Sony confirms 40GB PlayStation 3 model

PS3 News | AU$699.95/£299, all backward compatibility removed.

After a prolonged period of speculation about a new, cheaper PlayStation 3 model coming, it has finally been confirmed. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Sony Computer Entertainment Australia updated their websites this morning with press releases announcing the new 40GB PS3 model, which will retail for AU$699.95 in Australia, €399 in Europe and £299 in the UK. It will be available across SCEE territories on October 10, and will hit Australia on October 11.

Apart from the obvious reduction in hard drive size, this new model has had the memory card reader cut, the number of USB ports reduced from four to two, and all backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 software has been completely removed. Contrary to some rumours, the new model retains Wi-fi and the HDMI output. In line with the recent Tokyo Game Show announcement, the system will not come with the newly announced Dual Shock 3 controller, but will be packed with the still standard Sixaxis controller.

“The introduction of the new PS3 has been the result of extensive research into the entertainment needs and preferences of the next generation of PS3 owners,” said Michael Ephraim, Managing Director SCE Aust. and New Zealand. “It has allowed us to deliver an extremely advanced, yet incredibly affordable High Definition gaming and entertainment system, configured to the needs of the next generation of PS3 owners. PS3 has always been the device of choice for the discerning gamer and entertainment seeker, the new PS3 along with our extensive list of new and exclusive game franchises makes it, more than ever, the perfect High Definition entertainment system.”

Sony Europe said the current 60GB model with backward compatibility will remain available in the 'Starter Pack' with two games for the lowered prices of €399/£349 while stocks last, but there was no mention of the previous model in the Australian press release.

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99 Comments

Jim Dash

4 years ago

Up to now Leon, I couldn't live without a 360. It has been my primary gaming console and has given me some of the best gaming moments. But its over for me. I am choosing to play and buy multiplatform games on my PS3 and leave the 360 where it belongs.

When Sony finally implement the XMB in game, at least it will work properly without any delays. I experience the same as Ugh - delays whenever I bring it up, want to check my friends list, messages, games played, etc. The PS3 may be playing catch up, and doing poorly, but it is a stable, powerful machine. Developers can use the Cell's complexity as an excuse all they want. All it means in the end is that they havn't learnt how to ue it to its potential yet.

I know you're not a 360 fanboy Leon. But you do hate Sony and their products. and your reasons aren't farfetched, they are more than reasonable. Obviously I have had it with the 360 though, and am going to look elsewhere for my gaming needs in the future.

ittekimasu

4 years ago

Easy to live without a 360, use a PC.

LeonJ

4 years ago

^ Using that logic, easy to live without a PS3, buy a 360

Itachi

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

Easy to live without a 360, use a PC.

hahahah i could never do that sorry no offence to the pc i prefer 360 all the way. I also agree with leon J all the way sony needs to lift imo. There is no way i could live without a 360. I am a gamer i couldn't care less what console games come on imo.

ugh the boot

4 years ago

LeonJ wrote

^ Using that logic, easy to live without a PS3, buy a 360

That doesn't even make sense and even if it did you've got your logic mixed up....nearly every 360 exclusive is also on PC whereas Sony exclusives are only on Playstations.

2 years is about my prediction of what it'll take for Ps3 to become market leader once more and by then who knows how many 360's will still be working. Also you forget Blu-Ray is Ps3's game format by default so the movie industry will have no impact on that.

LeonJ

4 years ago

Jim Dash wrote

I know you're not a 360 fanboy Leon. But you do hate Sony and their products. and your reasons aren't farfetched, they are more than reasonable. Obviously I have had it with the 360 though, and am going to look elsewhere for my gaming needs in the future.

I don't hate Sony products, but they are indeed flawed in a sense (like all products). That make the greatness hardware on the planet, there is no doubt. Their televisons are among the best in the world. They try to drive the industry, even if it's to suit their own needs. And I would not bag the PS2 in anyway, one could not live without a PS2 in the last gen.

However, this time around they have gotten things fundementally wrong, not so much with the hardware, just their software and approach. The game has changed, but Sony seem to think that they are default market leaders and go as they please. As they are finding out, if you don't give the people want they want, they will go elsewhere.

LeonJ

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

LeonJ wrote

^ Using that logic, easy to live without a PS3, buy a 360

You get my drift and I'm not going to go into the details. Surely you can think outside the box.

