Modded PS3 available, in KL??

An extremely reliable birdy told me something very interesting early last week. I have been spending some time investigating this piece of information; I was in my extremely curious mode and tried to dig as much info as I can get from this, to verify its existence or to debunk it (much like one of my favorite shows on the Discovery Channel, Mythbusters). So with the help of several friends, this is what I found out. The info that got me so worked up was this:

PS3 have been modded, with games available for it, and its available in KL!

There are also 10-15 "DVD" games available for the modded PS3, and is available in two options: Japanese PS3 or US PS3 sets. More surprisingly, the Jap PS3 is black and the US PS3 is in WHITE! And to top it off, Jap PS3 retails at RM1300++ and US PS3 is for you to take home at RM1600++, bundled with one Original and one "compatible" (???) controller, and 10 DVD games!!!

Now I pulled my immediate gaming resources (meaning I called Kenny Gan of Wega Enterprise in Sungei Wang) to get to the bottom of this. I had suspect that he didn't know of it either, else he would have told me of it. He confirmed that he didn't, and that got me to look for the little reliable birdy to confirm her story. This lead to one crazy exchanges of SMSes and furious online chats just to confirm the story.

Long story told short, we got someone to help us do the legwork to confirm the existence of modded PS3s in KL, while I went online to verify that someone indeed have successfully done such a thing. It seems that not all stores selling PS3 are aware of this (like Wega Ent), and it seems only a handful do. A quick check in Sg Wang and Leisure Mall shows that these places are unaware, while its available in two undisclosed locations, for now. This is what I found out.

A quick check on the internet does reveal that someone has successfully done it. YouTube have numerous video proof of playing "back-ups" on a PS3 (but you have to take it with many pinches of salt to believe some of them). Some of these videos are so blurry and many can be taken as fake, but there are a few seemingly genuine videos that looks very real.

My legwork source have verified that he has personally seen the modded PS3 and the "DVD" discs and they do run on the modded PS3s. Some titles available are Oblivion, FIFA, but don't take my word for it as I have not seen the titles with my own eyes. Only black PS3 (supposedly Jap PS3) are seen in stock and no WHITE PS3 (supposedly US PS3) can be found.

The modded PS3s sold in KL are of the cancelled 20GB variants. 20GB PS3 have been cancelled since last 2006 and are no longer in production. It has a smaller HDD size,does not have WiFi nor a built in card reader as compared to the 60GB big brother that has. The US retail price for the 20GB is USD499 versus USD599 for the 60GB one. The games are indeed available in DVD format, but the library for it is pretty much limited. I have not personally seen the titles, so i cant comment about them here.

So there you have it. Its TRUE, modded PS3 have landed in KL, and yes, the prices are indeed as cheap as I was told. BUT, I had many doubt and issues with those modded PS3 that keeps me from running to the store to get one unit of my own right now. I will put them up in my next post.