Yesterday there was a report that someone at Sony (with the fancy title of PRESIDENT no less) said that the 60GB PS3 was no longer being produced, and as soon as the current stock sold out, they would go back to selling a single SKU (presumably, the crippled 80GB version). He said that they would probably sell out of their stock by the end of July.
We didn’t bother reporting it, because something about the story seemed off. First of all, I don’t know why the president of Sony Europe is even commenting on this, since Europe isn’t even getting a price cut (and they haven’t even announced when the 80GB version will be available there, if at all). Plus, to sell the most popular SKU and go back to the price that everyone thinks is too expensive would be just stupid. Finally, do you really think they’ll be able to sell every single 60GB Playstation 3 in North American stores in about 2 weeks?
So it comes as no surprise that a spokesman from Sony (America!) has put an end to that rumor, stating that “As 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.”
So don’t worry, the 60GB version (IE the far superior one) should still be available for quite some time.
Update: We finally have some word from Sony regarding this issue. Just as I guessed, they are no longer making these full-featured 60GB units, which are now available for $499. So once these units run out, there is no knowing what they will be replaced with, if anything (and this probably won’t happen until this Christmas).
[...] has been tight-lipped. Execs and Spokespeople from different regions are saying different things. I speculated that once the full-featured 60GB units at $499 run out, they will probably replace it with a [...]