Britons Snub Cheap PS3, Go for Features

Plus Sony weighs in on how long you'll still be able to buy the high-end 60 GB model.

New figures out this week suggest that Britons are perhaps not as interested in giving up features of the PlayStation 3 as Sony might have thought.

On 10 October Sony introduced a new model of the PlayStation 3 that comes with a 40 GB hard drive and lacks some of the features of the console, including two of the four USB slots and all support for PS2 games.

The first PS3s released in Europe used software emulation to allow the console to play older PS2 games, but they still relied on the graphics chip from the PS2, which had been included in the PS3 hardware. This Graphics Synthesizer chip has now been removed, effectively killing support for PS2 games in the new model.

Total sales of the PS3 nearly tripled after the introduction of the new £299 model, but information from research firm Chart Track, reported by MCV, shows that nearly 90 per cent of all PS3 sales were for the old model PS3, which now sells for £349.

"A lot of our technically savvy customers will have been persuaded to buy now because of the additional functionality of the 60GB machine - demand has continued to be high," Jason Brooks, an account manager with retail chain HMV, told MCV.

The long-term significance of this early split in sales is hard to tell. We contacted Sony to hear what they had to say, but the company declined to comment.

Brooks, for one, thinks that the 40 GB model will have it's day. "We believe demand for the 40GB version will increase significantly as we enter Christmas trading," he said.

Whether that will be by choice, though, is another question. Sony has already said that it will only be selling the 60 GB while it has stock of the console, which could be until Christmas, a spokesperson told us.

Sony declined to comment on the possibility of making more after that.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo