Blogs

The Microsoft Blog

« E3: PlayStation video store will link to PSP | Main | Report: Microsoft, Time Warner discuss AOL deal »

Sony confirms shift to single PS3 model

Posting from Los Angeles: Sony's decision to double the storage capacity of its $399.99 PlayStation 3 is part of a plan to shift to a single model of the game machine, ending the console maker's two-tiered approach, an executive confirmed Wednesday.

The statement followed Sony's announcement Tuesday that it will introduce, in September, a new 80-gigabyte version of the PlayStation 3 with the same technical specifications and capabilities as the current 40-gigabyte model, at the same $399.99 price.

Announcing that news during its event at the E3 video-game convention, the company didn't immediately say what would happen to the current 40- and 80-gigabyte PlayStation 3 models. Peter Dille, a Sony Computer Entertainment America senior vice president, confirmed Wednesday that Sony is in the process of phasing out those models.

Offering a single PS3 model will simplify matters for consumers, Dille said in an interview at the convention. "I think it's a much cleaner message," he said, acknowledging past consumer confusion about the differences between the two PS3 models.

However, the decision means that someone buying a PlayStation 3 in the future will no longer have the option of playing PlayStation 2 games on the new console. That's because the existing $499.99, 80-gigabyte PlayStation 3 offers backward compatibility to the earlier PlayStation machine. That capability isn't offered by the current 40-gigabyte model, and it won't be offered in the new 80-gigabyte model.

Dille downplayed the significance of that change.

"If you have a library of PS2 games, you have a PS2," he said. "So, to the extent that it's important that you want to play your PS2 games, we'd love you to do that, and we're going to continue to support the PlayStation 2 format. We're going to continue to make new PS2 machines and new PS2 games. We want to keep that market going."

Sony's decision to focus on the $399.99 model will put the primary PS3 within $50 of Microsoft's main Xbox 360 version. Microsoft last weekend dropped the price of its 20-gigaybte Xbox 360 to $299.99, but the pricing move was part of a plan to phase out that model and make room for a new one with 60 gigabytes of storage, at $349.99 -- the same price that Microsoft previously charged for the 20-gigabyte Xbox 360.

Microsoft and Sony are competing to build critical mass for their consoles. Nintendo's Wii console, priced at $249.99, is the leader in worldwide unit sales among the current generation of consoles, with nearly 25 million machines sold worldwide as of March, compared with 19 million Xbox 360s and about 13 million for PlayStation 3s.

Digital storage capacity is becoming a key consideration for some console owners because of the ability to download games and other media to the machines.

Microsoft got out to a head start in the current generation by launching the Xbox 360 in November 2005, a year before Sony and Nintendo released their latest consoles.

Posted by at July 16, 2008 4:09 p.m.
Category: Video Games

Comments

#151837

Posted by 8bitjoystick at 7/16/08 4:28 p.m.

Ditching backwards compatibility of PS2 games in nuts when it is the most popular game system ever made. Honestly I don't see the PS3 ever beating the Xbox 360 or Wii in system sales outside of Japan.