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| From: Sony
Category: Video Games
List Price: $399.99
Buy New: $388.99
You Save: $11.00 (3%)
New (40) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $352.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  127 reviews
Sales Rank: 51
Platform: Playstation 3
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Edition: 80 GB
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: PlayStation 3
Graphics RAM: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 15
Dimensions (in): 17.3 x 13.8 x 7.2
MPN: 711719801504
Model: 711719801504
UPC: 711719801306
EAN: 0711719801504
ASIN: B001COU9I6
Release Date: August 20, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new in the retail box with all Standard accessories , Not Refurbished .
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| Customer Reviews:
 Playstation has lots of operating problems November 26, 2008
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
I bought a PS3 and after all was said and done I had spent about 600 dollars. The console worked for about 8 months. The console started freezing up and the just stopped reading games and Blu rays all together. I called playstation and they offered to replace it with a refurbished one which I was totally happy with. I recieved the new console fairly quickly. That console broke about a week after we had it, so the sent me another refurbished one .... then that one didnt work .... so after about 3 hours in hold time on the phone with sony and 3 days off work so I could be there to sign for UPS .... I still dont have a working playstation. Sonys customer service is awful! VERY DISSAPOINTED!!
 Feel Good About Your PS3 November 26, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I won't repeat what other good reviewers have already said. This is the future of next-gen consoles. The best days are coming for the PS3:
A crumbling tower: Sony lays siege to the 360's weak spots
By Ben Kuchera | Published: August 17, 2008 - 09:00PM CT
It wouldn't be accurate to say that the sky is falling for Microsoft's one and only gaming console, the 360, but it may be time to look at what the company is doing right... and where it's going wrong. The Sony PlayStation 3 is beginning to chip away at the 360's lead in both
software and hardware sales in the US, and that system only seems to be picking up steam. In contrast, the 360 doesn't seem to have much real momentum these days.
While it's hard to find ways for Microsoft to get its mojo back, we can easily identify a few problem areas that are becoming clear as the 360 ages. These are the weaknesses in Microsoft's strategy that have to be
addressed before the system can hope to get its groove back. Let's take a look.
You have to find your voice When the PS3 launched, the 360 was the system with more, better games, and the better online strategy. Microsoft also did a wonderful job in poaching some of gaming's largest franchises. Microsoft even brought this up at its press conference at E3: We have Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, and now Final Fantasy! Look at how we've caught up to Sony!
The problem is, these games are still on the PlayStation 3, and Microsoft isn't offering much in the way of improvements to these titles. In fact, given that Microsoft bet on the wrong optical format, we don't know how many discs Final Fantasy XIII will take up when the title arrives on the 360. What else does Microsoft have in the way of exclusives? Halo is a system-seller, sure, but Metal Gear Solid IV is still a PS3 exclusive.
Microsoft has many solid racing franchises, but nothing like the power that Gran Turismo brings to the system. Xbox Live is a great service, but it's not clear that all of its features are needed. While the hardcore complain about Nintendo's friend codes, most mainstream gamers are more than willing to put up with them. And Microsoft's competitors aren't standing still; Home could be the silver bullet that finally gives Sony the edge in online play. The PS3 has one of the most anticipated casual
games ever with LittleBigPlanet, and the branding of Sackboy is already amazingly strong.
Add idiosyncratic games, such as Flower, that are coming to the PS3 and Nintendo's absolute dominance of the casual market, and you have a gaming world where cherry-picking old franchises is no longer enough. Gears of War 2 looks great, but Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 look just as good in terms of scale, graphics, and online play.
Microsoft needs to step up efforts to keep its brand strong. The new Viva Pinata game looks good, but that was a game that didn't set the world on fire with its first iteration. Lips looks okay, but with Rock Band 2 and
Guitar Hero: World Tour coming up, a voice-only game might not find a home in the collection of most gamers. Microsoft has spent so much time trying to match Sony's past glory in terms of game selection that it finds itself somewhat at a loss now that Sony has managed to keep some games as exclusives, at the same time it's developing all news ones. The new firmware update that will refresh the UI of the 360 looks strong, but the press gave it a scarily icy reception at E3; the full-scale plagiarism of the concept and design of the Nintendo Mii had many onlookers audibly laughing. It was not a comfortable moment.
