PlayStation 3 Europe's 80Gb version

During the bedraggled E3 show Sony confirmed that Europe will be getting the 80Gb version of the PlayStation 3 that was pumped out to the states; well not quite the same. This version is simply the 40Gb one without any form of backwards compatibility, but with a new hard-drive; well whoop-de-flippin-do. Even better it'll be exactly the same price as the current 40Gb version, leading to the question of whether it'll be cheaper to buy a 40Gb version and then fit an 80Gb hard drive yourself no don't worry it won't void anything the instructions to do so come with the user manual. They're just standard 2.5" SATA drives.

Checking on the home of populist High Street computer purchases PC World, such a drive will cost you about £50. No I tell a lie that's a 160Gb drive; twice as much as Sony are fitting. Okay, okay transfer speeds seek time etc. for the layman that means the drive might not be as good quality, but I doubt anyone would really notice.

So if the suddenly discarded 40Gb versions drop by more than £50, buy one of those instead of the 80Gb versions and DIY.

Wait silly me, there will be no price cut for the 40Gb PlayStations because there won't be any for sale. Hardware stocks are apparently so low that by the time the new ones arrive the old ones will be gone. Except I overheard a conversation in Game at the weekend between a clerk and a customer who was looking to buy a PS3 now who was told "Wait a week, the new version will be out by then". So if some stores are advising customers not to buy versions they obviously have in stock, how can stocks vanish with the new versions around the corner?

Hmm cynical old me thinks that a certain company may well recall said units to ensure that there are none around.

On an amusing note we are now up to v2.42 of the OS and they've finally updated the old European backwards compatibility page found here that had been showing the latest version as 1.8.

Yes indeed as you can see they've updated it by removing the list of games that will and won't work and replacing it with a generalised "majority of PlayStation 2 format software can be played with this model" gee thanks. Ah well those in the know can still use the American version which still has the searchable database, although take its advice with a pinch of salt.

Ah 'shaft', through the workings of Sony, Europe meets you once again.