Sony’s getting creative with its Playstation 3 bundles, adding a 320 GB console for $350.

That’s $50 less than a console with the same size hard drive and the Playstation Move starter kit, which includes the camera, the motion controller wand and Sports Champions. It’s $50 more than Sony’s basic PS3 with 160 GB hard drive.

I’ve read the opinion that the $350 price point shows Sony’s willingness to subsidize the Playstation Move. On its own, the Move starter kit costs $100, so in essence, Sony is cutting the Move price in half when bundled with a $400 console. I think of it in a different, admittedly unsubstantiated way: Sony’s putting out the sans Move bundle mainly to lure people towards its new motion controller.

I can already envision the pitch at Gamestops across America: So you’re buying the 320 GB PS3. Why not spend an extra $50 for the Playstation Move bundle? That’s a $100 value for less than the cost of one game, which you’re already getting in Sports Champions.

The upsell isn’t so much in the initial Move bundle as the purchases that will inevitably follow: New games for the Move, the subcontroller that’s required for certain games, more wands so people can play together. Clever.

Of course, it’s also possible that Sony’s trying to get buyers of the 160 GB model to pay $50 more for twice the storage (that’s the current pitch at Sony’s official Playstation blog). I wonder, then, how many people will be double-upsold?

 
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Read more: Gaming, PlayStation 3, Playstation Move, Sony