80GB PS3 pre-orders appear

A number of online retailers have begun taking pre-orders on Sony’s new 80GB PS3, which will go on sale on August 27th.

Whilst many are reporting this as new news, it actually just confirms the announcement made by SCEE president David Reeves at E3 last month. However, the listings do seemingly concrete some other details about the hardware.

GAME’s page reaffirms that the machine will include Sony’s motion-sensing Dualshock 3 joypad, but adds that it will not include any of the features that were removed from the older 60GB machine – these include PS2 backwards compatibility, built in memory card reader or SACD playback.

Additionally, it has just two USB ports and does not include an ethernet cable.

Other sites listing the machine include Gamestation and Play.com.