Sony takes page out of Xbox 360 book in PS3 hardware change

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 21 August 2008 04:31

Your IT - Entertainment

Sony has used the Leipzig Games Convention to announce forthcoming changes to the PlayStation 3 hardware, including an Xbox 360 style text keypad. Other changes include a major upgrade to the hard drive capacity.

The new announcements for PS3 follow hot on the heels of the release of the the 60GB version of PS3 in many countries including Australia.

The hard drive in the PS3 is set to be upgraded to a 160G model, providing more than twice the capacity of current models. The PAL version 160G PS3 will go on sale on October 31, priced at €449 ($A758 as a direct conversion).

Sony officials explained that the additional capacity will be useful for storing downloaded games and related content, as well as music, videos and photos.

The forthcoming PlayTV digital TV tuner on September 19 in the PAL territories will also add to the demands on storage space - a rule of thumb is 3G of space for every hour.

"There's an impressive amount of content available and multi-media fans require a storage solution for all their needs," said Sony officials.

Sony is following Microsoft's lead with the announcement of the Wireless Keypad, a text keypad for use with the Sixaxis or Dualshock 3 wireless controllers.

Please read on for more on the WIreless Keypad, plus news of the PSP-3000.