No 80Gb for Europe

No big surprise here folks, but Sony has confirmed that the 80Gb version of the PS3 won't be released in Europe. David Reeves, President and CEO of SCEE has confirmed that the slightly upgraded model will be staying east, while a 20Gb version is also unlikely;

"I can confirm that it’s highly unlikely that the 20Gb version will be launch in PAL territories. The majority of retailers are happy that we launched with just the one unit. It has made things simple for them.

As for the 80Gb console, there are markets like Korea where there’s very high broadband penetration and the people there are used to downloading content, so they require a certain size hard drive. But at the moment we don’t see a requirement for launching this version in Europe. Certainly not in the foreseeable future."

Given the ease with which the PS3 hard drive can be cheaply upgraded we don't really need a new PS3 with only 20Gb extra.

Reeves goes on to talk about the great performance of the PS3 in the UK and other PAL regions. He also says that,

We don’t have our eyes on the competition in any way.

Really? Might be an idea to have a little peek now and again mate. Just, you know, to see what's happening.