Slashdot Mirror
Rumours of Playstation 3 in 2003
aosgood writes "PS3 in 2003? Bloomberg's got a story
from some manufactures stating that they are to begin trial runs next month. All I can say is WOW. "Cell" is ready?" I've got my doubts on the veracity of this information - unidentified sources and all. But it does indicate that even if it's not this year, Sony may be rolling the 3 out sooner then previously thought.Update: 03/10 14:50 GMT by H : Yep Sony has begun denying it.
I heard some talk of this at the Game Developer's Conference. A couple of the speakers (Warren Spector is the only one who's name I remember) mentioned it in their lectures.
Damn and i still have a playstation 2 on layaway, only 1354 more nickles and its mine
I somehow doubt that this (unverifiable) story is true. There may be some prototype units being made to test the new 'Cell' processor architecture, but the debugging cycle of a new processor can be time consuming. If the chip is still under developement, we won't be seeing the final unit this year.
Smells like vapor...looks like vapor...maybe it is vapor!
To be honest, I think the whole "Playstation 3" thing being released in 2003 is bull. I mean, think about it... The Playstation 2 was released with a LOT of fanfare. It was announced 2 years before, pictures of the unit a year before... If this is indeed true, I would be deeply surprised. Sony's famous for it's marketing and hype machine.
;)
I would know, I fell victim to the hype. I wanted one so bad that I wanted to trade my left nut for it.
(Thankfully that didn't happen as I was cheated out of a PS2 at Walmart, although I was able to pick a used one up a few months later for $125. Don't ask.)
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
Didnt sony lose the rights to the name playstation to nintnedo a while back? are they going to pay royalties to use the name playstation 3?
Whether Cell is ready or not, you still have to go through manufacturing trails, quality assurance, a big Japanese release (with requesite game titles), then a US release.
:)
Even with a reputable source like Bloomberg, the odds that Sony would have a US launch before Christmas would be long, in my completely uninformed opinion.
If they don't bring out PS4 next year... must we wait till 2104??
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
They don't have to do it. There's no way XBox or GC can ever catch up to the PS2. There is really no reason for Sony to release this in 2003, and probably no reason in 2004 either. They've won the war. I think a PS3 release this year could only hurt them.
Kickin' it self-righteous school.
I am willing to bet that bloomberg have got the story wrong, for starters their sources do not sound very credible. I think that that are confused with what has been dubbed the PS2.5, a new version of the Playstation 2, much like the psone was to the psx.
Sony may be winning the console war, but I'd say their hold on their lead is pretty tenuous. They need to keep people buying their systems.
My impression, and I admit it's from a pretty cursory overview of the console world, is that the PS2 gets its market share because of its market recognition (the name "Playstation" means "home console" in much the same way "Atari" used to) and its huge game library. Folks who are real graphics nuts are talking about how much the PS2 lags behind the competitors in terms of how "pretty" the games are.
A fully backwards-compatible PS3 would definitely help this, without losing their two main advantages in the market. A PS3 that isn't backwards compatible had better have some real big pluses going for it.
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
...for one reason only. PS2 is currently taking up the large share of the market as of right now, and sees now signs of slowdown. The only time that I think Sony would bring one out is when it sees imminent competition from the next consoles from microsoft or nintendo.
Sony was the first major game console maker I can think of that allowed reverse compatibility with its previous products. You couldn't use NES carts in Super NES, nor SNES in N64, etc. The XBox should allow reverse compatibility and, to some, is a superior platform to PS2. However, Sony has the stronger mindshare.
But things change. The PS needs to stay competitive, and I was very concerned in news that PS3 wouldn't show as fast as Microsoft could update its XBox.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Have they sent out any kits to game makers, you can't sell videogame console without games.
Why would Sony shoot themselves in the foot like this? They're the current console market leader with millions installed, everyone's developing games for their system and they make money off of every title sold. Hell, in the console war, they're still selling a less powerful machine for more money than the others. All the while, Microsoft is bleeding on each Xbox it subsidises. So according to this article, they go and ruin it all by making the public think the Playstation2 is going to be outdated this year? I don't think so...
I truly hope the PS3 will be backwards compatible. Definitely for PS2 games - as there are many I'm sure I will still play for years to come. PS1 would be nice too, but I rarely play any PS1 games anymore - I've got a few kicking around (King's Field, Vandal Hearts, and Frogger for the wife) - but heck it's probably trivial for them to include PS1 compatibility so they'd better do it!!
