The cat's been totally out of the bag for weeks now, so this shouldn't come as much of a shock: Sony will, indeed, release a $400, 40GB version of the PlayStation 3 in the U.S., starting November 2.

The news comes on the heels of similar announcements for Europe and Japan (which got a "ceramic white" version of the console, to boot)—and yes, like the new 40GB consoles in those territories, our 40GB PS3 will not be backward compatible with the PS2. Kotaku has a quote from Sony exec Jack Tretton, who explained: "Backward compatibility is a nice secondary consideration, but it's far from the number-one priority." Ugh.

Anyway, despite the backward-compatibility issue, I've been hearing a lot of positive feedback from gamers about the 40GB PS3—it seems that $400 is a price that many of you holdouts would be willing to pay. Indeed, I think I'll pick one up myself when the time comes, and something tells me the PS3 may see a healthy jump in sales during the holidays.

So, who out there is ready to take the plunge with a $400 PS3? And any advice on the PS3 title that we should grab first?

Update: Sony has also announced that it's dropping the price of the 80GB PS3 to $500, the same price as the 60GB version (which is being phased out). Hope you didn't buy a 60GB PS3 recently.

Related:
40GB PS3 Bound for America, BC Is "Secondary" [Kotaku]