SCE Europe President Daivd Reeves said in an interview earlier that the real U.S. price of the PS3 would remain $599, because the 60GB PS3 was being discontinued in the U.S. as soon as existing stock was sold out. This, of course, caused a minor uproar among PS3 fans who ave felt the price drop was one of the smartest things SCE America had done in recent memory.
Well, SCE America has officially denied the story, saying that Reeves misinterpreted their intentions with the price drop. They say that the 60GB PS3 will continue to be available in the U.S., at the newly lowered pricepoint, for some time to come. One thing Reeves mentioned that may be correct, however, is that Sony may be removing the backwards emulation chip from the U.S. PS3 models once the current sock sells through. All PS3's sold outside of Japan and the U.S., have lacked this chip since launch, yet still maintain around 88% backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games through software emulation. It has always been expected that the chip would be removed from U.S. and Japan systems as soon as was practicable due to the increased cost of including the chip.
UPDATE: Actually, it now appears that there was some truth to the rumor after all. According to the latest from SCEA the 60GB model will only be available "while supplies last," though they expect that to be for a number of months to come. Personally, I think that a "new" $499 model will be available once that time is up... whether it's a remodeled 60GB without the emulation chip or an 80GB system without pack-in game remains to be seen.
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