One thing I would like to see that annoyed me about PS2- I think that they should've included the ability to partition off a small space in the PS2 memory card for a PS1 compatible storage area- it's a pain to swap cards (the PS1 cards don't always seem to like to fit as nice). If the PS3 has a HDD or higher capacity capabilities of some sort, I truly hope they allow this sort of thing for PS2 and PS1 media!
If there's any grain of truth to this story at all, it probably has something to do with a few prototypes. That would give Sony time to have some hardware demos ready for the next E3. Then the promotional onslaught we've all come to know and love can begin.
I would put a lot of money on it not being available this year.
This article reeks of "reports" from another source which itself has "unverifiable contacts" etc. etc.
Even if the hardware is progressing quickly it would be a watershed moment in the industry for a concept on the scale of complexity of Cell to be available 2 YEARS early.
Also what about the games? So you release the console 2 years early and have no games available for it? No way, this story is rubbish, read my lips, the PS3 will not be available for purchase this year.
Sony's strategy would be undermined by releasing the PS3 now. Look how long the PS1 was on the market for, personally I see this as a great thing, I know when I buy a Sony console it will be around for a LONG time compared to other consoles, and that means a huge guaranteed selection of games in the future etc. etc. This is a key part of the Sony strategy that they would never go against even if the hardware was ready.
One thing I hope it comes with is a CD burner... I think there is a great market for home users to burn compilations of tunes onto CD, and would be a gateway technology for home users downloading tunes from some online service... let's not forget how big a record label Sony themselves are... that's an asset Microsoft could NEVER approach...
-Nex
This sig has been deprecated.
and when they push it out too early someone else will go on the same idea and be a best seller!!! (Anyone think of Dreamcast here?)
I don't think we're very likely to see this in 2003..
I'm a gamecube guy all the way. I just don't see the other systems as having any games that are "must own" that I can't get for the PC or the cube. Except Kingdom Hearts, so far. But, if a PS3 comes out, it will definitely be ahead of everyone elses game, by a lot. And I'll need to have it, in a bad way. Especially if it comes this soon. I can't afford one, but I've had this Sony Credit card for awhile, and this is the reason I got it. Free PS3 for me!
I really like this cell technology idea too. Anything that can potentiall increase the connectivity between the different electronics in my home is good. Even if it has lots of problems, or isn't particularly useful, it will at least be fun.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Wouldn't a 2003 (perhaps even 2004) release hurt Sony in the meantime, as people hold off on purchasing PS2 consoles in anticipation of the new unit? Sony gives such large lead announced times for release dates that it gives consumers time to consider purchasing already existing hardware, knowing that they've got X months until the next big thing comes out.
If anything, such a rumor could help the competition.
The PS3 was out of the picture for me, I was expecting something like a GameCube sequal or something first. Remember, it too them 6 years to go from PS to PS2.
The New Root Council, kickin' ass sinc
Hail To The King Baby
June 2003
It's coming...
My favourite word has always been "vapurware" so I'm very confused. How do you call things that arrive at the market *before* the exspected release date? HurryWare? ChronitonWare?
:)
I won't start an "ask slashdot"-Session for this but I'd like to invite you for collecting new words for this phenomenon.
Disclaimer: PS3 has still chances to become VapourWare
PS3 before Halo 2, that's what I like to hear ;)
Go on, shoot some fish!
Here is a similar story on CNet.
And, for more on the "cell" technology, check out this Red Herring article from last summer, and this Inquirier.net article that includes a picture from the USPT office.
Given all that, I'd still be surprised if this was in US stores in time for XMas. I just don't think they'll have enough time to hype it sufficiently. On the other hand, if the tech is really almost done, do they want to wait until XMas 2004? Hrm....
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
I think if Sony really has their plan thought out, this time the playstation 3 wont need a "Linux Kit". We can all pretty much safely assume the next iteration of XBox will be the living room/pc integration. Sony has to compete, and their "cell" technology and much better open source relations have paved the way for them.
Maybe, just maybe, the Linux on the Desktop issue stands to become important to quite a few million more people.
its a rumor, i dont mind Sony, making a new console after 4 years of launch PS2, afterall the PSX just have 9 years and counting (just look the sales).
LoL = Old school
It's the same old trick. Stop people buying your competitors product by promising something better soon. Repeat until you actually have something to offer. It's a trick Microsoft have used many times too.
I'm going to fetch my broom...
It's great to hear that the Playstation will be updated. But honestly, who wants to dish out another $500? I'm still debating whether or not to buy a PS2.
