Sony Computer Entertainment plans to launch a version of its PlayStation 3 console with an 80GB hard-disk drive in June, it said Monday.

The new PlayStation 3 model will go on sale first in South Korea when Sony kicks off PlayStation 3 sales there on June 16. It will cost $580.

The console, which launched in late 2006 in the United States and Japan, typically comes with a 60GB hard-disk drive. In some markets SCEI offers a second version with a 20GB drive although sales are being discontinued in favor of the higher capacity model, which has sold considerably better.

The 80GB model could appear in other markets.

"At this time there are no concrete plans [to sell the model in other markets] however it could be an option to introduce it in other regions but it needs to be decided by each region," said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for SCEI in Tokyo. The machine otherwise has a similar specification to the existing PlayStation 3 model with a 60GB drive, he said.

The company decided to put a higher capacity hard-disk drive in the model sold in South Korea because of the nation's pervasive broadband Internet network, said Fukuoka. Sony is keen to see the PlayStation 3 used for entertainment beyond games and South Koreans are already used to a wide variety of online multimedia.

News that Sony was planning an 80GB model of the console first came in a U.S. regulatory filing with the Federal Communications Commission in March. At the time the company declined to comment on product plans.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.