New 40 GB PS3 Info (be prepared for moans and groans, it'll be painful)

[shams]

Sony will *easily* sell 2m over this Xmas period - WITHOUT the $399 PS3. That's nothing for the worldwide holiday sales of a console.

I'm a bit sad about no PS2 backwards compat. One of my primary incentives to get a PS3 would be to play enhanced PS2 titles. My mate who picked up a PS3 is using it solely for PS2 titles (playing God of War II and loving it). Without BC he wouldn't have bought it.

Might be short term gain for Sony (great advertising - "PS3 now $399!!!!!") - but may cause them a lot of long-term pain. I can see a lot of parents trading in the PS2 + games for the PS3, then getting home to discover favourite PS2 titles just don't work.

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The memory card thing is annoying as well. We regularly do a photo slideshow on our Wii for guests (works great), and not being able to do this on the PS3 - out of the box - sort of sucks. We do have a "memcard to USB" box/cable - but we NEED it on the PC, and it would suck to have to unplug it, and plug it into a PS3 just to look at pictures.

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One of the reasons I think the Wii is so appealing, is its compact, simple, has ONE model - and low fuss. I like all the features in the (full version) PS3, but if Sony is starting to push models without some features - that's pretty sad.

Another issue - with games "pre-installing" on the PS3, I wonder how long before the 40Gig drive gets filled up. Install HOME, some PSStore demos/games/movies, and a couple of big games... and no more space?

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I think Sony is going the wrong way. I would rather see them: Drop the price on the 80Gig model to $499, and introduce a new "uber" (Elite?) model at $599 - bigger hdisk, more functionality, etc...

They should be pushing the "premium" device angle (and asking a premium price), not turning their premium device into a "half-assed" premium device.

(with no memcard + PS2 support, that is two *new* ticks the Wii gets over this model in terms of features...)