Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it would discontinue shipment of both 20GB HDD and 60GB HDD configurations of Playstation 3 in Japan after the completion of the final shipment scheduled in January 2008.
Japanese Playstation 3 fans now have no other option than the 40GB HDD Playstation 3 model which is about 10% cheaper than the discontinued 20GB HDD model but offers less functionality due to its lack of Playstation 2 backward compatibility and offering half the number of USB ports.
Following Sony Japan's announcement, Sony America issued a press release stating that they have a already discontinued both models in USA and added:
"As we've said, we will also continue to read and evaluate market trends and communicate with consumers to determine appropriate configurations for each territory."