Tokyo Game Show (TGS) is always good for one or two big reveals, and this year, a sleek new PlayStation 3 model dominated Sony’s TGS presentation.
The first thing you’ll notice is this thing looks sleek. It’s tiny, and roughly 1/4 as heavy as the previous PS3 model. It will come in two flavours – a 500GB model, which will be pretty useful for those of us addicted to downloading games. The second flavour is the interesting one – a 12GB flash memory disc drive. As everyone knows, flash memory is faster and more robust than HDD memory, so having this as an option is a win for gamers.
For people who need more than the paltry 12GB, you’ll be able to buy additional storage. Given this is Sony, that memory will likely be premium-priced, but it’s there for people that want it. Sony is also promising a range of additional accessories, to be revealed later on.
The other big news is that PSPlus will be extended to the PlayStation Vita soon now (free Vita games, folks!), but definitely the new PS3 took centre stage.
In my opinion? It looks great.
—
The full Australian press release:
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced the new PlayStation®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system (body colour: charcoal black / classic white), featuring a new design and a downsized form factor, will become available worldwide this holiday season. The new PS3 will come in several models including extended built in Hard Disk Drive (HDD) capacity of 500GB model (AUD $399.95) and a newly added 12GB flash memory model (AUD $299.95). Availability of models, prices and launch dates of the new PS3 system in each region are attached.
Completely redesigning the internal design architecture, the internal volume and weight of the new PS3 is reduced by more than half compared to the very first PS3 model with a 60GB HDD, and by 20% and 25% respectively compared to the current PS3. By adopting a sliding disk cover, the new PS3 continues with the characteristic sleek curved simple body design, which fits various places in the home and enables users to enjoy an array of entertainment content.
With the extra HDD capacity which has been extended from 320GB and 160GB, users can store and enjoy more and more entertainment content including games, music, photos, and video on the new PS3. In addition, the new PS3 with 12GB flash memory offers opportunities to experience the world of PlayStation® at an affordable price point. Users can also expand the storage capacity of the new PS3 with 12GB flash memory by connecting a dedicated HDD (250GB) to be released with the new PS3. In addition, a variety of accessories will be introduced by SCE to meet various kinds of needs from users.
The 12GB Flash versus the mechancial HDD upgrade is curious
A True SSD of around 30 or 60GB is about the same cost as a an entry level 2.5" mechancial HDD..
120GB SSD is even approaching 500GB mechancial, which IMO is a tad too big for mainstream console gamers.
Its
as if they decided on this entry sku just because MS did the Arcade
rather than any cost concernst. 12GB removable solid state module is not a mass
market standard item
Thats literatly $10 of flash memory.
I'm waiting to see what Sony charges for the hard drives its talking about. The press release implies that only Sony-branded drives will work, and after seeing the price of Vita proprietary memory…
Thanks for the input!
I think it looks sharp, and like you two have mentioned – I think it's interesting to see what they're doing with their memory and appearance since it may give us an idea of what's to come with the PS4, even if this release does seem a bit late in the console cycle to me