Its a lie dont believe it

It's not trolling. Do you remember what happened when there was a 499/599 PS3 model? Everyone bought the 599 model, and the price of a PS3 was, de-facto, 599. I think it's very possible that will happen again, and if it does, the PS3 remains, in effect, 599. Do you get more value for your 600 dollars? Sure, but the price is still 600 dollars. 

I don't think its the right time for Sony to do this move now... the price cut alone would have been great, but now they will have overstock of this new version too.

Also, why only 80 GB? Bigger HDD aren't so expensive nowadays.

This is precisely what I meant. I was hoping that the cat would be viewed as harmless silliness, but apparently cute kittens are cruel and deliberately inflammatory :/ 

I presume this relates to the removal of the EE in the NTSC markets and the change from the 60gB to the 80GB HDD. This makes sense since the software emulation is quite efficent now and it is cheaper for Sony to purchase the 80GB than it was t get the 60GB at launch.

Wow slightly bigger hdd, such a major change. They REALLY screwd over the early adopters same way MS did wih the core to Elite changes.

You really expect the 80 gig wont be 500 when it finally comes in august ? they want people to buy all the 60 gigs and not wait fot the 80 gig.

An extra 20gb is nothing, the cost of HDs are so inexpensive these days I can't imagine why they bother with such a small increase.

For the $100 extra they will be charging for the extra 20gb they could have added a 250gb HD.

I can't believe this is true, because I don't want to believe Sony is that stupid. They're finally moving away from the $600 price point -- why go back, especially for such a paltry upgrade (20GB hard drive increase and a single game? No, thanks).

It seems Sony doesn't want a price drop but the public demands one. Solution? Do a $100 price drop but then all a $12 part and then bump the cost back up $100. In the end they declare the dropped the price, when they really didn't...

BINGO!!! i think celb hit it right on the head... Nice job man really.... i too also think the 80 gig will be cheaper to produce...i think they will take the emotion engine out of the 80 gig.. they have been doing alot of emulation through firmware updates lately.. think about it the 60 gig and 80 gig will have no difference.. the only difference is harddrive space and the fact that it will come with motorstorm... so they will definitely lose less off of the 80 gig than the 60..... i think its a smart move by sony to try to for 1. save money and 2. gain market share by cutting the price down to 499.. i do criticize them though for not making the HDD bigger surely they can afford more than 80 gigs... smart move sony.. in my opinion.. flame me if you want but thats my 2 cents.. and im not a fanboy.. there is one more thing i dont agree with... they should have dropped the 600 dollar models price down to at least 549..and they should bring back the 20 gig and sell it for 399.. sorta like how MS does with the core except every system has a harddrive and blu ray standard...