound to be a new price cut, so if you still NEED to play Guitar Hero 1, GH2, GH80's, or previous Metal Gear and Final Fantasy games, you gotta' shell out for that PS2. How is it possible that the new model can have no backwards compatibility when even the 80GB model relied on this? One going theory is that while the previous 80GB model had the "Emotion Engine" hardware removed, the other component of the PS2, the "Graphics Synthesizer" was still on board and so software emulation still relied on the presence of that older PS2 hardware. It would make sense then that if even that component is removed, the current software emulation Sony is using would also be rendered useless.
As it is, Christmas just became a lot more interesting. I'd previously made a prediction that Sony might do this if the Blu-Ray partners it was working with were willing to bring down the price of their standalone Blu-Ray players to keep things competitive with each other, and exactly that has been announced for Christmas. Sony still doesn't quite have the same "AAA"-level title of a Halo 3 or a Wii Sports to really move the system this Christmas, but that lower price tag sure doesn't hurt. In terms of the non-hardcore gamer-base, the PS3 just moved from the realm of "astronomically expensive console only for the extremely well off and rich" to "a possible purchase for the kids this Christmas because they've been very good this year." What does this mean for Singapore gamers? That's pretty hard to say, considering how wonky local distributors can be. It's quite likely there will be some kind of price cut eventually, but since Singapore itself has NEVER seen a 20GB model, whether the 40GB model makes it to shores or Sony SEA decides to stick with the current 80GB model introduced in September remains to be seen.
http://www.gameaxis.com/home/?blog=1803
