Following Sony's PS3 bundle announcement (which SPOnG broke on Wednesday) David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, has expressed surprise that people are buying the PlayStation 3 at the £425 price tag it’s had since launch.

Surprise Purchase
Responding to a question about whether – regardless of what's included - £425 is perceived as just too much for a console, Reeves said “It is, but surprisingly, people are paying that amount of money for it.”

Cheap Storage
He then proceeded, flippantly, to dismiss the fact that we might have liked the extra 20Gb of hard disk space that the U.S. is getting with the 80Gb PS3.


Basically, then, the extra 20GB of memory is unnecessary because it's so cheap to include?

Justification
Reeves then attempted to justify his decision, saying,

Bearing in mind the minuscule price difference between the two different-sized SATA drives and the fact that Sony's production process wouldn't be altered by its inclusion, SPOnG fails to see why supply of the 60GB model should be any more plentiful than that of the 80GB.

Emotion Envy
The reason the U.S. is getting a better model, Reeves explains, is because its PS3 was better to start with – although he doesn’t mention to Emotion Engine Chip by name.

On PSP
On to the PSP, asked about the recent ‘redesign’, Reeves says, “It's setting itself up. It needed to be lighter and slimmer to make it portable. To solve the problem, if there is a problem with PSP, is to have better and more original games.”

Yes, we read, “To make it portable” as well…

Nintendo
Surprisingly, Reeves heaps praise on Nintendo’s role in the industry over the last two years, saying:

It's funny, but SPOnG could have sworn that it was Sony's own PS2 that's been keeping the games industry going for the last few years. If SCEE's president tells us otherwise, however, who are we to argue?

No PlayStation 4
Maintaining Sony's standard line on the PS3’s lifespan, Reeves says he expects ten years out of it. Its replacement, however, might come before then and won't be a PS4 apparently. “I don't think it will be a PlayStation 4; it will be something completely different” Reeves said.

Dead U.S. PS3
Reeves also confirmed what SPOnG told you on Tuesday: the 60Gb PS3 is on its way out in the US. “All they're doing is taking their stock in trade that they've got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July”, Reeves said.

^{See the full interview here.}