Obvious Diversion

It looks like Sony is going to copy Microsoft’s unfortunate decision and release two versions of the PS3. One will be crippled and ‘cheap’ and the other full featured and expensive. This garbage only confuses consumers.

$500 Version
- 20 GB Hard Drive

$600 Version
- 60 GB Hard Drive
- HDMI Output aka Digital Out for Video
- WiFi
- Slots for memory stick, CF and SD memory

I really couldn’t care about the memory stick slots, but losing the HDMI sort of destroys all the talk of high resolution graphics.

These prices are going to be pretty scary for consumers overall and will likely leave Microsoft in a healthy place for holiday sales considering they will likely be down to $350.

Yes, you get more features with the PS3 including a full Blu-ray movie player, but if you’re going to the store to buy a game machine, these added features will likely not justify additional hundreds of dollars in spending.

Update: You’ll find no better example of why Sony did this two-tier pricing than this New York Times headline right here:
Sony to Sell PlayStation 3 for $499

Sony said that it also planned to sell a higher-priced model with a larger hard drive for $599.

No word of the missing features anywhere else in the article.