Sony Japan to discontinue 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3

Sony Japan has announced that it is to discontinue the 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3 skus after a final shipment in January.

The company said that it now intends to concentrate on the 40GB model in the region as it "vigorously promotes" the home console during 2008.

Both 20GB and 60GB models were launched in Japan in November 2006, with the 40GB model launching in November last year.

Sony has continuously changed prices and introduced new models of the PlayStation 3 across Europe, the US and Japan since launching the console in each region.

Last October Sony Europe dropped the price of the 60GB console and introduced a 40GB model, before revealing it would phase out the 60GB sku all together.

In North America Sony launched a 80GB PlayStation 3 last August, and slashed the price of the 60GB model.

The 40GB PS3 has a few less features than the higher-spec models, most notably the loss of backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles.

The 40GB model is known to be cheaper to produce for Sony. Kaz Hirai noted earlier this week that he hopes the company's PlayStation business will become profitable in the next fiscal year, now that costs are being reduced at a manufacturing level.