So recently in the discussion over Japanese PS3 sales, people were talking about how Bluray seems to be a bigger driving factor than games right now for the hardware. This got me thinking, I wouldn't mind a bluray player for $400 or so, but the $500 range is pushing it for me, and so particular PS3 models become very attractive. As we know, MS has now 3 X Xbox 360 SKUs in the US at 300, 400 and 480 dollars each. Sony had 2 X PS3 SKUs in the US at 500 and 600 dollars but subsequently dropped the 500. They both charged substantially less in Japan, and substantially more in Europe, with variations on SKUs.

My questions are this:

Do we have data available on sales for Hardware SKU variants?

And, what does it show about purchasing intent/effects on software sales?

For bonus marks, what happens with the PSP variants? 

For the 360, we do on a general level: Of the US Sales, of 6m units it's *roughly* the following: 600,000 Core Units 5,015,000 Premium Units Estimated 125,000 Elite Units Thus far, the tier ratio for LTD has been 1 : 8.5 : 0.5 Now, for Japan, I believe it's quite different - even to a 30:70 core to Prem or upto 35/65. The Blue Dragon Package, which sold around 50,000 or more units were entirely core. I would estimate that no less than 100,000 Xbox 360s in Japan are core. This is based on the significan increase in 360 hardware sales after the core launched in November, just before DOAX2. European levels are probably in between US and Japan. I would think its about a 1:8 ratio or 1:7.5 For the PS3, I have no idea. Basically, the individual SKUs can help, but at the expense of losing a company money on the cheaper models that either include very expensive but low capacity hard drives (Elite vs. Prem vs. Core), as opposed to the very cheap bells and whistles. IMO, Sony and MS need, for best succuess and lowering prices, is to propose USB storage as a standard for media device storage. This way, MS could easily make a core, throw in a $10, 1gb USB drive, and have a viable option for core owners to store alot of data, while not costing MS any sort of measurable option. Sony is the same way. a $10 USB drive in lieu of a $30-$40 20gb drive is very tempting.

I think Sony said they dropped the 20gb SKU becuase they were manufacturing in the ration 1:4 20gb to 60gb, but were actually selling them at a 1:10 ration. Not sure of exact figures, but that was the general status.

No, Microsoft made the claim that they would manufacture at a 4 to 1 ratio at first. I think it was some Sony executive back sometime in August or September 2006 who said they'd manufacture PS3 at a 9 to 1 ratio (that's actually when I lost faith in PS3 replicating PS2 as I believed that $500 was just about this side of acceptable, but a $600 nominal tag pushed it over the edge).

Personally I feel Sony poorly communicated the $500 PS3 to the public, partly on purpose (they get to say it's $500 while trying to get people to forget it exists), and that a lot of the pressure to drop it came from retailers, not from end consumers.

Do famitsu or m-create or denki (whatever their names are) record any more detail than just the total numbers? Perhaps some stores report and others dont't?

Also, what data's available for peripherals? I'd be interested to know say the number of HD-DVD add on drives and Hard Drives for Xbox 360

I think Sony dropped them because they WANTED retailers to only sell 60Gig models, and they were losing less money on them.

We never had a 20Gig model to choose from.

 There's no real reason to bother with USB necessarily. MS already has a 512MB memor card, half a gig. It's $50, but given the prices of various memories, that is just typical vast accesory overpricing.

If MS stopped overcharging so much, they could easily sell a 2GB memory card for say, $30 tops. 

It's still available in Japan though, right? If it is, and the 20gb is selling better than it did in the US, it'd be a clear indication the Blu-Ray is a major factor in many Japanese PS3 owners purchase.

So, to ask the question again, are Sony keeping the 20GB version of PS3 in Japan because it's making a significant portion of the poor Japanese sales as Bluray players? Are they afraid that without them, sales would dry up all together?

Well, it's all change now, and SKU data is soon going to become more important than before. Any chance we'll get more specifics when the new 80GB PS3 and Halo edition Xbox 360 come out? ioi?