Sony announced today at their big E3 press-conference the launch details of the Sony Playstation 3. They took one to many pointers from Microsoft.

Sony will launch with two PS3 models world-wide in November. Japan gets the PS3 on November 11th. The United States and Europe will get the Playstation 3 six days later on November 17th.
There will be a Sony PS3 with 60GB hard-drive and a Sony PS3 with a 20GB hard-drive. The PS3 20GB price is $499 (499 Euro) and the PS3 HDD 60GB will sell for $599 (599 Euro).

Here comes the bad news. The Sony PS3 HDD 20GB does not have a HDMI port, only the Sony HDD 60GB has an HDMI port (see specifications sheet below).
Similar to Microsoft, Sony is crippling the cheaper version of their new game console. You are buying a Sony PS3 and will have it for several years. So why would you want to have a console with missing an interface that you most likely will need in the future?

Besides HDMI the 20GB PS3 also misses Wi-Fi (another bummer) and the Sony Memory Stick port.

So the only choice you have is to buy the more expensive Sony PS3 with 60GB. To make sure your friends know you have the $599 priced Sony PS3, Sony has made the case design a bit different by adding a chrome colored edge.
The Sony PS3 will launch in black.
Sony is planning to have 2 million Sony PS3 consoles available at launch. Until year end they want to sell 6 million Playstation 3 machines.



More details in this Sony press-release (Japanese). See also the now published US press-release.