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The Telegraph’s rumouring that PS3 Slim is to release in two forms, 40GB an 80GB SKUs, at prices starting from £260.
It’s now widely believed that the Slim will be announced on August 18 at SCEE’s GameCom press conference.
That report reckons Slim’s going to be the cheaper PS3 option, although incessant trade chatter reckons it’s the old “brick” SKU that’s going to see the big drop – £199 or bust, Mr Sony.
Sony’s ramping up production to meet increased demand later this year, says that piece, and “has ordered enough parts to make one million consoles in the third quarter of this year, twice as many as in the last three months.”
We’re almost sick with excitement for Cologne. There’ll be bombs everywhere.
Viewing 49 responses
Razor said:
I want a video stream for Cologne, dammit
Phoenixblight said:
The big brick with 80GB or the base HD (20GB?) thats jacked slim for more money or older version hmm which one will people go for? THats a hard choice, slim version for 300 or “brick” with the same features for 200..
Sony been smoking some wonky stuff
Psychotext said:
Those HDD sizes don’t make any sense at all.
Patrick Garratt said:
Yeah, looks ropey to me. And it’s certainly not what I’ve heard.
Patrick Garratt said:
The HD sizes, I mean.
Syrok said:
They can’t really go cheaper than that considering that the PSP will cost around 250, can say? Would be strange to have handheld that actually cost more than a console.
Hunam said:
Will these bombs be megatons? I like megatons.
Robster1979 said:
If it costs more than £199.99 then I cant imagine it having much of an impact, nothing earth shattering anyway.
Psychotext said:
There’s no way they’ll cut the price to £199. It’s too much of a cut for them to absorb. I don’t think £260 is low enough either though… hell, lots of people bought their existing PS3 for less than that.
£260 with GT5 bundled might push some numbers though.
freedoms_stain said:
Any word on ps2 back compatibility for the slims?
Psychotext said:
There’s the patents that have shown up recently discussing EE / GS emulation… but nothing concrete.
Robo_1 said:
It does highlight just how wrong the PSP Go pricing is. If they’d wanted to slap a price tag like that on a new PSP, then they should have delivered a PSP2, not a stripped down PSP.
I’ll bet pounds to pence that it bombs like a bastard on release, and it’s quickly brought more inline with current PSP prices.
The British price cut for the PS3 is going to be tough though, because the euro and pound are so close these days, I think you’re going to be looking at a $/€299 price, with a £259.99 price, and I’d expect much bigger hard drives to be included.
Phoenixblight said:
hahaha No its Slim thus less parts they won’t put the part that allowed backwards compatiability on a smaller machine..unless they announce that emulation patent
Lutz said:
Sod off with multiple SKUs! If they were decently different it’d be one thing, but the saving on the cost of a 40gb HDD to a 80gb HDD (Or even a 20gb HDD to a 160gb HDD) is surely in the pennies?!
Just do a 160gb HDD and have done with it.
Even MS are rumoured to be phasing out the “premium/pro” SKU in favour of the Elite.
Jonarob said:
“Any word on ps2 back compatibility for the slims?”
Careful! O’Connor will be along soon to tell you that you have no right to want it.
Whizzo said:
£249.99 with a couple of titles thrown in and Sony might have got some sales, more than that and I can’t see it doing anything.
Johnny Cullen said:
“Will these bombs be megatons? I like megatons.”
Nah.
Not even giga.
Triga.
*doesn’t know what he’s talking about*
freedoms_stain said:
@14, For 3.5″ drives there isn’t much difference (In price) between a tb and 500mb, but I believe the ps3 takes 2.5″, which are more expensive, and if the slim introduces SSD’s then those are tres expensive.
Jonarob said:
I seriously doubt the Slim will have 40 and 80GB SSDs.
Psychotext said:
There’s no way in hell the slim is getting any sort of SSD. Well, unless they want to sell them for £350.
Who knows with Sony.
Lutz said:
@Freedoms_Stain: Even for 2.5″ HDD’s I can’t see there being a huge price difference in production of 20gb and 160gb… And I agree with Jonarob; SSDs aren’t even on the cards.
G1GAHURTZ said:
So the PS3 is an “old brick” now is it??
Interesting…
No_PUDding said:
What is an SSD?
Memory card slots?
I am so confused. You are all talking gibberish.
And I swear to you I bought my PS3 for Blockbuster at £300 about 3 monthsn after launch. It was a deal.
EDIT: Wishful thinking xD
Hunam said:
The PS2 slim rocks my socks and underpants. Infact, I don’t even want to upgrade from it.
