Report: New 12GB PlayStation 3 Model To Retail For $199

Evidence of a new PlayStation 3 model, which features 12GB of storage and will retail for $199, has surfaced.

The website Engadget broke the news, based on a page on the Canadian retailer Future Play's website. The page was removed, but not before Engadget grabbed a screenshot (see above).

It's also published a picture of allegedly taken in the storeroom of a Kmart location, which shows a box of the new PS3 hardware with instructions to not display until August 18.

This 12GB Flash memory model of the PlayStation 3 has already been on sale in Europe, but was not thought to be coming to the United States.

[Source: Engadget]

Our Take:
It's always good to have more variety of price points available to gamers. However, considering that you can buy bundles of the 500GB PlayStation 3 packaged with an upcoming game like GTA V for $269.99, this 12GB model doesn't seem like a great value. However, it is a glimpse into the future; as Flash and solid-state memory become cheaper to produce, we expect that mechanical hard drives will eventually go away in the console market.