As you may have heard, Sony recently announced that the 60GB SKU here in America would be getting a price drop down to $499. Well, like its 20GB brethren, it looks like Sony is discontinuing the 60GB model of their fledgling system.
In an interview with Game Industry, SCEE David Reeves, the 60GB PS3 will be gone at the end of this month. “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.”
This brings up some obvious questions, the first being–what? But aside from that, will Sony remove the copy of Motorstorm from the 80GB SKU at some point shortly after its release and drop the 80GB pack to $499? Or is this all just a case of an executive slipping up?
UPDATE: According to Next Generation, a SCEA ‘spokesperson’ has denied the earlier report of a phase-out of the 60GB system stating that “[a]s announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future.”
SCEA blames an ‘incorrect interpretation’ for the mishap, but Next Generation quotes a senior Sony PR rep out of London as saying that “I believe that is the plan, but SCEA has not formally made an announcement on any timeframe. As it affects the US you should confirm with SCEA.”
UPDATE #2: Finally putting a complete and final end to the question of exactly what Sony’s stance is on the 60GB model, global head for Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai confirmed that the 60GB was no longer in production. (Link to video) “Once that product is gone from the retailer shelves, then we’re back to a $599 SKU only, so it’s not like we have a two-price strategy in the US market. We found out very early on how consumers react to having just one SKU as opposed to two.”
Originally Written By: Art Green