/plays persona
Psychotext said:
@Pud: Google you nub.
G1GAHURTZ said:
Solid state drive.
theevilaires said:
Oh!
Syrok said:
Can you put a SSD into the existing PS3s? Would it make a difference heat/speed/noise-wise?
No_PUDding said:
Still means nothing to me!!!!
Psychotext said:
It would make a small difference to load times, but anything else would be negligible. If you can hear your PS3 HDD then something is wrong with it.
@Pud: Educate theyself: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531
No_PUDding said:
Google is awesome…. It literally took less than 10 seconds xD
Dannybuoy said:
i already have a perfectly good PS3 at home… so why on earth do i want a slim? Why, cos I just love new gadgets and toys… can i justify buying a new one.. probably not.. but i still want one.. so who knows
theevilaires said:
OK!
G1GAHURTZ said:
I like the way you just managed to have a conversation with yourself there Dannybuoy.
I’m not sure about the way you didn’t manage to come to a final decision between the err… ‘two’ of you though.
BBGunner420 said:
If these are in fact the prices, then the converstion for north america makes this price drop dumb as ever. For us that works out to be $360 plus tax on the starting price of £199 or $471 plus tax on the price of £260 (and that could be for the 40GB model?).
G1GAHURTZ said:
Nah, the UK gets taxed VAT on electricals and the standard ‘SUCKERZ!’ premium.
Usually, US prices to UK just require the swap of a dollar sign into a pound sign for these kind of goods.
Lutz said:
G1GA: But the quoted US prices are without tax, where as the UK ones are with tax.
Psychotext said:
It’s a fairly simple calculation…
UK Price: £299, minus VAT (£39) = £260 ($440)
US Price: $399 (£235) plus VAT (£35) = £270
It’s not a huge difference, but it is a difference.
G1GAHURTZ said:
@ Lutz: Oh right.
Yeah, see. VAT + the premium.
Lutz said:
Um… Psycho, you can’t really compare the £260 and £265 (£260 UK compares to £235 US)
Plus tax rates vary from state to state.
DrDamn said:
@PT
235 + 35 = 270
Was a bit confused as $399 + VAT should have bought it up to ~$460 and wondered why that was only a £5 difference from $440.
G1GAHURTZ said:
I believe that the comparison is between the $399 and $460 and the £270 and the £299.
Or even worse, £235($399) without VAT managing to get to £299($460) after.
Lutz said:
G1GA; you’re out.
OK, from the top.
UK price is £300. That’s gross. American is $400. That’s net.
UK net price is £260.87 (VAT at 15%) or £255.32 (VAT at 17.5% as it will be 01/01/10)
US net price is $400, which is £235.29 (Exchange rate of £1:$1.70) OR! $400, which is £266.67 at the more tradtional (read: before this economic boom) exchange rate of £1:$1.50
So, taxes aside, the US model is about £25.58 cheaper today, and if you twist the figures enough to say, 1990’s figures, the US version is more expensive by about £11.32
UK tax is a straight 15%. US tax can vary from about 5% to 20% IIRC, but it’s been a long time since I looked at US tax rates across the states.
We all got that? Good.
G1GAHURTZ said:
lolwut! 1990?
You’re not a tax man, are you?? Hehe…
All I was saying is that in real terms, I pay more for my electrical goods than the Americans do.
And according to a recent survey, people in equivilant jobs over there earn, on average, more than me too.
Rip off Britian, I say!
Lutz said:
No, I’m not a tax man, but you can be sure that the bods at Sony will be using an exchange rate in their favour rather than a realistic one. All companies do.
Debenhams in the UK labels all clothes in £ and €, and the exchange rate is about 1.55, much higher than it’s ever been.
In real terms, you probably pay about the same.
But yeah, there’s much more that we pay more for in the UK. Fuel/Power being a prime example.
Syrok said:
Well, the Americans have to live in the States. It all equals out. ^.^
theevilaires said:
OH! OK?
G1GAHURTZ said:
Yeah I know, it wasn’t a dig at Sony. Almost everything electrical is more expensive over here than it is over there.
HDTV’s, High end PC’s, consoles, the lot.
The other day I was looking at gaming laptops, and I could hardly believe that you can get practically maxed out, high end ones for about $1,500 in the US, but the equivilant is about £1,400 over here.
It’s pretty obscene.
Psychotext said:
@DrDamn: Yeah, sorry I was just absent mindedly doing it whilst I was on the phone.