Sony representative Chatani has told Famitsu Magazine, that a strategy for the hard drive option has "yet to be decided", but added that he felt people would want to upgrade to higher capacity drives.

Reading between the lines its implied Sony would lean away from making the hard drive unit an obligatory part of the PlayStation 3 launch package.

At E3 Sony identified a small rectangular port on the underside of the PS3 as slot for a detachable 2.5" hard disk drive as an optional storage solution.

Sony has never said that a hard drive would be bundled with the unit at launch, contrary to rumor reports, and Chatani's comments seem to suggest that Sony is leaning toward not including one at all.

Chatani's words offer hope though of Sony deliberating on the idea of offering the peripheral optionally in the same way it currently sells Memory Card units separately on the PlayStation 2.

Chatani also said that he expected people to unplug their hard drives and move them between PS3 units, implying a similar functionality to that of Xbox 360, whose detachable hard drive units appear designed to be portable rather than optional.

The impact of a decision brings up the question of how much would the PlayStation 3's price tag be effected, which is already expected to be higher than that of its rival Xbox 360.

More information is expected to be released when Sony has decided on the issue.