Sony Discontinues 20GB PS3's.

Sony has officially discontinued the 20GB PS3's in North America heres the articles right here from the good ol [H]ard OCP.

http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MjUxNjQsLCxobmV3cywsLDE=

This is very disappointing in that it further highlights the pricegap between the PS3 and it's competitors (including the expensive 360 Elite). I think that the 20GB PS3 is a good purchase for those who don't care for WiFi & Media Slots, or who are looking for an inexpensive Blu-Ray player.

deception``
 
Doesn't bother me, I enjoy the 60gig. Just moved to my new Apt... the Cable box and router are in my office which is pretty far from my living area with the HDTV and PS3. First time I every tried hoooking up the wireless for it... works great. Better than having a 100ft cable going accross my apt. :D
 
20 gig was a PR stunt so that during launch sony could say "look, only 100 bucks different than the 360!"
 
Kinda glad there's only one SKU. The 360 with 3 different SKU's is ridiculous...

I was never planning on getting the 20gb though so maybe someone who is might be upset.

I also think this means a price drop for the 60gb is more likely.
 
I think its good that there is one SKU but this just further increases the gap in price between the 360 and PS3.
 
360's 3 SKU's *is* ridiculous, no question about it, but dropping the $499 SKU was just dumb on Sony's part. It's like giving Ninny and MS a price cut.

Ah, well, it just makes the Wii look like all that much better of value now, LOL.
 
I really think Sony needs to follow this up with a price drop quickly. It would look good in a lot of ways. I think its an opportunity to not only get more people who are on the edge to buy it but also instead of looking like they are desperate for sales look like they're just "replacing" the lower priced model with the better model. Otherwise the price gap really does look bad.
 
Kinda glad there's only one SKU. The 360 with 3 different SKU's is ridiculous...

I was never planning on getting the 20gb though so maybe someone who is might be upset.

I also think this means a price drop for the 60gb is more likely.

Please enlighten me on how the dropping of the 20GB PS3 means a price drop of the 60GB? They're still losing money on every console sold - even more money on the 60GB version. Seems odd that Sony would opt to lose even more money on the system. For the record, the lack of the EE (PS2) chip in future revisions only comes with a modest cost savings.

Moreover, I don't see the Core 360 as a very smart buy, but I have to imagine that (a) the Core exists so Microsoft can boast a next-gen system costing only 300 and (b) there likely are some people buying that version.

deception``
 
I really think Sony needs to follow this up with a price drop quickly. It would look good in a lot of ways. I think its an opportunity to not only get more people who are on the edge to buy it but also instead of looking like they are desperate for sales look like they're just "replacing" the lower priced model with the better model. Otherwise the price gap really does look bad.

Agreed, though commentary from Sony makes it seem unlikely we'll see a price cut any time soon. Given that the 60GB costs them more to build than the 20GB did, too, this move makes it seem even less likely...

I tell you what this DOES make me think though, it makes me thing Microsoft was STUPID not to put the wireless into the Elite model at the $479 price point.
 
I thought the 60gb was actually more profitable than the 20gb one. :confused:

We also don't know how much the production costs are of the PS3 right now. The costs of Cell and Blu-Ray (the 2 most expensive components) have gone down significantly since it launched and I wouldn't doubt that Sony isn't losing that much money anymore.
 
It is in fact more profitable, but it is also more expensive to make. Just not 100 dollars more expensive, hence more expensive but also more profitable.
 
I thought the 60gb was actually more profitable than the 20gb one. :confused:

We also don't know how much the production costs are of the PS3 right now. The costs of Cell and Blu-Ray (the 2 most expensive components) have gone down significantly since it launched and I wouldn't doubt that Sony isn't losing that much money anymore.

Actually there was a big article I *believe* at Ars awhile back that stated the 20GB model was a good deal cheaper for them to make than the 60GB for various reasons.

In either case, I haven't seen any documentation to suggest they've seen massive price drops in cell or BluRay since the PS3 launched, but I *have* seen Sony reps say repeatedly that there's no planned price drop any time soon.

