Sony Planning 80 GB PlayStation 3?

March 29, 2007 By Geoff Duncan

Sony Planning 80 GB PlayStation 3?

A day after Microsoft makes its 120 GB Xbox 360 Elite official, FCC filings indicate Sony plans to offer 80 GB drives in its Bluetooth-enabled PlayStation 3s.

Just a day after Microsoft officially announced its Xbox 360 Elite with a 120 GB hard drive and HDMI output, a required FCC filing hasrevealed that Sony is planning a new version of its PlayStation 3 gaming console with an 80 GB drive.

Currently, the PlayStation 3 is available in two configurations: a $499 edition with a 20 GB hard drive and wired controllers, and a $599 edition with a 60 GB hard drive and Bluetooth wireless capability. Although there is no official word from Sony on its plans for the 80 GB edition, the company has previously stated that retailers strongly prefer the 60 GB edition of the console—leading to low availability of the 20 GB edition, and prompting some potential customers balking at the console’s high price tags to wonder if Sony is trying to upsell as many buyers as possible. If Sony were to replace an offering in the existing PlayStation lineup, it seems logical to assume it would drop the 20 GB edition and add the 80 GB edition at the top of the line; otherwise, Sony might offer the 80 GB edition as a third, top-of-the-line configuration. No availability dates or pricing information is available for the 80 GB edition of the PlayStation 3.

The expanded storage capacity in the PlayStation 3 is undoubtedly to support storage of free and for-sale content from Sony’s online services, including downloadable games, video, music, and other content.

The news of an 80 GB edition of the PS3 is already prompting Xbox 360 fans to deride the console, noting that with the Xbox 360 Elite Microsoft has already leapfrogged Sony’s plans to expand the PlayStation 3. Of course, PlayStation fans will fire back that the Xbox 360 Elite isn’t significantly cheaper than the low end of Sony’s PS3 offerings, and doesn’t include a high-definition optical disc drive or support 1080p output.

Showing 13 comments

Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 8:31pm 11th April 2007 Yeah the heat would bother me too. I have all my gear in a TV stand so it could really heat up in there.

You should come chat with us in the forums!

http://forums.digitaltrends.com/
Brock at 8:28pm 11th April 2007 I dont know about sonys upconverting plans. In my experience though the PS3 is wonderfully quiet. I suppose that could be a feature that it outdoes the 360 in. The 360 gets hot, but when I had the ps3 on a standard shelf in the entertainment center it also got extremely hot. I actually could not hold my hand on it for very long it was so hot so I had to move it to a more open enclosure.
Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 8:06pm 11th April 2007 I heard a rumor that Sony was planning on adding a firmware update to support upconverting older DVDs. Any idea if that is true, and if so, when the update will be out?

Also, how is the sound when playing a movie using the PS3? Is the internal fan really loud?
Carrie at 8:04pm 11th April 2007 I saw that you said you owned a PS3, can you try streaming from your PC for me? I would love to find out if it does work.

Thanks!
Brock at 7:49pm 11th April 2007 I am unsure of the functionality between the PS3 and a PC. As far as the 360 goes you can stream content via Windows Media Center (XP:MCE or Vista), plug and play an iPod or other MP3 player, or download from the Live Marketplace. I do however know that on the PS3 you can plug and play most MP3 players and you can rip from CDs. So essentially you could burn a CD on your PC with the songs you desire then rip it onto the PS3 harddrive. Other than that I am not sure how its wireless functionality works with windows.
Carrie at 7:34pm 11th April 2007 Does the PS3 talk with your PC to stream content from is like the Xbox 360? I would love to store music on the PS3, but how would I get it onto the system Brock?
Brock at 5:35pm 11th April 2007 I agree that the rumble adds more fun to the games. SixAxis is detrimental to the PS3. If you want an interactive game, with motion controllers, find a Wii. There is a reason that PS3s aren't selling and 360s and Wiis are kicking it around. Instead of innovating like they did with the PS2 and creating good games Sony focused on tons of extras within the PS3 that gamers neither want nor need. The integrated wireless in the 60gig version would be nice, if it worked well at all, which it does not. The card reader is a novel idea, though with USB ports its just excessive. Anything the PS3 does the 360 and/or Wii do much better. PS3 tried to cram too much of their competitors wares into one system. That caused huge prices and since they did what those other systems did at a greater cost and with poorer reliability and efficiency they just ended up shooting themselves in the foot...for now at least.
Brock at 5:30pm 11th April 2007 First off the main article is comparing the Xbox 360 ELITE, which is the CORRECT information that I gave; I did not claim that current 360s did anything, and I put the disclaimer in as a courtesy. I imagine that since Microsoft is not considering upconverting an "upgrade" that current 360s do it as well, however I do not know.

