Sony Ditching 80GB PS3 Due to Poor Sales, says analyst

Yesterday the Internet went wild with a rumor that Sony may be discontinuing the 80GB PS3 model in North America. Our friends at PS3 Fanboy broke the story when they unveiled a supposed internal letter from Best Buy, which stated: "The 80GB version of the PS3 is going closeout and won't be replaced at this time. It will come off the planogram on Jan. 28. The 60GB version should already be gone from stores. Only the 40GB version of PS3 will be sold in Best Buy stores at this time."

GameDaily BIZ has heard from a corporate retail source – not from Best Buy, but at another major retailer – that something is definitely "afoot" but he "can't really comment (until the 80GBs are gone.)" [parentheses statement added by source, not us – Ed].

Moreover, we spoke with Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey who told us, "Sony is likely dumping the 80GB version because it has failed to meet internal sales projections."

He added, "A recessionary environment will likely punctuate the 80GB version's relative and absolute retail sales disappointment. The recently released 40GB version is getting traction at retail, suggesting backward compatibility takes a backseat to the console's price point for current buyers."

At this point it's not clear exactly what Sony's true SKU strategy is. Certainly the 40GB model has been a huge success for the company, enabling a nice up-tick sales during the holiday season, but if their focus is now on the 40GB model alone, then gamers looking for PS2 backwards compatibility are left in the cold. Another rumor suggests that Sony may be looking to introduce yet another SKU with an even larger (120GB perhaps) hard drive, but the Best Buy memo doesn't indicate any such plans.

We've contacted SCEA for comment, but as of press time reps have not gotten back to us.

UPDATE: An SCEA rep has now told us, "SCEA does not comment on rumor and/or speculation. We have not made any announcements regarding manufacturing."

UPDATE 2: Well, this is interesting. We just heard from The NPD Group who told us, "In the last quarter (when both were on the market), the 80GB sold more units than the 40GB." When pressed for a more exact breakdown of the sales data between the two SKUs, NPD said they could not provide that. It's certainly a surprise to us, however, that the more expensive 80GB would have sold more than 40GB, which many have attributed the PS3 sales spike to.