The general public don't care the emotion engine being removed or 80 GB of memory.

so all the sony and microsoft loyalist who brought the consoles early on are now stuck with an inferior version?

some of them must feel screwed

Do you feel screwed that your PC is outdated within a few months of purchase?

Isn't that the problem with early adopters? They should know they'll get screwed later.

but ur average joe doesnt buy a console because of its harddrive space. Believe it or not most people buy them to just play games with. I cant imagine a mum in a shop whos about to buy a console for her kid saying oh sorry darling but im not buying that one because its got 20gb less harddrive space

unlike the different 360 SKU's, the PS3 SKU's do not pose a problem for developers. All PS3's have a Hard Disk, Blue Ray Drive and the same CPU,GPU.
The Core 360 does not contain a HDD and many Dev's have to scratch their head to make sure their games work at an acceptable fps on the Core units.

 Thats life, technology gets better thing improve.

Consoles aren't computers though and one of the biggest problems with this generation is how much the line is being blurred. Also, since both versions of the PS3 initially appealed only to consumers willing to pay more $$$ its really not a justified argument to say they're giving the common consumer a choice in anyway.

You probably also find it annoying that Nintendo is outselling the competition like wildfire. And tell me, what has the "choice" that the 360 and PS3 have given you made gaming any better? The 360 is now a handicaped a console that has to support games that don't need the HDD to not lose the core owners and the PS3 left a number of users with an inferior discontinued SKU and a new SKU that doesn't play all PS2 game discs. Oh yes, curse you Nintendo for not giving us a choice! With the only positive thing any of these alternate versions offering being $100 dollars less to pay than a premium unit, why are you harking on Nintendo when their's is the cheapest console to begin with?

Again, a video game console isn't a PC, its a self-contained unit that plays a software product exclusive to its hardware, it not a universal utility or medium like PCs are. If you have to go running to PCs to defend what two corporate megaliths are doing to console gaming then that should speak volumes in itself to the credibility of your defense.

doesnt everyone feel screwed when uve spend loads of money on a pc only for it to be outdated? thats the nature of PC gaming. Thats no excuse to bring it onto consoles

As much as sony and microsoft want you to believe it, ps3 and 360 are NOT PCs

Yeah, consumer choice has been working sooooo well for the PS3 and 360 hasn't it? whenever I see somebody try to decide between a 360 and a wii they always say "Well hell, there is only one wii. Give me a damn choice why don't you! I think I'll decide on my hard drive size now!"

Consumer choice isn't a necessity of a product if the product doesn't need one. Consoles are not PCs. A PC, you can add more hard drive space for little money. A PC you can update incrementally, but that isn't the case with a console. You want more hard drive space on your console you have to buy the latest sku. That is why it's bad. You may know what you want with the current SKUs but in the next 6 months they might release something better for the same price you just paid, maybe even less. And if you want it, you have to buy a new console.

A console is meant to last for a generation, unlike a PC.