The annual E3 gaming summit continues to dish out new product announcements from the industry. Today is Sony's turn, where they have announced a new 80GB "core" PS3 bundle that will be launching in September for just $399.
This new reworked PS3 will have the same functionality as the existing 40GB model, except double the hard disk capacity. This means that the newly introduced model should have no PS2 backwards compatibility and only 2 USB ports.
Photo source: Kotaku
What will happen to the existing 40GB model? Nothing has been officially announced yet, but chances are good that Sony will start to clearance out the 40GB units soon. As to the exact clearance pricing, it's anyone's guess at the moment, but I imagine they will drop into the price range of $299 - $349.
Sony also announced a new video rental and purchasing service that is going live tonight! PS3 users will now be able to hop on the Playstation store online to rent or purchase TV shows and films from Sony Pictures, Warner, Fox, Lion's Gate, Disney and other content providers. 85 standard definition titles will be available at launch, with various price points ranging between $1.99 - $15 depending on the content, resolution and type (rental vs purchase).
Unfortunately, there is still no news of Netflix compatibility coming to the PS3. Microsoft announced yesterday that Xbox Live Gold users will be able to access Netflix instant viewing titles directly from their Xbox 360.
" PS3 users will now be able to hop on the Playstation store online to rent or purchase TV shows...Unfortunately, there is still no news of Netflix compatibility coming to the PS3."
Thats because they want you to use THEIR store to rent and buy content. Netflix is a competitor; and since they have a captive audience, they are going to play to that advantage.
If Sony includes Netflix Instant Watch in PS3, that would be awesome. Imagine watching it on the big screen and sitting comfortably on the sofa compared to the small LCD monitor. 
wow you guys are so lucky, if we downloaded a movie to watch via this system it would cost us the amount sony wants PLUS download quota (australia) a $1.99 show might cost us $40 (telstra 400mb plan PER MONTH).
i wish i was anywhere but here
Nice.. xbox increased to 60gb, playstation ups they'res to 80gb I doubt there's much a price different for the respective companies buying those drives in bulk.. its a shame that MS continues to try the smallest drives they can on the market.
In case you guys didn't know...Netflix Instance watch is EXCLUSIVE to Xbox 360. Some of the early posts were of users wishing Netflix was on PS3, so this is to clarify that
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