No More 80GB Playstation 3?
Sony won’t confirm or deny a persistent rumour about the 80GB Playstation 3 possibly being discontinued. Last week, Best Buy pulled the $499 console from its website, leading some gamers to say, “Oh God, here comes another SKU.”
Chris Kohler from Wired is among them. “If I had to bet, I’d say the 80 GB model will be replaced with a new SKU,” he says in his blog. “The hard drive size may increase — perhaps to 120 GB to match Xbox 360 — but I’d wager that the remaining PlayStation 2 backward compatibility and possibly the flash memory card slots are on the chopping block, once and for all.”
The choice to make the Playstation 3 more affordable is a good one, since the 40GB SKU is selling pretty well. It is kind of disappointing that backwards compatibility is fading away; the feature has only been fully realised a few times throughout gaming history, even though gamers (and their parents) have demanded it since the Nintendo gave way to the Super Nintendo.
Oh well. My Playstation 2 is brand-spanking new anyway, and it’s a wee slip of a thing that barely takes up any room.
