Ars Technica has a good record when it comes to Sony rumors, so its with more than a bit of salt that we take their “mole’s” report that Sony is indeed dropping the 80GB/Motorstorm SKU and replacing it with a new model with either a 120 or 160GB drive and a DualShock 3 controller.
If true, this will be the fifth model of the Playstation 3 since its introduction a little over one year ago. Make that sixth, if the rumors of bringing a white version of the console to North America are true.
There is no confirmation of what hardware revision the new model will have; whether it’s based on the semi-crippled 80GB or the fully-crippled 40GB. Most likely it will carry a full set of USB ports this time around, but will probably still drop the memory card readers. I would bet that the new model is more like the barebones 40GB than the 80, to keep production costs down. Now might be a good time for Sony to increase the hard drive capacity, because even at retail, 120 GB notebook drives aren’t that much more expensive than 80 GB drives.
Including a DualShock 3 also gives it some value. Those of us who have imported a DualShock 3 for around $60 have enjoyed the added immersion (something that really should have been there since launch). The controller truly shines in Burnout Paradise and Motorstorm.
The Rumble was not in the controller because there were still legal issues with the patent holder at launch.
Yup, we all know that:
http://www.hardcoreware.net/sony-announces-dualshock-3-controller-at-tgs/
But the point is, they should have taken care of it before launch.
Thats like saying Harmonix should have taken care of their guitar problem (which isnt theirs to begin with) before releasing the game.
Sometimes companies limit their features and can’t be “taken care of” in the time frame, otherwise other obligations can’t be met.
Obviously Sony disagrees with you, because they eventually ‘took care’ of it. They possibly tried to get away with not doing it, but eventually saw enough reason to.
Obviously Sony does agree with me since they decided to release their console without the rumble, rather then waiting for them to settle and cause more delays with the consoles release.
Anyway, there’s already a thread inside on this, so people can come in and read these discussions already.