But knowing how the game world works. Most people will run out and buy one the very same day it is released. This is madness. They are just doing what Sony wants them to do. Purchasing the console at an inflated price for maximum profit. If you go buy a PS2 right now for $300(Canadian), the store's profit is about $5. Compared to the $200+ when it is first released.
In all reality, I'll probably buy one. But not until the price drops.
'Give me one more medicated peaceful moment'
How else are they going to compete with the YBox and Game Pentagon both coming out this August?
Also picked up on Bloomberg. I don't have a link to the article, but here is the entire article:
Sony Denies Report That It Will Release PlayStation 3 This Year
2003-03-09 22:29 (New York)
Sony Denies Report That It Will Release PlayStation 3 This Year
Tokyo, March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., the world's
largest maker of video-game consoles, denied a report in Taiwan's
Commercial Times newspaper that it will introduce the successor to
its PlayStation 2 video-game console as earlier as this year.
``The report is wrong,'' said Koichiro Katsurayama, a
spokesman at Tokyo-based Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Sony's
games unit. ``The timing of the successor machine to PlayStation 2
has not been decided.''
Sony may start selling the PlayStation 3 in Japan as early as
mid-year and overseas by the end of the year, two years ahead of
schedule so Sony can widen its lead over rivals Nintendo Co. and
Microsoft Corp., the Commercial Times said, citing unidentified
people at Taiwanese parts suppliers.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. of Taiwan, which assembles
the PlayStation 2 for Sony, and other parts suppliers on the
island will start trial production next month, the report said.
Speculation over the timing of Sony's next console comes as
Kyoto-based Nintendo, the company behind the Mario the plumber
game character, prepares a new version of its GameCube machine.
Chip Development
Tokyo-based Sony, in collaboration with International
Business Machines Corp. and Toshiba Corp., is developing a new
processor, called ``Cell,'' which will be capable of handling
sophisticated graphics and sound over the Internet.
Sony and Toshiba, Japan's largest chipmaker, plan to use
``Cell'' in a range of digital consumer products, including TVs,
cellular phones and the successor to the PlayStation 2.
The chip is still in development, Molly Smith, a spokeswoman
with Sony Computer Entertainment America, said on March 4.
Sales of the PlayStation 2 console, which debuted in Japan
three years ago this month, exceeded 50 million units in January.
Sony released the PlayStation 2 four years after the company
introduced the original PlayStation console.
"Time is long and life is short, so begin to live while you still can." -EV
I hope, I hope, I hope it's true. I just can't wait for the early obsolescence the PS2. I'm weeing in my pants!
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
even if they could sell anything approaching the number of machines that Sony has sold, Sony can make them far cheaper since they make the parts themselves.
Microsoft will never be successful at this until they can make a profit on the machine and keep up with Sony. That can't happen if Microsoft constinues to buy the parts off the shelf.
True, the xbox graphics kick ass. But Sony can come out with better machines cheaper and faster than MS can.
Personally, I have a ps2 that I bought last summer. I was tempted to get an xbox, even after owning the ps2, until I heard that the ps3 should be out in 2004. If it comes out even in 2004, the xbox will be toast.
Pre-order from 3 stores, sell 2 on ebay/newspaper for an extra $250 == free PS3.
Worked for me.
if Intel has taught us anything it is be the first with the worst.
And if the 3DO and Dreamcast have taught us anything, Intel was just lucky.
They are paying a ton of money to another company that had the Playstation name and sued them for royalties. The Playstation 3 will be called something like the SonyStation 3 or SonyGameStation 3.
Mark my words (or not).
Come on it's Sony.. if they were going to be releasing the PS3 this year then there would already be tons of advertisements and articles straight from the horses mouth.
It isn't the fact that they've won already, it's the fact that their standard games all look like total ass on High Def TVs, unlike the Cube and XBox .. They need to keep updating so people can get the games looking good on their sets. Just because they have 25 million owners doesn't mean none of us want some upgraded technology for our spoiled lifestyles.
the reason for a quick release of the PS3 might be the fact that Sony does not own the name "Playstation" alone. They have to pay like 10-15% of all revenues they make through the playstation trademark to nintendo (or was it sega?).
If I could only find the source, but it was all over the web back then (must be 3-4 months ago iirc).
That might be a good incentive to move quickly to a new console with a new name.
