E3 2006: Budget PS3 to have less features

PS3 News | 20GB model will miss out on Wi-Fi functionality and data storage.

For those of you arriving late, allow us to fill you in: in its pre-E3 press conference of a few hours ago, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 would, like the Xbox 360, be available in two forms at launch - one version would have a 20GB hard drive (and cost $829AUD / €499 / £340), the other 60GB (for $999AUD / €599 / £410).

Now however, it's emerged that those of you hoping to save the pennies this November by purchasing the cheaper of the two versions may find yourselves losing out on more than just a bigger hard drive. According to the official specs sheet released by Sony to the press, the 20GB model will have no Wi-Fi options, no inputs for memory sticks, SD or compact flash cards, and no HDMI output, all things that the more expensive version has. Urk. The more expensive version also has just one Ethernet and four USB ports, as opposed to the three Ethernet ports and six USB ports that featured on the prototype PlayStation 3 that was unveiled at E3 last year.

The console is set to go on sale in both Australia and Europe on November 17th.

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8 Comments

Spanca

6 years ago

It seems that unlike the core 360 pack, you can't even buy add-ons to regain that lost functionality when you can afford it.

admeister

6 years ago

Good point there, that's a rip off, why would you bother, really.

Jellyfish

6 years ago

If they called the core pack the "Tard Pack" what will they call this one?

Man that sucks though, it's $1K or nothing now.

Matt Bassos

6 years ago

Stupid, Stupid Sony. They have really dropped the ball. I find this 10 times worse then with the 360 which I was also annoyed by.

What makes this even funnier?

Quote

Phil Harrison has criticised Microsoft for planning to put two versions of the new Xbox 360 console on the market, claiming the decision will merely "create confusion" for consumers.

[...]

Speaking at the European Game Developers' Conference in London today, when asked if Sony might follow in the Redwood giant's footsteps the VP of studios replied: "Unlikely."

"Are there two versions of the Xbox 360 that people want to buy, is my question," he continued. "I don't know."

"This is my personal view, not my corporate view, but when I look at those formats, I think it just confuses the audience. They don't know which one to buy, developers don't know which one to create for, and retailers don't know which one to stock."

"So I think we wouldn't take that strategy. We wouldn't create confusion," he concluded.

Jeremy

6 years ago

What a **** job.

David

6 years ago

Good find Beepos.

Also, here's someone's creation about the lies told last E3, this time about the PS3's outputs:

realitybites

6 years ago

Its unbelieveable Sony would do this.

So no HDMI output means no HD quality games?

macca

6 years ago

Surely the 'low-end' version will have HDMI-out. Playing Blu-Ray movies requires it. Unless i'm mistaken, one of hollywood's requirements for Blu-Ray playback was super strong piracy prevention, and part of the way this is achieved is through the security that HDMI offers.

Not only that, but it's also a pure digital output, meaning best possible PQ. If there is no HDMI output, why on earth would anyone buy a PS3? This is like handing Microsoft free sales... "Please Microsoft, take our customers, we don't want them anymore..."

Sony seem to have messed up this conference. I read/watched Kotaku's live blog on the Nintendo presentation and the crowd was applauding regularly. After one such applause the blogger made a comment to the effect of "the crowd just applauded more than was heard for the entire Sony presentation".

So much for the analysts predictions about how Sony is going to win this round by a landslide, blah blah. Microsoft and Nintendo have been far better received this E3 and are continually looking better as time goes on.

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