I doubt the PS3 will become #1. Developers are already shifting development of upcoming games. You can't tell me Sony's inclusive of Blu-ray wasn't to cash in the way they did on DVD? If it was a matter of size, they would have went with DVD and released the console much eariler.

ugh the boot

4 years ago

Imo Ps3's games are coming out much faster and more frequently than they did for the 360 in it's 1st year. So again....after this teething period it'll be oldskool Sony where the games will speak volumes for it's success.

Remember the 360 isn't even a contender in Japan and alot of awesome Japanese developers are yet to jump into the next-gen race. This format war is only begining but LeonJ has secured a winner in the 360....that's kinda what I find a bit ridiculous.

The inclusion of Blu-Ray (not to mention HDD, HDMI and Wifi) as standard only secures the Ps3 as the difinitive console for the next gen.

Only time will tell...

LeonJ wrote

Developers are already shifting development of upcoming games.

Could you elaborate on that a bit more (examples?) cuz i'm not aware of any titles that have actually 'shifted' development over to the 360....keep in mind 'shifting' being leaving development on the Ps3 as opposed to going multi-platform.

LeonJ

4 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Remember the 360 isn't even a contender in Japan and alot of awesome Japanese developers are yet to jump into the next-gen race. This format war is only begining but LeonJ has secured a winner in the 360....that's kinda what I find a bit ridiculous.

LeonJ wrote

I'm not a 360 fanboy, I just pointing to the hard facts at where we are now in the gaming world. The PS3 may be more of an attractive console to some, but I can't see how a gamer can live without a 360, this year and the next.

I'm just telling it how it is right here, right now. I haven't declared anybody a winner, but certainly looks to be a two horse race atm. I don't care who wins, because I care about games and the quality of the games. If Sony pull out a truckload of awesome games next year and deliver a kickarse interface with Home overtaking the 360s offerings, awesome, I'm happy.

The PS3 and Gamecube (R.I.P.) are selling roughly the same comparing them in the respective lifetimes. What does that tell you?

ittekimasu

4 years ago

well, like mentioned before more 360 games are being ported to PC, so i might as well skip the train wreck of the 360 and obtain them on PC which i already have.

I'm mainly a afraid of the hardware failure, so once they fix up the hardware and release in australia, i'll consider to purchase one.

Itachi

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

hahah calling the 360 a train wreck hahahah now tell me isn't the 60 gig version being discontinued... Is that the case of poor sales?????? Seriously if you like games get a 360. I just think you focus to much on the company and not on the games tbh.

LeonJ

4 years ago

ittekimasu wrote

I'm not sure where the train wreck bit comes into it. I honestly have poured 1000s hours of gaming into that 360 and it has stuffed up once.

ittekimasu

4 years ago

LeonJ wrote

ittekimasu wrote

I'm not sure where the train wreck bit comes into it. I honestly have poured 1000s hours of gaming into that 360 and it has stuffed up once.

I can't hold your word, compared to thousands of other's who have experienced hard ware failures due to their gaming. Once the hardware failure rate start to thin out and fan's start to praise the console's improvement, i'll start to consider.

And there are about 2 games on the 360 which i'm interested in, one which is going to PC and the other being a launch title, so PC is still going to be the main gaming machine.

4 years ago

Its a fair opinion ittekimasu. I too don't have a 360 and it comes down to three simple reasons: (1) Xbox / Xbox 360 seems to overlap too much with the games I play on my Windows PC. (2) Concerns over reliability. (3) I don't have any historical connection to "Xbox" as I do with Nintendo, Sony & Sega - and up to now I've seen little reason to start.

Having said that, my attraction to Playstation is fading and my feelings towards Sony is quite poor at best. Sony is not performing and the break in both backward compatibility and game continuity is eroding my historical ties to the console. Whilst Xbox is stealing a lot of the former Playstation titles Sony just tries to sell me Bluray Movies - they are lost. So I could consider replacing PS3 with Xbox 360 - once it gets the 65nm transplant and the market says the 360 is reliable.

I'll always keep Nintendo provided they dont do any dumb spyware like things and deliver on quality and provide "something new" every now and then. I like Nintendo products and the Wii definitely has a well defined place for gaming. Pride of place is my PC - it is more and more my closest companion. Xbox or not - Id be happy with just the Wii & a PC.... maybe.???

