Technics: Games: Top game company shifts to bigger later model, cuts off low-end customers

FoxNewsreports on top game company's abandonment of the little guy--both the low-end buyer and smalller console model of PlayStation 3 (call the newer models "PayStation"), "Sony Discontinues 20GB PS3" (Apr12,2k7).

SAN FRANCISCO — Sony Corp. has discontinued the 20-gigabyte PlayStation 3 game console so it can focus on a more popular--and expensive--model that has a bigger hard drive.

Since the launch of the PlayStation 3 in November, consumers have been buying the 60-gigabyte model 10 to 1 over the cheaper unit, said Dave Karraker, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Technotes, by Technowlb

Both models have much of the same hardware inside, but the 60-gigabyte console, which costs $600, has built-in wireless support and slots for memory sticks and other storage media.

Retailers still have several thousand 20-gigabyte models on store shelves, Karraker said Thursday. The 20-gigabyte consoles will continue to have a suggested retail price of $500 until supplies run out.

"Better to put resources toward the ones that retailers want," Karraker said.

Severe production shortfalls in the months after the PlayStation 3 debuted meant that thousands of consumers had to wait in long lines and still couldn't buy a console.

On eBay and other auction sites, bidders were willing to pay several times the suggested retail prices so they could have consoles for the holidays.

The discontinuation racket is the real game here, displaying Sony's contempt for its low-end customers in the country where it is a guest business.