80GB Playstation 3 on the way

After news reached the press of this specification, a Sony spokesperson confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz this morning that an 80GB PlayStation 3 is to go on sale in Korea - but said there are currently no plans to launch the model in Europe.

The 80GB model will bear a pre-tax price tag of KRW 518,000 (£232) and will hit the shops on June 16.

The 60GB model in the UK has a suggested retail price of around £425 - that's £193 more for 20GB less and the loss of hardware based backwards compatibility.

The INQ tests its PS3 titles and software on a Japanese PS3 which cost half of the UK price, and comes with the full support of a substantial Playstation library.

There is no word on when or indeed whether the 80GB PS3 will go on sale in other regions. The Xbox 360 still leads the disk-space war with the Elite's 120GBHDD, doubling the available memory of a European retail Playstation 3.

While the 80GB PS3 is a slight improvement on the original officially-released 60GB hard-drive, the price differential between 60GB and 80GB is negligible. This could simply be a re-sourcing exercise by Sony which has resulted in a benefit to potential Korean Playstation 3 owners. µ

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