Sony to discontinue its newly priced ($500) 60gb console

[BuckWrestler141]

SCEE president David Reeves has told GamesIndustry.biz that the 60GB PlayStation 3 will no longer be available in the US after stock sells out - which he predicts will occur by the end of the month.
They did this once before with the 20gb, but this can't be real. 3 days after the price drop, they are getting rid of it? If this is real the PS3 is dead, just when people were beginning to think it had a chance.

E3: No more 60GB PlayStation 3 in US after July, says Reeves // GamesIndustry.biz

Reeves was speaking at an E3 event to announce the introduction of a new PS3 bundle in Europe. When asked about possible criticisms over whether SCEE should have given consumers the option to pay a lower price, as SCEA has done, he replied, "Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game.

"All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July."

When asked to clarify if this will mean the end of the 60GB model, Reeves answered, "In America, yes."

 

[BuckWrestler141]

I'm convinced this is some sort of 'lie' to scare people into running out and buying up the systems, I imagine they have a lot of 60gb's in stock. When they run out, they'll probably just drop the 80gb down to 500 dollars, but without warhawk.

If not they are full blown crazy; correction... either way they are crazy.

 

[Dryden]

I'm convinced this is some sort of 'lie' to scare people into running out and buying up the systems, I imagine they have a lot of 60gb's in stock.

They built 5.5M for launch, they've only sold 3.7M. Their classification of "sold" means to retailers, so you have to figure that around .1 to .2 of that 3.7M is sitting in stores and retail warehouses. That's about 2M units built before November, around 35% of the total original run, that hasn't moved.

Sony can't reduce the cost of the machine unless they build new ones with reduced parts and better yeilds, but the catch-22 is that there isn't any reason to build more when you've got 2M old ones sitting around.

So you lower the price and hope.

 

[Bleed S & G]

i've read several forums on other sites that say this rumor is not true, the 60 gig will continue to be made and the 80 gig will be joining shortly..

any SATA Laptop HD will work with a PS3, you can get a 250 gig for a 150-200 bucks and they'll only get cheaper.. but i myself just plugged in an external HD via the USB port and theres all the extra space I need. USB Flash Drives work too

 

[Dryden]

No, the 60Gb is gone.

Sony's Kaz Hirai (via Kotaku):

We're no longer in production for [the 60GB PS3], so once that product is gone from the retailers shelves, then we're back to the $599 SKU only, so it's not like we have a two-price strategy here in the US market, which we found out very early on, that consumers react mostly to having one SKU as opposed to two.

And a spokesman to Next Gen:

UPDATE: 60Gig PS3 Staying - For Now : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News

"The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted. We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated."

They're taking the Emotion Engine out of the PS3 here like they've already done in Japan and the EU, so the PS3 will now have all it's PS2 backwards-compatibility made up in software. I imagine at this point 80Gb 2-1/2" hard drives are probably even cheaper than the smaller capacities due to volume production too. With the EE gone, they won't do another 20 or 60Gb SKU.

EDIT: Forgot ... Six-Axis + Rumble will be coming too, so that's another change to the basic package.

 

[TheStoicPaisano]

It isn't like there will be a long period w/o something at $499, whether it is the 60 gig or the 80 gig without a game. I've heard varying accounts on how many of the 60 gig units remain, but if they have enough until about October, I bet you'll see an unbundled 80 gig for Christmas. I highly doubt Sony will push ONLY a package with a game--let alone a title that isn't expected to move units--for an extended period.