Sony considers raising size cap of PS3 hard drive

Sony Corp. has announced on Tuesday its plans to increase the size of HDD in its PS3 range of gaming consoles. The announcement comes weeks after Microsoft announced its Xbox 360 Elite which boasts of a 120GB Hard Drive.

Sony currently offers the basic version of the PS3 with a 20-gigabyte hard disk drive and an advanced model with a 60-gigabyte drive in North America and Japan, but it has decided to discontinue selling the cheaper 20GB version of its next-generation PS3 gaming console in North America.

Merely days after bidding goodbye to its lower version of PS3, Sony Corp's game division, Sony Computer Entertainment now intends to launch a new version of the PS3 with a much larger hard drive for storage, a possible replacement for its existing 60GB version.

Indicating about Sony’s possible launch of a new version of PS3 with larger hard disk drive capacity, Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka on Tuesday said, "For users who vigorously store (games and other entertainment content) in the PS3, 20-giga is probably going to be too small, and even 60-giga may not be big enough eventually."

Any potential changes to the PS3 would not necessarily be limited to its hard disk drive capacity, Fukuoka added.

"We are not likely to change its core components and functions such as the Cell, RSX, Blu-ray drive and network capability. But outside that realm, addition and deletion is quite possible," he said.

Launched on November 17, 2006 in North America in two different configurations, a $600 Premium model with a 60GB hard drive and a $500 Basic version with a 20GB hard drive, Sony’s PlayStation 3 faces fierce competition from rival video game consoles including Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which both have a much lower price tag.

Both Basic and Premium PS3 models have much of the same hardware inside. Besides the higher hard drive capacity what makes the 60GB console superior are built-in wireless support, slots for memory sticks and other storage media.

PS3 is Sony Computer Entertainment's third video game console and the successor to the 7-year-old PlayStation 2. It competes with Xbox 360 and Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

Last month, Microsoft announced the long-awaited upgraded version of its next-generation video game console, Xbox 360 Elite with 120-gigabyte hard drive, which is six times bigger than the current high-end Xbox 360 model. The original Xbox 360 comes with a 20GB hard drive.

To be launched on April 29 at an estimated retail price of US$479.99, the Elite hard drive has space to hold a library of arcade games and thousands of songs, as well as high-definition TV shows and movies downloaded from the company's Xbox LIVE online service.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the three companies are locked in a fierce battle for dominance in the $13 billion U.S. video game market, and for the moment, Sony is lagging behind both of its competitors in terms of sales. Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in sales.

Meanwhile, Sony’s game division SCE announced Wednesday that its European unit may cut up to 160 jobs, or 8.4 percent of the workforce there, in order to boost its competitiveness in the booming gaming consoles market, and reduce costs.

Sony’s European subsidiary, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. that makes PlayStation consoles currently employs 1,900 workers.