Ah, the people also said the sales in Europe would drop once the 60 gigs are out. Face it, people don't care as much about BC as a lot of people think they do. Its not worth 100$ for the most. Its that simple. If the 40 GB would not sell and the other 2 would in japan move serios ammount more units, I don't think Sony would do such a move. They need sells. So if they do it, it will most likley there is a bigger upside than downside for them. 

@Just_Ben: The question is how would it work for them in Europe if BC model was also avalible there. I think that eliminating 60GB model didn't help as much as new, lower price.

Advantages of this decision:
- less confustion for consumer, only one standard model
- possibly smaller losses on Sony side (which can be transfered on client' side in form of price drop).
Disadvantages:
- no model with BC on market

Sony stated earlier that they are not going to develop PS2 software emulation for 40GB and instead are going to focus on developing software for PS3.

so what if they're not europe? exactly what difference would that make? the majority of this forum expected the 40gb in europe to flop hard. they were all wrong, horribly wrong infact. what makes you think japan will be any different?

"Sony is further gimping its hardware"

Bah the 40Gb has everything in it to play PS3 games.

Just the things you have to buy extra for all or many 360 versions:

hard disc, HDMI, WLAN, HD player, loading equipment for the controller *sick*...

 Wii 230,625

PS3 74,401

During one of the biggest weeks in Japan 

Obviously, no one cares about b/c. They did it in america, and sales have risen greatly since then, did it ine EU, and sales have risen greatly, and they will do it in JP and it will happen again. Sony haters like to think that b/c is more important than it is, when in actuality, it isn't. We've been through this same exact thhing when they did it in Others and they said sales would drop and they rose, in america the same haters said the same thing and they rose, and the same will happen in JP.

Well Kaz did state that his goal was to make the PS3 profitable during 08's fiscal year. I expect them to hold strong on the price and drop anything else they can from the system.

@ A_T

Well, no system except the DS can stand up to Wii Fit and the Wii together. Duh! And the PS3 hasn't really received a plethora of releases in a few months.

@ DOATS1

You have to remember that its 'cool' to bash Sony these days, regardless of what they do!

for production it is good step, one model mass production is probably less expensive