Sony has launched its offensive on the Irish games market for Christmas and has introduced a lower priced 40GB PlayStation 3 that will cost €400.
The company has also revealed that the price of its standard 60GB PlayStation 3 has been reduced from €630 to €499.
The company said that the new 40GB model was introduced following user feedback from thousands of existing PS3 owners.
However, there are compromises. The new 40GB PS3 features two USB 2.0 ports rather than four on the 60GB model and the new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 titles.
“This is fantastic news for the Irish consumer. We are delighted to offer our consumers the opportunity to enter the world of high-definition entertainment at a truly affordable price,” commented Niall O’Hanrahan, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland.
The timing of the new model is interesting insofar as it comes only a week after the introduction of Halo 3 and will allow Sony to compete with the lower-priced competing Xbox 360 platform from Microsoft
The company said that there will a total of 65 titles across all genres, although missing from the stack this Christmas will be Grand Theft Auto 4, which has been postponed until the New Year.
“The introduction of the new PS3 has been the result of extensive research into the entertainment needs and preferences of the next generation of PS3 owners,” said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
“It has allowed us to deliver an extremely advanced, yet incredibly affordable high-definition gaming and entertainment system, configured to the needs of the next generation of European PS3 owners. PS3 has always been the device of choice for the discerning gamer and entertainment seeker, and the new PS3 is more than ever the perfect high-definition entertainment system.”
By John Kennedy