Sony Japan Offers Hard Drive Upgrades

[Shrygue]

via IGN


This is for people who just need to have that "official" stamp on everything related to their console.

Sony Japan has started up a PS3 hard drive upgrade program. Owners of pretty much any current PS3 model -- even 20 gigabyte launch units -- can send in their system to have their internal hard drive replaced with a 250 gigabyte disk.

No, this isn't a free process. Not even close. For the parts and labor, Sony is asking 18,000 yen. That's close to the price of a new PSP-3000.

It looks like Sony takes care of everything for you, though, from swapping out the drives to moving all your data over from the old drive to the new one. They'll even back your old hard drive.

Still, it should be noted that you can easily swap out hard drives on your own or opt for an external USB solution, both at far less cost. This is something that Sony's upgrade info page fails to mention, unfortunately.

This program is only available in Japan at present.


I ask you, would you really pay old Sony to upgrade your PS3's hard drive? I sure as hell wouldn't. Leave feedback via comments.

[VampDude]

I wouldn't pay, because it would be cheaper to do it myself and keeping the old drive as use for something else like an external drive.

Just this week I purchased a 500GB drive to replace the 320GB which replaced the 120GB with my slim PS3, I like that if I do things myself I can also upgrade something less fortunate with more memory. SONY possibly wouldn't return the old drives, they would sell it as an exchange service meaning you don't have the option that those like myself have when presented with a spare drive to further increase the memory capacity of your console externally for the benefits of moving/storing more TV shows, animé and movies.

[mmochel]

I installed a 500GB drive in my PS3 and it only cost around $80. This is the same reason I will not pay microsoft an outrageous amount of money for the official 360 drive. I only paid $50 for a 120GB drive to swap into the 20GB enclosure. I am fed up with these companies trying to rip off consumers for every penny they can.