er surely some mistake? The 40Gb is currently £299 but your saying the 80Gb is cheaper :-/

To help boost Sony's sales over here.

I need a spare one to take round my friend's house to show him how good it is and get him to sell his xbot off.

Its a good price - someone buy one!

Sony also announced that the download video service will not reach europe this year.

But we dont want to post that now do we.

Yet until they put ps2 backwards compat back in no space for it under my tv as I have a library of ps2 games already and no space for both machines. This has delayed me buying ever since 60GB vanished.

Maybe they have introduced it to compete with the 60GB Xbox.

Sony must be running scared.

[gets coat and quickly leaves]

Anybody remember the days when you bought a games console without the fear of the manufacturer introducing a newer, flashier version 2 months later and you thinking "i should've waited"?

I mean how many versions of X360 and PS3 are we going to have?!

I know you should buy a console because of the games but you got to feel hard done by. Especially as these days consoles are no longer just for games but are designed to be your home entertainment hub.

Nintendo at least are keeping things straight forward for the Wii...for now.

A stop sign 'cause it's time MS and Sony got their act together and built games consoles not PC's in disguise.

The 80GB is priced the same as the 40GB - there is no price cut. They've also stated that they won't be reducing the price of the 40GB to sell it off before the 80GB is released (like they have done in the US) either - so anyone buying one in the meantime is being ripped off.

Thanks again Sony Europe!

I think they're referring to the fact that the 80GB model over here is a cheaper version of the original 80GB model (based on currency conversion) that was released in the US and Japan but not over here.

Their original 80GB model featured backwards compatibility by effectively also having PS2 hardware inside it. So be removing this and some other features like memory card readers etc they can relaunch it cheaper (and in all territories this time).

I'll be looking for an older one now if they end up getting big cuts in an effort to offload stock.

It sounds like the only real difference is going to be a hard drive change. The drive bay is user serviceable anyway, and it might possible to replace an offloaded 40GB with a 250GB+ drive and still cost the same as the new model with an 80GB drive.

"Available content - in the US only, alas - includes about 1200 TV shows and roughly 300 movies."

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/16/ps3_movie_downloads/

That didn't even imply that video downloads would eventually be available in Europe.

So, you're saying that The Register chose not to report the brilliant news that Sony IS going to add this feature for Europe, just not this year??

I call anti-PS3 bias.

This news is disappointing.

I'd have thought by now that they would have a refined design, with more integration (and less components) leading to a "slimmer" PS3 which would cost them less to make and might use less power. I'd have thought they would have upgraded the WiFi to 802.11n as well by now.

I guess all these improvements will arrive just in November just in time for XMAS?

...are Sony not putting in backwards compatibility on purpose so that people will purchase and download the old games from their online store?

instead you get to buy hundreds of various peripherals and updates to the controller.

Yes, in fact what I did was get my PS3 40Gb for free from Carphone Warehouse and put in a 250GB Seagate Scorpio drive for ~£40.

My XBox 360 Elite has collected dust ever since.

It's still expensive. I wish they'd ditch the BluRay and just stick in a cheap DVD drive.

£299 to play games which look pretty much the same as on a £190 Xbox 360. Yeah ok then, I'm sold.

Sorry Sony, try again.

I can hear the fanboys... oh.. but its a blu-ray player.. oh.. but its got a bigger hard drive... oh.. it can make pizzas.... I DON'T CARE. Its a GAMES CONSOLE.. I want to play GAMES on it and from every piece of evidence I've seen so far theres nothing the PS3 can do in the GAMES arena that the 360 can't do just as well, or in fact better in the case of online gaming.

The day it costs the same or less then a 360 and has some exclusive games worth buying, then, and only then will I consider buying Sonys big black brick but no doubt by then the 720 will be out and we'll be back to square one again with Microsoft yet again beating Sony to the punch.

"Nintendo at least are keeping things straight forward for the Wii...for now." - yes by simply selling you a rebadged gamecube they are being lovely arent they? also have you seen how much it costs to buy a 2 part controller?

sony cant do right by some people can they?

i still wanna know how the hell they get these tiny little HDs from? im mean 40gb? how makes them any more? i guess they are 2.5"?

"I mean how many versions of X360 and PS3 are we going to have?!"

Heh, more! 'Nuff said really.

@MichaelG

"...are Sony not putting in backwards compatibility on purpose so that people will purchase and download the old games from their online store?"

Nope, it's because people belly-ached about the cost of a box. The downloads are a nice addage for Sony's coffers that came later.

@joshimitsu

Agreed - it used to be that the PS3 was a damn site cheaper than the Xbox with like for like hardware.. not sure now though, but I'm sure someone will tell me :o)

@Rob

"My XBox 360 Elite has collected dust ever since."

Unfortunately, so was mine since it RROD (wasn't this supposed to never happen with teh Elite???). New one on the way..

Paris, because she's just a cheap, slu.. (SNIP!)

"every piece of evidence" OooO!! Show us, SHOW US!! Links, dammit, we want links!!

"Sonys big black brick" As opposed to buying Microsofts brick, with its power brick, and with that HD-DVD bri... ooooo.. too soon???

"by then the 720 will be out and we'll be back to square one again with Microsoft yet again beating Sony to the punch"...

Ooo.. please stop.. PLEASE!!! Lol!! Where has this "720" idea come from?? Was the previous generation of the Xbox called the Xbox 180? Bit like Microsoft doing a 180 degree spin on the HD-Dv... oooo.. still too soon??

Lol! You truly are gormless!!

I'm not buying a PS3 until they re-introduce full UK launch functionality.

I don't buy anything that has been deliberately gimped to reach a price-point.

Sony's flagship games console on sale in the UK today can't play Super Audio CD's. A format co-developed by.......Sony.

Surely the console would (or won't in this case) play games, not pay them?

... the 80Gb model will ship with the Dualshock 3 controller, so you're getting far more for your hard-earned ..?

"Sony's flagship games console on sale in the UK today can't play Super Audio CD's. A format co-developed by.......Sony."

Erm, yes it can.

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=19489827

"I'm not buying a PS3 until they re-introduce full UK launch functionality."

Yeah, or you could buy the slimline PS2 which plays more PSone games than the PS3 does (it still plays them yes, how else can they sell them on the store?), and plays PS2 games better than the PS3, for quite a small fee if you wanted one. Although if you actually care about it, I assume you've already got a PS2, and as such the hell do you care? I'm not fussed by the backwards compatibility as I've completed all my PS2 games over the years it's been out. How many people do you think have been playing any Xbox games on their 360 other than Halo 1/2?

"Erm, yes it can.

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=19489827"

Erm, not it cannot!!

That is the launch 60Gb CECHCxx model which has been withdrawn and is not available for sale.

As I already said....the PS3 currently available on sale today in the UK, the 40Gb CECHGxx, cannot play SACD's.

http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html

The new model just seems to be a hard-drive increase, with no added functionality.

You had over a year to get one, so the only person to blame for losing out, is yourself...

My 60GB PS3 is very fine that you.. Loser....

Um. Was that enthusiastic enough? How about "whoop-de-frickin-do." Or even "whatever".

Show me some really decent software and I might ditch the Xbox; meantime I'm happy with Gears and Halo. I also like the meatier-sized controller.

However. I *hate* that my 360 closely resembles a blast furnace for noise & heat especially once a disc spins up. Makes it unusable for media usage IMHO.

Seriously, is the PS3 quiet enough for watching media? Might consider one if so.

[Evil Jobs since Apple fanboys are even worse than Xbox/PS/Wii]