Sony has announce a new 80GB PS3 will be coming to North America in August retailing for $599 with the game Motor Storm. This is addition to the 60GB version which you can find now at some stores at $499. So far there is not much information on what this new version of the PS3 will contain but expect to hear more at the Sony E3 press conference on Wednesday afternoon. I'm thinking the download service Sony launched in Korea will be coming to the US along with the 80GB unit. Sony will offer a similar service to iTunes and Xbox Live Marketplace where users can download movies and TV shows to their PS3. Sony will probably include the ability to purchase music which is currently missing from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

I'm not sure why you need to bring an new SKU to the market since the PS3 uses a PC HDD that can be upgraded by the user. The 20 GB difference seems insignificant reconsidering the likelihood of downloading 1080p movies that take up to 10GB or more. I also wonder if the 60GB model will be doing the same thing the 20GB unit did and slowly disappear from store shelves never to be seen again.