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Sony launched the PlayStation 3 with 20 and 60 GB editions; now the 20 GB edition is disappearing from retailers and Sony's own virtual shelves.

When Sony launched the PlayStation 3 gaming console in the United States in November, the company went to market with two editions: one with a 20 GB hard drive and a $499 price tag, and another with a 60 GB hard drive, wireless capabilities, and a $599 price. Although Sony says it hasn't discontinued the 20 GB edition, the company says users and retailers have always preferred the 60 GB edition—so much so that Sony only offered the 60 GB edition in Europe when the console launched there last month.

Now, the 20 GB edition is getting harder and harder to find, with some retailers declining to stock it at all, and online sellers like Best Buy and even Sony's own SonyStyle no longer offering the product.

According to sources at local retailers and a Sony spokesperson in Tokyo, stocking decisions are being made on the basis of customer demand: one local retailer claims to have sold one 20 GB edition of the PlayStation 3 for every seven or eight 60 GB units, making it "hard to justify shelf space for the 20 GB model."

Sony has declined to comment on whether company's de-emphasis of the 20 GB edition is prepping the market for a revised version of the PlayStation 3; recent FCC filings seem to indicate the company is planning an edition with a still-larger hard drive.