Sony Drops the 60GB PS3: Brilliant Marketing Scheme, Or Are They Insane?

Note: This post is a semi-sequel to “Who the Heck is Going to Buy the $599 80GB PS3″

Perhaps the worst kept secret in recent console gaming history, we now know that the $499 60GB PS3 is soon-to-be extinct. The newly announced $599 80GB PS3 (with Motorstorm bundled) well then remain the only PS3 package in stores. Still, a glaring question remains unanswered:

Will the 80GB model drop to the $499 price point once the 60GB models are gone?

We know that there are supposedly a few months worth of 60GB stock left, but is that enough time to justify a price drop on the 80GB model? This is perhaps the best outcome of this whole fiasco, and honestly the most likely. They can minimize the price to $499 very easily by simply ceasing to include Motorstorm in the future.

If, however, the 80GB remains at $599, then it becomes yet another PR debacle for Sony. After all, they knowingly led us to believe the $499 60GB was a “price-drop”, not a “clearance sale” (as Joystiq puts it). Even if they never said anything directly many people on Sony’s end knew that this was going to happen — clearly making it a lie of omission.

The aftermath of this announcement to execute the 60GB model has yet to be fully seen, but I suspect that even the prospect of losing out on the $499 deal is enough to convince informed gamers that they need to get the 60GB unit. Could this be exactly what Sony wanted? The complete lack of demand for the 60GB unit at its former $599 price point is certainly well-documented — could this be a sort of artificial jump-start for demand?

All Sony has to do to drive these desperation-induced sales is to stay quiet on its real plans for the 80GB PS3. Given this recent announcement from Dave Karraker at SCEA, it sounds like that’s exactly what’s going to happen:

“We won’t be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated.”

Hell, they could probably even continue to secretly produce the 60GB unit until there’s a convenient time for them to cut it loose… At this point, could you really put it past them?

Upgrade 1: 7/15/07 11:00AM

Also, let’s not forget that this is the last PS3 model with the Emotion Engine chip built-in, making it the last PS3 that is fully backwards-compatible with PS2 games. That gives the 60GB unit more than just a price-point advantage, it actually has a hardware advantage over the 80GB unit. Personally, I’d much rather have guaranteed backwards-compatibility than a mere 20GB extra of space — especially when the hard drive is user-upgradeable as well.