The reality of Sony's price-drop begins to sink in, as Sony quietly announce the discontinuation of the price-dropped model...

Here at N-Europe we recently reported on Sony's decision to drop the PlayStation 3's price by $100 - from $599 to $499. Sony also announced at this time that joining the 60GB model from August would be a new 80GB model, which would go on sale for $599.

What wasn't immediately apparent, and has now been confirmed by gaming blog Kotaku from a recent interview with Sony boss Kaz Hirai, is that Sony are now no longer producing 60GB model PS3's for the American market. The 60GB model will now only remain on-sale until remaining stock is sold.

What this essentially means is that Sony's much trumpeted $100 price-drop will only benefit consumers for a very short time. After all stock of the 60GB model is sold through, gamers who wish to buy a PS3 will be back to paying the pre-price-drop price of $599, albeit for a PS3 with a slightly bigger hard-drive.