Wouldn't sell to those in rural areas in the US.

 Says who?

This would be like releasing a slim ps2 with only a cd-rom drive and no dvd drive. This article is idiotic beyond believe. You cant release a revised version of a system and leave out the ability to actually play the games for it. DOH!!

welll...they have already been taking away from models to get them out cheaper... but i think that would be a little too much.

To pull something like this off, Sony would need a super-aggressive price point, a larger HDD, and a complete revamp of the PSN. They would have to start offering full games over PSN... Which might work in some areas, because they're already relying on large download speeds to make this work in the first place. To complement the device, they would have to add a huge multimedia infrastructure to PSN to lure buyers into the new device.

Still, too early. It's too radical a transformation and the public wouldn't bite. To boot, the idea fails on two levels:

1. Blu-ray drives just aren't that expensive anymore.
2. This defeats Sony's intent of pushing Blu-ray into homes, possibly at the expense of the Playstation brand.

The 80 Gig offering with all the bells and whistles and backward compatibility should be the minimum anyway. MS has cut the 360 to the bone. How is that working out for them?

Lol that is such a retarded idea...

well if you think that taking the blueray away would leave you with dvd, its not backwards compatible with ps2 so what you end up with is a really phat ps1 lol

does this guy know that people can read what he puts on the intaweb?

i remember reading they took out  bc on the ps3 when the 40 gig came out.
i wasnt aware that it was only ps2 they got rid off.

well makes me happier that i can play the original spyro on my ps3 without having to download it

(=