Is it even possable to release a currently under-developement chip, the surrounding fully tested hardware, and enough games and software for people to want to buy all in one year? Oh and also make the adverts with cars hitting deer and strange-ass talking ducks?
Now thats productivity
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
This was listed as a 'news' article in the APRIL edition of PSM. It also stated that ALL games on the PS3 would be cell shaded, and would even convert 'old' games to cell shade technology. The last line refernced that fact that this was an April Fools Joke.
Guess the real joke was on Bloomberg News.
"This must be a Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
I thought I read in the PSM magazine over the weekend about this, and they claimed at the very bottom that it was their April fools joke
The PS1 had a HUGE base installed as well, and in fact, devs are still bringing out games for it. In Japan the PS1 is selling just as much as the XBox. Why did they bother with the PS2? Because people always want more and better technology. The PS2 has a little ways it can go to be on par with the XBox and Gamecube.
The author of the article doesn't seem to get that an early launch can work against you as much as launching late. Drive the PS2 to obsolescence now, and you piss off developers with software in the works, and gamers who just bought one. Not to mention that a launch now would mean exactly zero launch titles for the PS3, since I doubt most developers have the final specs, let alone an actual development unit. And if they did manage to miraculously pull a title out of their proverbial rear ends, it probably wouldn't be very good considering the huge complexity of the PS3's proposed architecture (something on the order of 74 processors total).
Is that company Nintendo? http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6822
I will buy a PS-3 when Gran Tourismo 4 comes out for it.
Gran Tourismo 3 is why I bought a PS-2
GT 2 and GT 1 are why I bought a PS-1
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
I recently saw an interview with one of the guys who helped create the xbox and he said that because Sony has such a huge lead on xbox and gamecube that they probably will let xbox release their next generation console first sometime in 2004 and PS3 will come out in 2005. So I wouldn't get your hopes up too quickly. I think there would be alot of unhappy people if they just recently bought a PS2 and now they have to shell out an additional $300-$400 to go up to PS3. Sony really has no reason to rush on releasing this.
This rumor can't be true for the simplest and most basic reason - the money doesn't work.
You build consoles and sell them at a huge loss. It's a multi-billion dollar gamble only the largest players can attempt. If you win, you get a piece of the action for every product sold on your (dominant) platform, _and_ over time, your margin on the hardware comes back out of the red, and you make a profit selling that too. Sony has now been profitable on the PS2 hardware for some moderately short period of time.
In order to make the billions necessary to go it again in the next round, you have a nice, long run with each platform. This is one of the good things about the console business model. Rather than the upgrade race the PC software vendors and hardware manufacturers like to suck you into, the console vendors are incentivized to make each revision of their hardware go as long as possible, so as to maximize their profits.
While Sony may be concerned about Microsoft's growing marketshare, last I checked XBox wasn't even close to PS2's penetration. Trying to pre-empt xbox2 may be on Sony's mind, but given that sales of PS2 hardware and software are exceptionally strong (in fact, record breaking) right now, releasing a successor product will just kill their money factory. Yes, I'm sure prototype hardware will be floating around before long, and I'm sure the first games that will come out on the system have already begun. But Sony will wait as long as humanly possible before a retail release. Only lagging sales, or (much more likely) Microsoft and Nintendo will push them out of the gate, and it's way too soon for that.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
1. They don't want to kill current sales of PS2. If they announced now that there would be a new platform for Christmas worldwide it would kill current sales. Also, if they do plan on launching before Christmas and then miss the date they have just killed their sales year. You can be sure that if they think they have something that will be ready for this year, they won't announce it until there are SURE they can deliver.
2. They don't want to alert Microsoft to what is going on. Everyone says that it would be impossible to release a PS3 this quickly, but what about an XBox2? By using what is basically commodity hardware again MS can develop and release a backwards compatible followup to the XBox with relatively little effort. They will be able to meet a Sony launch date with much less prep time. So not tipping off MS would be a huge reason to not hype the PS3 until just before launch.
3. The "surprise" of a new console this quickly will be hype enough. Think about it. How blown away would people be if this were true? It will generate its own hype. Especially if the tech is good.
I think that if you though about it for a while you could probably come up with some reasons of your own why operating in stealth mode would be an advantage even though it is n't what they have done in the past. Remember though, that while your reasoning might be flawed, it doesn't mean that the article is accurate.
Lasers Controlled Games!
I'm just speculating here but for all we know, this could be a plan from Sony just to freak out the XBox team.
:p
IMO, Nintendo is not really in the console war even though their GC is somewhat respectable.
