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Faced with lagging sales for the more expensive 80GB PlayStation 3 Sony has decided to no longer produce it, focusing instead in finding a real competitor for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite.Last year was one of the most agitated in the history of the gaming department at Sony. The disastrous launch from Europe, the "land of cheap people" scandal, the successive price cuts operated just to stay in business, the launch of a stripped-down SKU (with no backwards compatibility, less USB ports and smaller HDD), the accentuated drought concerning good titles for most of the year and, above all, the massive "financial bleedings" that have culminated with the resignation of PlayStation's father Ken Kutaragi.

Now it appears that the PlayStation 3 has begun its rebound, with David Reeves saying that the console will surpass Xbox 360's install base in PAL areas by this summer. However, responsible for this turn of events is the cheaper, poorer 40GB SKU launched last fall, and not the pricey 80GB model (which also comes bundled with MotorStorm).

Rumors about the possible demise of the latter have been circulating for the last couple of weeks, but according to Kombo.com the confirmation comes from gaming retailer GameStop. During a conference call held yesterday GameStop allegedly revealed that the 80GB model will be discontinued and that Sony is readying a roomier, "120GB or more" PlayStation 3. The Japanese behemoth's target with such high-end SKU is obviously Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite, whom it will try to beat by also bundling a wireless Dual Shock 3 controller inside the pack.

While this is not exactly surprising, it's still a mystery what price will Sony apply for its new console, considering that pricing has always been one of the reasons for which PlayStation 3 lagged behind its rivals. Although production costs for the Blu Ray diodes have dropped in the mean time, Sony is still in great need for cash to cover the losses at the PlayStation division. And let's not forget also that the more capacious hard drive will drive costs up (again, if the 120GB version turns out to be more than a simple rumor...).

The media speculates that Sony will keep mum on this one until February's Game Developers' Conference, which  will allegedly see Sony unveiling at least some new details about the previously-announced and repeatedly-delayed HOME application. And when you think of the complexity of that software, it's somehow natural to think that a 120GB HDDwould be more appropriate...