Will Halo be enough in the future? With Bungie now independent, that's a very large, very open question. It's time for Microsoft to find its own voice and give itself a unique feel in the market. Its old tricks and
the "first to launch" advantage isn't enough anymore.
Find a home in the world
We tend to focus on US sales, because we live in the US. But gaming is an international business, and Microsoft has seen almost all of its success in the US. Both Nintendo and Sony do very good business in Japan and
Europe, while Microsoft has always struggled in those markets. Heck, in Japan, the big story is the sales of Sony's PSP.
Microsoft depends on US sales, and while the system sees spikes in other territories when there is a launch of specific, big-name titles, it tends to flounder otherwise. It's hard to think of a way for Microsoft to
make in-roads in Japan, but Europe has to be seen as a major battleground. Both Nintendo and Sony have multiple systems that are doing bang-up business across the globe. Microsoft has one system that does well in one market. It might be too late for Microsoft to grab a piece of the portable business, and the Zune is hardly an opportunity in that area, so Redmond is left with one option: the 360 simply has to step it up outside of the US.
Take the PS3's advantages seriously
Whether or not Microsoft has fixed its Red Ring of Death problem, the fact remains that most gamers think the hardware is untrustworthy. You hear about it in the forums, in the game stores, from even casual gamers... everyone either has had systems go bad or they know someone who has. The PlayStation, on the other hand, is damn near rock-solid. Microsoft has to start getting the word out that it has fixed the reliability problems; pretending like this issue never happened is not the solution.
Microsoft also has to pay attention to the hard drive of the PS3. The drives are large, getting larger with the standard systems, and anyone can swap out their drive for a roomier one. Heck, Sony suggests it and gets the word out about DIY tutorials on the upgrade. Microsoft, on the
other hand, is sticking with expensive, proprietary drives. It's a situation made more frustrating by the fact that, without large, standard drives, Microsoft can't begin to match Sony's efforts at releasing full
games through its online portal. There is also the fact that Sony's online offerings are free. Yes, Xbox Live is better. But how much better?
There are large numbers of gamers out there who simply will not pay money for online play and are more than happy with Sony's offerings. So what if you can't send a voice message across games? Sony's newly-launched in-game XMB adds a ton of functionality, and the Trophies it brings seem to be gaining popularity; I know many people personally who are revisiting old games to tackle the new challenges. Frank and I argued about making Xbox Live free, but it may not matter; the more powerful Sony gets with the PS3, the less Microsoft can count on Live as a profit base.
There is also the fact that Sony has the Blu-ray drive, provides strong multimedia functions on its system in general, and its video rentals and sales work seamlessly with your PSP if you want to take your content on the road. The PSP-PS3 connection gives you so much cool functionality that it makes consumers want to own both for a great media experience. Microsoft has no competition for that at the moment.
We're not offering solutions, just problems
How should Microsoft fix these issues? That's a huge question, and it can be argued for days. Whatever your preferred answer, these problems are real, getting worse, and starting to show up in the sales numbers. Microsoft doesn't have the wiggle-room it did in the market even a year ago, and it's past time to step up to the competition.
Does the company have a viable plan to do that? We'll see as we move into the holiday season. What's clear is that the competition is now much stronger across the board, and that's a good thing for gamers.
[...]
We Play our PS3 pretty much daily November 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, I am a gaming reviewer and have been for many years. We stress test our systems very heavily. We are playing on all three (the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii) pretty much constantly. If you are looking for my basic reviews of how the PS3 differs from the other two systems, I wrote that up in great detail with our initial review of the PS3 20 gig -
PlayStation 3 (20GB)
When my son went off to college, we sent that 20 gig unit with him and got ourselves the new 80 gig model (i.e. this one) to do our testing with. Here are my notes on how this upgraded PS3 differs from the previous models.