Of course, given, that they've barely managed to shift *half* the units they planned by the end of March, desperation may force their hand...
 
It is in fact more profitable, but it is also more expensive to make. Just not 100 dollars more expensive, hence more expensive but also more profitable.

Well, not more profitable, just less of a loss, percentage wise :D. Neither model is profitable.
 
K... that's what I thought...

Does anyone have that chart that broke down the cost of the PS3 components?
 
Found it...

consoles_chart_232x215.gif
 
Considering the costs of Blu-Ray players have gone down significantly and we know that Cell is now being produced with very high yields unlike before AND being used in many other products which has to drive the cost down I could see it being pretty close to profitable at this point.
 
Considering the costs of Blu-Ray players have gone down significantly and we know that Cell is now being produced with very high yields unlike before AND being used in many other products which has to drive the cost down I could see it being pretty close to profitable at this point.

Uh, what other products do you see Cell being used in? IBM's shipped a tiny handful of blades, I know Toshiba's announced some HDTV's that (AFAIK) haven't shipped yet. We've seen Bluray players come down, that's true, though. Not clear how much they were marked up before, but it's clear they were marked up by quite a bit early on.

Also, I haven't seen any hard numbers about cell yields, but I'd be curious to see if that's accurate. I've no doubt they've improved (couldn't have gotten much worse from what they were early on, of course), I just wonder by how much.

Still, we have Sony pretty recently stating "no price drop". And let's face it, the other problem if they drop it too soon is that they alienate and piss off the early adopters as well. Kind of a sticky spot to be in.
 
Found it...

consoles_chart_232x215.gif

IIRC, Microsoft now turns a profit on every Xbox 360.Given that it does not use a lot of bleeding-edge components, it was much easier to cost reduce.

Furthermore, I really like the line on your image that says "Other Doodas" :)

deception``
 
Uh, what other products do you see Cell being used in? IBM's shipped a tiny handful of blades, I know Toshiba's announced some HDTV's that (AFAIK) haven't shipped yet.

They're being used in some medical products and other things. I'm too lazy to go look for links right now...

DragonMasterAlex said:
Still, we have Sony pretty recently stating "no price drop". And let's face it, the other problem if they drop it too soon is that they alienate and piss off the early adopters as well. Kind of a sticky spot to be in.

It's not like there are that many early adopters to piss off :D

deception`` said:
IIRC, Microsoft now turns a profit on every Xbox 360.Given that it does not use a lot of bleeding-edge components, it was much easier to cost reduce.

Furthermore, I really like the line on your image that says "Other Doodas"
It's from a Cnet article... and according to them they don't...

It came out before the PS3 launched though so they could be turning a profit now.
 
Kinda glad there's only one SKU. The 360 with 3 different SKU's is ridiculous...

I was never planning on getting the 20gb though so maybe someone who is might be upset.

I also think this means a price drop for the 60gb is more likely.

They dropped an entire SKU to reduce their losses. Following that up by making the $599 version $100 less wouldn't really make sense.
 
The demand was for the 60GB version, not the 20GB version. That's why they dropped it.

officially, yes, but let's face reality: They never put enough 20GB units in the channel to get a true measure of the demand for them at all, so you really can't say that conclusively. You can say that's what *Sony* claims, but I think we all know that Sony's claims and reality ain't ever been too similar :). I've never seen a 20GB unit in a store, but I've seen *pallets* of the 60GB model (and I do, all the time, and have since late december, when I watched a Wal Mart close on Christmas Eve with a full pallet of 360's sitting on the floor unsold) just sitting there. And yes, I live in a major metropolitan area.
 
Well none of the retailers were ordering the 20GB's...

It wasn't up to Sony to decide what the retailers order or not...
 
Well none of the retailers were ordering the 20GB's...