For me, Sony has until March to turn things around. Get back Backward Compatibility and bring back the Play in Playstation. No more promises. No more hype, no more inappropriate marketing. No more rootkits, just quality games. With the quality of alternatives it's easy for consumers to be ruthless.

LeonJ

4 years ago

It's actually quite funny how you guys are saying you have a PC so you don't need a 360. I decided to ditch PC gaming after Half-Life 2 in favour of the consoles. For one you, you don't have to upgrade constantly and worry about performance ($$$$). I mean you can buy all 3 consoles for less then PC. I mean, buying a video card for the same price as a console is just a waste of money (to me). And for me, all of the PC games I want to play are on the consoles + way more exclusives. That, and the performance is almost the same now.

People will say FPS are surperior with a mouse/keyboard, but it really doesn't bother me. I've been playing FPS since Turok on the N64 and have adapted nicely. Bread and butter now.

360 has another thing which you guys probably get from your PC world. Online. I think the reason I'm so fond of my 360 is because it's a virtual hub of interaction with almost all games being online with all my mates.

Crestfallen

4 years ago

oh god how many times do we have to have the PC debate....

<spanca's old "why do I post here" pic>

Frozencry

4 years ago

crestfallen wrote

oh god how many times do we have to have the PC debate....

<spanca's old "why do I post here" pic>

We don't have to. It's a hard fact that PC is superior to every console ever made, because it's ever evolving and we play games on native resolutions, not 640p

We just happily ride the train laughing at the consoles that were superior for about a month.

diogenes92

4 years ago

Well I find the 40GB a good deal, if I didn't get the 60GB at launch and hadn't had one just yet I'd definitely buy the 40GB. Backward compatibility is not a problem, I've kept my PS2 and would play my PS2 games on the PS2 because that is why I got the PS2, to play PS2 games, exactly the same goes for the PS3, I got the PS3 to play PS3 games. Pretty soon anyways PS2 will go extinct and nobody will play the PS2 games anymore, just like how a large majority of people stopped playing PSOne games on the PS2 because such great PS2 games were coming that they didn't need to play PSOne games.
Now onto the lower memory, if you find it a rip-off that they give you only 40GB well you can always upgrade, much like what I'm going to do with my 60GB, I'm going to upgrade for more memory.
Onto USB ports, there are 2 on the 40GB, 4 on the 60GB, I have the 60GB and only ever use 1 USB port.
Finally onto the small game library of the PS3, which many ppl have complained about. There is MotorStorm, Resistance, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, PS1 downloadable games, PSN games, and much more to be released this year as exclusives, Folklore, Lair, Eye of Judgment Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, Haze, (possibly) Unreal Tournament, and 10x more next year, MGS4, Infamous, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain, Eight Days, Tekken 6, MotorStorm 2, L.A. Noire, PlayStation Home, GT5, LittleBigPlanet, as well as many (this year and next and so forth) multi-platform games. When the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube were the current-generation, many ppl didn't really give a damn about exclusives, I just got the games, most of which were multi-platform except for R&C, that looked like they would be fun (because you couldn't get them on PSOne, which is similar in why you would buy PS3, to play PS3 games, not PS2).
The only worthwhile PS2 games to play anyhow would be Buzz! and SingStar, (and God of War II), + both of those games are coming onto the PS3 soon anyways.
And as an added bonus Blu-Ray player, and SIXAXIS controls.
Well, all up I say the 40GB is great deal at only $700, I payed $1000 but still find it worthwhile.
And soon DualShock 3 will be released with rumble dnt 4get ppls.

rexjamo

4 years ago

I agree with LeonJ all the way.

Whats with you guys being "scared" of 360 hardware failure? What are you, men or scared little nerds too worried to do anything in life? Do you ever get out of the house or cross the road?

Like LeonJ I have put countless hours of gaming on my 360 with one RROD. They fixed it and its been flawless in the many months since. In that time I think I've turned on my PS3 once.

I used to religously upgrade my PC to play games. I recently bought a Dell 24" monitor so I still love my PC. But for gaming the 360 is now the way to go unless you've got unlimited funds and want to play a very limited range of games. The 360 is far easier and cheaper to play games on and you get graphics that are still fantastic and online action that is far easier and better than the PC, unless you want to play WOW which I don't.
I can play awesome games on my 360 displayed on a 50" plasma with a kick arse home theater system while relaxing on my couch. I can't do that with my PC.

