Sony's 60GB PlayStation 3: Still For Sale

Just to prove to you all that I don’t play favourites, here’s an update on a late-August post that suggested a pending purge of first-generation 60GB PS3 inventory. The folks at Dealnews informed me, via their RSS feed, that while Sony may have no more units in warehouse, some retailers still have stock. Take Wal-mart, for example; for $499.82, you get not only the usual console package, but also a free Bluetooth remote control (not backlit, but aside from that nit I like mine) and a free game (Heavenly Sword, NBA 08, Lair, Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, or Formula One Championship Edition)…plus don’t forget, the five-free-Blu-ray movie promotion is still in effect.

To summarize: first-generation 20 and 60 GByte PS3s deliver full PlayStation 2 content backwards-compatibility. The second-generation 80 GByte model eliminated the Emotion Engine IC and switched to less-than-comprehensive software emulation of PS2 titles. And the latest-generation 40 GByte model, due to further semiconductor slimming (this time the Graphics Synthesizer chip), completely eliminates PS2 game support. So if I was in your shoes, without a PS3 yet in-hand, and especially if I had a bunch of PS2 favourites still lying around, I’d snag a 60 GByte PS3 while they’re still available…even though by now you’ve missed out on the $150-refund promotion (which come to think of it, I haven’t yet received…hmm…).

Followup: Wired Magazine has a concise visual summary, in the form of a Venn diagram, of the various PS3 options. Like I said before, snag the 60 GByte model while you still can.