With the recent rumor, and confirmation of the PlayStation 3 price, I thought for a moment…a brief moment, that the PlayStation 3 was going to drop down to an almost affordable level.

I was wrong.

When Sony denied a price drop and retail stores confirmed a price drop there was a moment of confusion. At E3 Sony made it clear the 60GB PlayStation 3 was going to be retailing for $499.99, a USD $100.00 price cut for us in the United States.

Still out of the realm of a casual gaming platform but it had potential. Now we learn the 60GB PlayStation 3 will be obsoleted by an 80GB version for USD $599.99. Not, not “as an alternative” but as a replacement. The $499.99 price is just to sell off the stock so they can end of life its production!

The new 80GB may be bundled with Motorstorm but it doesn’t put it into the realm of casual gamers spur-of-the-moment purchase. The Nintendo Wii holds that title and the Xbox 360 isn’t too far off with a higher price but a larger library of casual arcade titles in Xbox Live Marketplace.

No, PlayStation Home and a few cutie games won’t be enough to invest $499.99 on a discontinued model and $599.99 on the standard model.