And just in time for Christmas! Bet you didn't see that coming. The 40GB PLAYSTATION 3 will go on sale November 2nd, which is before the console drops in Japan (November 11th), but after Europe (October 10th). No word whether America will be getting the Ceramic White version that will go on sale in both Japan and Korea. The 40GB version will retail for US $400, while the 80GB version will get a hundred price cut from $600 to $500. The 40GB PLAYSTATION 3 will not be able to play PS2 games — unlike previous versions of the consoles, which either featured BC or gimped BC. Addressing this issue, Sony Computer Entertainment of American honcho Jack Tretton remarked:

We're choosing to focus on the PlayStation 2 consumer with the PlayStation 2, which remains incredibly relevant, and focus on the PlayStation 3 consumer with the new 40-gigabyte model and the great software coming out... Backward compatibility is a nice secondary consideration, but it's far from the number-one priority.

Oh? Is the number one priority then unnecessarily cluttering up the living room with Sony consoles? 40GB Coming [Reuters]

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