Features that the 60 gig PS3 has that the 20 gig PS3 does not:

-Wireless (as in the 802.11x variety; both DO have bluetooth.)
-Muli-Card reader
-Chrome highlights
-60 gig drive

thats it; imho the smaller ps3 doesnt lack anything, it can all be added by external components

After looking into your comment about up converting I did find that "upconverted DVDs" are indeed HD-Quality, just one less reason to need the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, right? That fact alone gives the impression that with the upconvert tech the visuals on the 360 will continue to outdo and/or stay even with PS3 visuals. (in terms of video) So Blu-Ray offers fancy menus, more disc space (for what?), and 7.1 surround

I appreciate the challenge, you got me to re-check my sources and even find new ones. Thanks
Ben Krupt at 2:23pm 11th April 2007 haha you tell me to check my sources, then correct yourself to say you don't know if the current Xbox 360 does upconvert. Irony, I love it.

So what's the difference between the 20GB and 60GB PS3's? Just hard drive space?

Funny that you call it "Neat HD quality" when the manufacturers of upconverting DVD's say it upconverts to 720p or 1080i resolutions. LAst time I checked, 720p and 1080i/p IS HD. Booya? Eat it!
Tim Stevens at 2:22pm 11th April 2007 Hehe, we got a fight on our hands!

I personally am shocked that the default PS3 controllers aren't rumble. :( Sony started it, and now are dropping it!

What gives?
Brock at 2:08pm 11th April 2007 Yes, wired controllers are available, 3rd party. I stated that Sony makes only wireless 6-axis controllers and that all PS3's have bluetooth. Unless they changed the models since I bought the 20GB version in December it came packaged with a bluetooth wireless controller. It seems it still does if you can find one in stock:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_...
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_PlayStation_3_20_GB/4...

Upon further research I found that the Xbox 360 Elite will indeed "upoconvert DVDs out of the box" though I don't know if current 360's do:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360elite/de...

Also I stated that the upconvert was "near-HD" quality; if we could reach HD-quality on standard DVDs what would be the point in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD?

Thanks for the input, perhaps you should check your sources though.
Ben Krupt at 1:17pm 11th April 2007 I remember being told that the cheaper version of the PS3 (which is almost impossible to find now) came without Bluetooth in it.

Looks like the PS3 does have a wired controller you can purchase: http://www.ebgames.com/search.asp?N=141+116

Sony does ship the PS3 with a wireless controller though. It just doesn't have a rumble feature built-in.

I do not believe the Xbox 360 upconverts older DVDs to HD resolutions, better check your facts there. And I know the PS3 doesn't do that either.
Brock at 1:03pm 11th April 2007 First of all I just want to correct the bundle of mistakes in the story. First of all, ALL versions of the PS3 are bluetooth enhanced, Sony does NOT sell wired controllers for the PS3. Second the Xbox 360 Elite IS 1080p compatible with the new HDMI port, part of the elite marketing. In addition to the HD-DVD controversy (and this part is my own feeling) Blu-Ray is a superior format, I think Microsoft knows that but they are choosing to keep the 360 price point lower than the PS3 by not including it. It is available if "gamers" choose to buy it, but with integrated Media Center extender and the ability to download HD-digital media to the 360 on the new, lovely 120GB drive, why would anyone need it? Not to mention that the 360 natively up-converts standard DVDs to near-HD quality. As far as storage for games goes DVD space still is not running out for the 360 and it still has far superior graphics to the PS3 at this time. To fill that BluRay disc are we going to need to play 300 hour games? And how much do you think all of the R&D for those will make the games cost? Right now a next-gen DVD player isn't important,and the 360 is, at this time, very suprior to the PS3. Games, Online, Simplicity, (Rumble controllers are so much better (read: more fun) than Six-Axis), Media Center Extender functionality, better hard drive. It's just a better console right now, and as much as I loved the PS1 and PS2 the PS3 has become more of a dissapointment. I welcome any who disagree and I'm curious to see what others think.