You can play every 360 game without installs.

So with the 4gb 360 you can save all your games and play every game.

With the PS3 you have titles with mandatory installs. Quite alot. Which means you cant play all games on Ps3 12 gb flash memory.

Insane.

rage is 8 and i believe theres is none that goes over 10-12gb

the 12gb ps3 is like ms 4gb sku its a starter system, but unlike MS sony doesnt rob you when its time to upgrade as any sata hdd will work on the ps3

They only rob you if you own any other system they made besides the PS3 when it comes to memory.

DC Universe is 11GB and latest update patching is 2GB at least. 13GB total at least.

Try playing co-op Halo Reach on a 4gb. Try playing a MMO such as FFXI on a 4gb. 

Try downloading any DLC. Want to pop in a 250gb hard drive afterwards? That'll be $112.99 for the proprietary hard drive instead of $59.99 if you would have bought a 12gb ps3.

If you don't mind paying for DLC.

You likely won't mind paying for an overpriced hard drive. :p

Each has its own target audience. There's no alternative to buying a DLC (either you do or you don't). On the other hand, a $52 premium on a hard drive means you probably should have bought the bigger xbox right away.

Game performance (cutscenes, texture loads, etc.) is also affected if you don't install some games to a hard drive. Also not a fan of the laser wearing out early in the console's life because it's constantly being sollicited...

I myself bought a 250GB 360S last week. Can't wait to get my hands on it -- haven't touched it yet. 

if you are talking about going a cheaper way to avoid shelling out for harddrive alternatives you can get a 16gb flash drive for about 8euros here and the xbox can set it up to be used for dlc no bothers and 16gb is more than enough for the store content.

also the bolded text.... what? there is more likely to be damage done to a consoles drive by being inactive and left alone for dust to gather on the lens than there ever would be by playing games using the drive. I've never heard of a single drive this generation to die of too much reading with the exception of early wiis modified to read actual dvds using the dvdx software... but that was damage because the drive wasn't meant to read those format of disks.

Of course people will find something to complain about.

Here's what I think. The pricing is great, because Sony, and every other Japanese company is hosed by the exchange rate right now. This gives Sony something fresh on the market, and helps them fight back the massive red ink leak.

As for the 12GB unit. I like it as a bedroom unit, and that it is cheap. I've put my own storage in every PS3 I own, so having the option to buy one a little cheaper, and bypass the HDD cost is nice. However, I don't like this being the only option going forward.

Personally, I wish Sony would make a high end device that was capable of playing PS3 games. I would pay the price for a new device that was very high quality, silent, played PS1/2/3 games, had USB ports front and back, brought back the card readers, had a built in SSD, and just looked like a classy A/V unit. I don't understand why they don't make something like that and sell it for a profit. It would be a low volume product, and there would be people willing to pay the $600 - 800 dollars it would cost.

they had something similar to that towards the end of the ps2 life the PSX was a big fancy version of a ps2 with really nice built in harddrive for recording tv and stuff onto the unit to watch after and yeah was really nice to look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_%28DVR%29 it absolutely died a death tho, the concept of an older console for a huge price at this late stage would appeal to very few people and sony know this, the people who really want to get the kinda system you are talking about and have the money to get it... can do so on ebay buying a launch model ps3, you have to remember with this system and the other rebrand of the ps3 you are asking for, these redesigns do not make themselves, there are safety tests that need to be passed, design criteria that needs to be met and of course hardware testing to make sure that the new design runs cool enough for hours and days of gaming.... relaunching a system like this comes at a cost... and I think most peoples thoughts with this thing atm is was it worth sonys time and effort atm when the ps3slim is currently bashing the hell outta the other two systems in sales around the world.