The hard drive for the PlayStation 3 will not be bundled with the machine, but will instead be sold as an add-on unit, according to press reports in Japan which seem to confirm earlier hints dropped by SCE boss Ken Kutaragi. The latest issue of Famitsu includes a feature about the PS3 hardware which says that the device will ship with a slot for a hard drive - which can be found on the underside of the machine, and is designed to accommodate a 2.5" hard drive package - but not with the drive itself.
The hard drive, Famitsu claims, would be sold separately - much like the hard drive for the PlayStation 2, which is used by a small number of games, most notably Square Enix" massively multiplayer title Final Fantasy XI. The PlayStation 3 is expected to use its hard drive for a wide range of media functionality, such as the ability to download media from online stores and possibly even to rip DVDs to the drive. Kutaragi has previously hinted that Sony hasn"t reached a decision on the inclusion of the drive, and has also suggested that the drive may be up to 80Gb in size - compared to just 20Gb for the drive in the Xbox 360.