On 80GB PS3s, South Korea and what it could mean for us

There’s been plenty of talk lately of an amped-up Sony PlayStation 3 carrying an 80GB hard drive being made available in South Korea and possibly the United States. More than U.S. availability, the question being raised now is “why South Korea?”

The question stands because it’s a well known fact that South Korea is one of the most wired nations in the planet and is sin ply crazy about MMORPGs. Why then, would a console want to venture in a PC-gaming stronghold?

Satoshi Fukuoka, a Sony spokesman, explains that South Korea has an ideal status in the sense that broadband internet access is available to the vast majority of the population. He stresses that broadband enhances a good number of the games in their platform and that could be good for the machine’s performance in the region.

Fukuoka goes on to explain why they’re increasing the disk space of their flagship product, saying “Increasing capacity for models is one of the options. We make such decisions depending on the needs of the market, and every country is different.”

Yahoo! News reports that no decision has been arrived at regarding the possibility of an American launch for the machine, but analysts and other supposed experts on the economics of the video game industry have theorized that sooner or later, Sony will make its move on the U.S. plane. What does that mean for average users aside from additional disk space?

Some actually believe that the move is actually a precedence to a price cut on the relatively pricey game machine. Spong, however, has another take on that perspective. In an article dated May 22, 2007, the site explained how it sees things:

Sony is capable of sourcing 80Gb drives at a similar price to 60Gb versions and in greater supply. The cost difference at manufacture is, however, little or no different to the overall cost of the PS3 unit. So despite calls from such luminaries as Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, for a cut in price, we can’t see this happening – officially – based on 20Gb of hard disk space – in the near future.

Sounds possible. We’re still hoping for the best, though. Do you think there will be price cuts any time this year? Post your takes on the comments section.

Via Yahoo! News

There’s been plenty of talk lately of an amped-up Sony PlayStation 3 carrying an 80GB hard drive being made available in South Korea and possibly the United States. More than U.S. availability, the question being raised now is “why South Korea?”

The question stands because it’s a well known fact that South Korea is one of the most wired nations in the planet and is sin ply crazy about MMORPGs. Why then, would a console want to venture in a PC-gaming stronghold?

Satoshi Fukuoka, a Sony spokesman, explains that South Korea has an ideal status in the sense that broadband internet access is available to the vast majority of the population. He stresses that broadband enhances a good number of the games in their platform and that could be good for the machine’s performance in the region.

Fukuoka goes on to explain why they’re increasing the disk space of their flagship product, saying “Increasing capacity for models is one of the options. We make such decisions depending on the needs of the market, and every country is different.”

Yahoo! News reports that no decision has been arrived at regarding the possibility of an American launch for the machine, but analysts and other supposed experts on the economics of the video game industry have theorized that sooner or later, Sony will make its move on the U.S. plane. What does that mean for average users aside from additional disk space?

Some actually believe that the move is actually a precedence to a price cut on the relatively pricey game machine. Spong, however, has another take on that perspective. In an article dated May 22, 2007, the site explained how it sees things:

Sony is capable of sourcing 80Gb drives at a similar price to 60Gb versions and in greater supply. The cost difference at manufacture is, however, little or no different to the overall cost of the PS3 unit. So despite calls from such luminaries as Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, for a cut in price, we can’t see this happening – officially – based on 20Gb of hard disk space – in the near future.

Sounds possible. We’re still hoping for the best, though. Do you think there will be price cuts any time this year? Post your takes on the comments section.

Via Yahoo! News