Sony Unveils 160GB, 320GB PS3 Models Ahead Of Move Launch

Sony said Tuesday that it is upping the hard drive capacity for its PlayStation 3 hardware in order to address a growing digital download business. Sony Computer Entertainment America said it is currently shipping a $299.99 160GB PS3 to North American retailers -- the same price point as the current base model, which has a 120GB hard drive. Europe is getting the model in October for €299. Alongside the mid-September launch of Sony's motion control system PlayStation Move, the company said it will release a 320GB PS3 hardware/software bundle with all the hardware and peripherals players need for motion-control gaming, plus Sports Champions. The bundle will retail for $399.99/€349.99. SCEA said that the PS3 hardware is the same as existing models, aside from the higher-capacity hard drives. The hard drive beef-up is typical of Sony, which opts to add or change features to its hardware to make it more appealing to consumers, rather than conduct frequent price cuts. The company said in a statement that the larger hard drives will help accommodate more digital downloads from PlayStation Network, such as games, videos and add-on gaming content. SCEA said that as of July this year, users have downloaded over 1 billion pieces of content from PSN. Sony added that PSN has over 52 million registered accounts globally, and that there are over 23,000 HD and SD movies and TV shows on the service. Upcoming PSN games include PixelJunk Shooter 2, Dead Nation, and Move-enabled titles like echochrome ii, Tumble and Beat Sketcher.