It wasn't up to Sony to decide what the retailers order or not...

how do you know they weren't? Obviously the early adopters were going to go for the 60 (which made it stupid that they released the 20 at launch at all, same with MS releasing the core at launch, that was just dumb), but that's not a valid indicator of the market at large.

i'm not complaining, of course, this will probably actually harm them in the long run, which is fine by me. Every giant will and must fall, and this is Sony's turn :)
 
I think this is a good move for Sony without the price drop. With the price drop it could be a great move. Not sure why you think it's bad...
 
how do you know they weren't? Obviously the early adopters were going to go for the 60 (which made it stupid that they released the 20 at launch at all, same with MS releasing the core at launch, that was just dumb), but that's not a valid indicator of the market at large.

i'm not complaining, of course, this will probably actually harm them in the long run, which is fine by me. Every giant will and must fall, and this is Sony's turn :)

sony needs to lose a round. if it wasnt for the xbox sony wouldnt be pushing the envelope with online play. comp is good
 
This is very disappointing in that it further highlights the pricegap between the PS3 and it's competitors (including the expensive 360 Elite). I think that the 20GB PS3 is a good purchase for those who don't care for WiFi & Media Slots, or who are looking for an inexpensive Blu-Ray player.

deception``

Agreed, I sold my PS3 until better games arrive, but I was planning to re-buy the 20GB version some time next year. 20GB of memory is more than enough for game downloads and game saves and I have no use for WiFi or memory card slots. If I really wanted wireless internet I could use one of my extra wireless router as a wireless bridge and USB memory sticks work great. Plus, If I wanted a harddrive bigger than 20GB I would buy a 120GB harddrive for less than the $100 difference between the models.

Also, Steve comment "To be honest, after our 30 day evaluation of the PS3 60GB, I have to agree that if you are going to dish out that kind of cash, you might as well get the whole enchilada for the extra hundred dollars," on the front [H] page is totally wrong, imo. Why do people always waste money on feature they will never use. $100 is a lot of cash that could be better spend on other console accessories and games. I usually agree with Steve's comments, so this struck me as odd when I read it. :p
 
The demand was for the 60GB version, not the 20GB version. That's why they dropped it.

Sales were low for the 20GB version because Sony always shipped a ridiculously low amount of them.

Sony:

All of our retailers stopped asking for the 20GB version...at the same time, conveniently enough...
 
I think this is a good move for Sony without the price drop. With the price drop it could be a great move. Not sure why you think it's bad...

I think it's bad because it means I will wait just a little longer than planned to buy a PS3.

I have no use for wireless (hate it for gaming online) and I have no need for a 60 GB HDD.
 
Well none of the retailers were ordering the 20GB's...

It wasn't up to Sony to decide what the retailers order or not...

That's sony BS alert. The "official" numbers on production from sony were that they only produced about 20% of the output as 20 giggers. Retailers at the time of launch and afterwards reported getting in the mid 90% 60 giggers. It's a fact that they lost more money on the 20. I think it's painfully obvious that they just didn't want to keep losing the money, and discontinued it.

Everyone I know who bought a ps3 either bought a 20 gigger, or tried to find one, couldn't, and went 60.
 
I thought the 60gb was actually more profitable than the 20gb one. :confused:



It is. That's why they dropped the 20gb model. Adding wifi, a bigger HD, and the media slots adds much less to the cost than the extra $100 they collect at retail.
They lose money on both but lose less selling a 60gb for $600 compared with the 20gb for $500.
 
That's sony BS alert. The "official" numbers on production from sony were that they only produced about 20% of the output as 20 giggers. Retailers at the time of launch and afterwards reported getting in the mid 90% 60 giggers. It's a fact that they lost more money on the 20. I think it's painfully obvious that they just didn't want to keep losing the money, and discontinued it.

Everyone I know who bought a ps3 either bought a 20 gigger, or tried to find one, couldn't, and went 60.

I don't think losing $300 is that much worse than losing $250.

We must run with different crowds because I don't know a single person, IRL or online, that wanted a 20gigger.
 
No real surprise here.

I prefer one SKU anyways. The Core unit for the XBOX is worthless...only an idiot would buy that system in the first place. But I guess the general public isn't us right?
Which in that case, none of them even realize any of this is going on and none of them will ever know.

There ya go
 
Well the difference isn't $300 or $250 with the drop in production costs of Blu-Ray and Cell so it was probably a stupid point anyway :p
 
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