It’s official. On November 2nd, the Playstation 3 40 GB console will be “Coming to America”, and much like Eddie Murphy in the 1988 classic comedy, it is expected to receive the royal treatment once it hits US soil. Read more…

In an article on the hollywoodreporter.com, an industry source says Sony is set to release the 40-gigabyte Playstation 3 to compete with other consoles for the Christmas season.

“We’re hearing Nov. 2 (for the U.S.),” said one industry source.

It looks like this is the same 40-gigabyte model that will be released in Europe this week.

The 40-gigabyte Playstation 3 model will not have backwards compatibility with Playstation 2 games, only two USB 2.0 ports and no multi memory card port.

According to the Hollywoodreport.com article, the 40-gigabyte Playstation 3 will be priced at $399.

Sony will start selling a new configuration of their Playstation 3 console in Europe starting October 10th of this year. The new model will have a 40-gigabyte hard drive compared to the 60-gigabyte model out right now.

Sony is listing the price of the 40-gigabyte model at 399 euros ($564.17 U.S.) and will lower the price of their 60-gigabyte model from 599 euros to 499 euros ($705.56 U.S.).

In an effort to keep the price down, the 40-gigabyte model will not feature backwards compatibility for older Playstation games. So if the ability to play your Playstation 2 games is important to you, the 60-gigabyte model is the way to go.

Does the release of this 40-gigabyte model in Europe mean that the U.S. can look forward to the same soon? As the holiday season approaches, one can only hope that the answer will be yes. It would seem only logical if Sony hopes to steal some of the Wii’s thunder. Ripten will keep you posted.