First, it is NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. This is a killer change for many people. We don't mind because we also own a PS2. However, someone who is getting a PS3 explicitly to play current and past games should not go with this one.
However, if you are NOT interested in playing old PS2 games (or don't mind having a PS2 around for that purpose) this unit is awesome. It is VERY quiet. When we play regular DVDs on our XBox 360 the fan noise on that unit is outrageous. When we play BluRays on our PS3 it is whisper silent. We play a ton of BluRays on the PS3 and the quality is head and shoulders above traditional DVD quality. Definitely anyone with a high def TV should be looking into getting a BluRay player - and the PS3 is perfect because it's cheap compared with other players plus it has the added bonus of playing games :)
There's only 2 USB ports on this, but there are so many multitap types of extensions out there that it really doesn't matter. Its built in wireless is pretty standard on consoles nowadays, but of course is quite nice.
We've been pounding heavily on this unit pretty much since it came out and it's been working like a charm. I can't say as much for our XBox 360 which is currently off at Microsoft being fixed for red-ring-of-death (our second failure in as many years).
I know some people will complain about the lack of ability to play PS2 games. However the unit is so quiet that I am MORE than happy to have made that trade-off. Again, PS2 units are cheap and you can get one for the times you want to play those games - and for all the rest of the time you can have a quiet, well playing system which is perfect for both games and for home entertainment.
Highly, highly recommended.
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UPDATE - IMPORTANT NOTE - *Before* August 2008 there was a PS3 80 gig model which WAS backwards compatible - it also was noisy and had other problems. Since market research showed Sony that people cared a lot about a reliable quiet system - and didn't care as much about playing old PS2 games - they came out with this NEW model (the one I'm reviewing here) which is NOT backwards compatible but runs much more quietly, takes less energy, etc. So these are two DIFFERENT models which are both 80 gig in storage but with different functionality. This new model released in August 2008.
best of the three consoles November 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have all three console systems since almost day 1 of their releases. The Wii appeals to its own crowd and really doesn't compete with the Xbox 360 & PS3. If you plan to buy one of the systems for their exclusive titles, your decision is already made and you really don't need to be reading reviews.
But if you are trying to decide between the Xbox 360 and PS3 for playing cross platform games, then I easily recommend the PS3.
PS3 Pros:
1) Reliable: Sent in my 360 twice for the "ring of death". Still have original PS3.
2) Quiet: 360 has very noticeable fan noise during quiet movie scenes. This is annoying to me and a sign of cheap engineering. PS3 is whisper quiet.
3) Expandable: All PS3s come with built in wifi and harddrive, and can be easily upgraded with various laptop harddrives. 360 uses proprietary over-expensive harddrives and wireless network cards--$100 each! I don't condone upgrade restrictions and accessory price gouging!
4) Compatible: PS3 easily streams all my movies/music/pictures off a generic home network storage device. Xbox 360 plagued with DRM limitations.
5) Compact: PS3 just needs a power cable and HDMI; power supply, wifi, and BluRay built in. Xbox 360 has very large power supply, external wifi and HD movie player. This is significant if you move your player between TVs, take it to a friends house, or just want a clean wiring setup.
6) No hidden costs: Do the easy math, after accessories the PS3 is cheaper. Also, online gaming is free for the PS3. Xbox 360 has monthly online gaming fees, limits many of its multiplayer games to subscribers, and limits demo downloads to paying customers that are freely availble at the Sony store.
7) Both Sony and Microsoft have movie download services. 360 has a better selection. BluRay disks have better picture quality than any download service.
My only gripe with the PS3 is the controller. It works perfect for many people with normal size hands. Mine are larger and the controller is very uncomfortable. Wish there was a decent alternative. The 360 controller is music to my hands.
Many will disagree with me, but the best bang for my buck is definately the PS3. I play it the most.
 WORTH THE MONEY November 26, 2008
IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT AND IT IS PERFECT AND AT 80 GIGS THAT IS AWESOME. THE GRAPHICS ARE SO TRUE THE SYSTEM IT'S SELF IS THE BEST I HAVE SEEN IN ALL THE SYSTEMS OUT THERE!!!!!
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