Along with the announcement of a new slimmer PS3 comes news of two family packs for Europe that offer Wonderbook or Skylanders Giants along with the new light-weight console, although only in Europe it currently seems.
As you may have read, the new super-slim PlayStation 3 console is 25% smaller than the existing models and comes with a sliding disk cover. It will apparently also be available in either black or white, which my daughter seemed to appreciate more than any of the other modifications to the console’s footprint — not least the thought of a white controller. Of note to Skylanders fans is the limited edition Treerex Giant figure that will only be available in the PS3 bundle.
Both the Wonderbook and Skylanders Giants packs will come in the form of a 12GB flash memory version of the slim PS3 and are due for release in Europe on October 12th, following the release of the 250GB and 500GB console next week.
The 12 GB model seems like a sensible move and mirrors the low cost PSP E1000 Street that launched in Europe at a budget price and without Wi-Fi. If users of the 12GB PS3 want to upgrade for more storage a hard drive can be added at a later date. It will be interesting to see whether this lower barrier to entry approach will spread to Sony’s other territories.
Although the United States will not see the 12GB unit, there will be a 250GB super-slim PlayStation 3 pack that includes Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception: Game of the Year Edition and a $30 voucher for Dust 514 content.
The news came during Sony’s keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show, where they also confirmed the PlayStation Plus service will also be available on the PlayStation Vita. This will provide Vita owners an extra 1GB of online storage, as well as automatic downloading of updates and a variety of discounts.
The new model PlayStation 3 consoles will be available on Amazon in the next few days.
