Depends on who you ask, for you it might be, for some people 80GB might be overkill, but for someone who enjoys DLC games and say bought GT5P, NFL Head Coach, Burnout Paradise, Siren, Warhawk, Wipeout plus all the other smaller PSN games and buys movies and TV Shows off the store, then 320 GB might not seem like enough, there are plenty of harcore people there that have upgraded to 320HDD and 500GB HDD. Obviously the premium model is and should be marketed for the hardcore gamer, whereas the other model should be marketed for the casual/cheap gamer.

Just how exactly do you market a 400$ system to a casual/cheap gamer with the Wii in the market?

Geez, this is getting way off topic, but to clarify I said a price drop to $299 160GB slim model for the casual/cheap. A 320GB slim model Killzone 2/FFXIII demo (or Yakuza 3) $399 Special Edition bundle for the hardcore. At the same time a FW update would drop that would allow for Software Emulation BC for PS2 games. Makes sense now?

Wii isn't the cheapest anymore (Although if you add up the totals for all the accesories you need they both approach the PS3's price point).

Anyways, the farthest hard drive capacity should go this generation in my opinion is 250GB. Otherwise too many of those harddrives would live an empty life and it'd just be a waste of money on Sony's part. If you hardcore games need a bigger drive then you can put one in, but I think for the vast majority 160GB is plenty.

The lucky buyers must of bought them and sold them on EBay and made a profit.

Wish I could pick up that PS3 model for $499. Not in the fucking uk!

I thought the SkU was a limited edition one i.e about 1000 made?
It will have zero effect on the weekly numbers. A cheaper 80GB.....Now that would!

That's a bit low, but it is indeed a limited offer, not as limited as 1000 though.  There would be no need to announce and advertize 1000 consoles imho.

Let's say you're are Shuhei Yoshida and you're trying to lower the PS3 price and give the most bang for the buck for the consumers, now you have a 80GB and a 160GB for 399 and 499 respectively. You want to get those prices to 299 and 399. Now next year HDD manufactures will go to you and say Mr. Yoshida, you can keep buying 80GB HDDs but those prices will stay at 50 bucks a pop, the 160 GB HDD will be 40 bucks a pop because all laptops nowadays are coming in 160GBs and we are moving towards the 250GB HDDs and 320GBs HDDs for our laptops, those will cost you 53 and 55 dollars per unit. What would you do? That's probably the main reason why they put a 80GB HDD on the 40GB sku and are now offering the 160GB HDD.

You say most of that storage will go unused, and that might be true for you but not for the gamer that I mentioned earlier, the one that wants all possible games on his HDD, as well as movies and TV shows and music, for those gamers, 320GB might not be enough.

The 160gb bundle at Best Buy is pretty cool. The 160gb PS3 comes wih Uncharted:Drake's Fortune. Anyways, its great to see the new SKU sell out instanly. Hopefully, that can happen at other retailers.