As for that bloke who is going to buy multi platform games on the PS3 over the 360. Why? The 360 has far far far better online capability, equal or better graphics/frame rate, a better controller, downloadable content and achievement points. A no brainer for me. My PS3 will continue to gather dust until Sony finally get it right and release a first party/exclusive game that is equal or better to Halo 3/Bioshock/Forza 2/Gears of War/Crackdown etc... I'm still waiting.

For me it all comes down to playing awesome games and at the moment for me the 360 does it better than anything else and I can't see that changing anytime soon.

By the way Monster Hunter 3 for the PS3 has been canned and they're now making it on the Wii.

LeonJ

4 years ago

*sniff* you're a man after my own heart rexjamo. Finally somebody gets what I'm on about as opposed to writing me off as a fanboy

Itachi

4 years ago

rexjamo wrote

ohhh dude i wish i could post like you......* we are not worthy* hahahha couldn't have said it better myself. + + + for you

Jim Dash

4 years ago

Monster Hunter on the PS3 has not been canned, it is now multiplatform, going to both Wii and PS3.

Yes, I'm a scared little nerd, thats why I'm done with my 360. Funny thing is, I've been put off Microsoft products for a long time, yet I always enjoyed my 360. It was the point of getting the RRoD on my first console after 10 minutes and then having one game consistently trick my console into thinking theres a hardware failure.

Its how slow the interface is when using it in-game. Its the fact that it freezes all the time and splutters. Its the fact that I'm over achievements, I just don't care about them.

Better online interface? You do have to pay for it, remember? Sony's online interface has been flawless for me so far, when playing Warhawk there are Australian servers ready to go. Lag has been non-existant for me on my PS3. Can you say that about Live?

At the moment the 360 and PS3 are pumping out multiplatform games that are equal, if not better on 360, definately. Is this all going to change? It better. There is downloadable content planned for many PS3 games, and as I said, achievement points? Pffft. Don't care.

Your arguments may stand up for and represent many, but not me. Bioshock was good for a week. Halo 3 doesn't interest me, I'm finished it already. Forza 2 is great, but not for me and Crackdown was a budget title for me.

Gears of War is the saviour for my 360. If not for that I would not have had even half of the great times I had and would not even be keeping my 360. Sony have to get their act together, yes, but from now on that's my console of choice.

Enjoy your 360, do I care? I can see and respect why. With rumble and a lot of quality titles on the way for PS3, multiplatform or not, I have minimal need for my 360 anymore.

LeonJ

4 years ago

Well it is true that there is only 4 games exclusive for the PS3 and 5 games for the 360. So you are correct that bar a few games you can safely switch to your PS3.

I still feel it's a strange choice to go with the PS3 at this time, as I'm totally sticking with the 360 as a primary console. I feel the 360 has surperior offerings (even with ports atm) in every regard. I just think the PS3 is lacking in almost all aspects of the PS3. Rumble/Online/Achievements/Interacting-with-People.

Ah well, different strokes for different folks. I'm over this topic, this is my last post here.

Crestfallen

4 years ago

Quote

Whats with you guys being "scared" of 360 hardware failure? What are you, men or scared little nerds too worried to do anything in life? Do you ever get out of the house or cross the road?

you don't have to be a nerd to not want to pay money for faulty hardware.

Anyway why do MS and Sony fans hate each other? You should all be sticking together since.... you know.... Nintendo has nearly taken over the world.

Adeptus

4 years ago

littlemo wrote

Adeptus wrote

killer1500 wrote

Also if it wasnt such an important buying feature, why has every console on its launch date supported backwards compatibility, including the Wii. It maybe a useless feature that you never use, but it gives consumers piece of mind when buying it.

Every current generation console maybe. (all 3 of them)

Go back just one gen...
could GC play N64 games? No (not without additional hardware at least).
could XBox1 play anything else? No.
PS2 was the odd one out. (which may have helped its sales... if that's the case, them maybe Sony are shooting themselves in the foot now.)

Before that...
could N64 play SNES? Don't think so. Could SNES play NES? Don't think so.
Sega, no. Though there was an add-on adaptor that let you play MS games on your MD, I believe.
Atari, no.
PS1, no.

So just because something was previously not done in the past means that it has no merit coming into existence?

no... just taking issue with the "every console on its launch date supported backwards compatibility" comment.

Though it's funny that Sony & MS are removing backwards compatibility from their consoles, but offering retro games for download...