M$ is already loosing money just to keep up with the PS2, so I'm guessing that if any of this should have some truth in it that's its a plan from Sony to put some pressure on M$ and have them do a mistake...like dropping their game's price for instance.
I don't own a XBox so I don't know much about their XBox live network but it could also be a msg to MS that Sony is coming pretty fast on their tail to win the online console war as well.
but again....just speculating here, the article doesn't get too specific and that means maybe I've been speculating on a st00pid rumor
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Even if the PS3 is ready to go and backwards compatable to PS1, what's the point? There's nothing to use the new technology.
I have no doubt Sony wants the technology as a ready as soon as possible, but they're not going to release unless there's a Killer Game or three out there and available and even more in the pipes. Otherwise what's the point?
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
If developers haven't heard of the PS3 yet, and the average game development time these days is two years, then this rumor is unlikely to be true. Sony could pull a Nintendo and release a handful of internally developed games at launch, followed by a long drought, but that's about it.
They can just use the the name "PS3" besides, they'd have to pay that royalty anyway if they plan on any backwards compatibility.
Bork Bork Bork!!
I think if Company X, Company Y, and Company Z have taught us anything it is that you can't define a market strategy that will always work in a sentence. Yes, sometimes lesser products to gain footholds because of lead time and sometimes they don't. In business, it's not always quality that is king. There are quite a few more issues and trying to simplify those, as you did or as the parent did, are just going to fail.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
I hope Goku doesnt hit "Cell" with a "DragonBall"
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
There was an article on the IBM intranet a few months ago (the PS3 chip is being developed jointly by Sony, IBM and Toshiba), which says "Japan's Sony Corp plans to outpace its main rivals into the next generation of game machines by launching a successor to the PlayStation 2 (PS2) in 2005, earlier than expected".
Somehow, 2005 seems far more likely to me - releasing the PS3 is pointless until the PS2 is actually threatened.
Atari's demise in the 80's will be Sony's fate.
Look at it - Sure, EVERYONE owns one. Just like it was in the early 80's
The market is flooded with CRAP games. Sure, there's a few good ones, but 90% of them SUCK.
The economy sucks
Sound familiar?
You're going down, Sony. At the risk of turning this topic in to (-1, Flamebait), I'd like to say I never was impressed by the Playstation. The original PSX had some of the worst 3D graphics I'd seen, incredibly slow CDROM....
I see the way of finishing Sony off:
Microsoft BUYS Nintendo.
The XBoxCube2 comes out, VERY small formfactor (look at how small the cube was, and look at how BIG the Xbox is. Maybe Apple can help them design it, or at least the controllers.
The media will be a slot-loading DVD drive. EASILY copied, piracy helps sell consoles. Games will be broadband ready THE DAY the system comes out, no more of this "available late 2004" crap.
a quick google search led me to this page http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2002/0327/kaiga i01.htm. It's in Japanese, but the fish works well enough.
The / in
last week i saw an interview on a german games show called "nbc-giga-games". they had the german sony ceo/cio whatever is rank is on, and he said : "ps3 maybe in 2005/2006"... so 2003 sounds like a really wild and overhyped guess to me. but would be nice anyway
Think. What's next month? Do you think Sony will sell PS3 even if they had it? PS2 is still running strong.
The "sources" indicated parts manufacturing are performing trial production runs. This could mean anything. My uneducated guess says they are testing out the assembly line to see if the conveyor belt works. You get the picture.
It also confirms that the chip is still in development. I don't need to tell any of you what that means.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
"Sony :P It is two-year advance-Taiwan economy paper (2) from an injection within S three years, and a plan."
They're just kidding...
Come on, people. This is ridiculous. Sony has no reason to launch the PS3 this year, or even next year. The PS2 is still the king of all video game consoles, with sales several times that of the GameCube or Xbox. It's cheap, Sony is making money off of it (in contrast to the ~$100 Microsoft loses for each Xbox) and it's still the "coolest" console out there. If they released the PS3 this year, it would not only cut into their sales, but force a still-viable product (PS2) out of the market prematurely. Nintendo could have released the GameBoy Advance long before it did, but instead chose to make minor improvements on the original GameBoy because releasing a new system would have been disastrous. Which one would consumers buy...the old outdated one or the new expensive one? Neither. They'll go to a competitor whose product is still cool, i.e. Xbox or GameCube.
http://www.walkingtaco.com
Microsoft use the same tactic. They also have the monopolistic powers to play catchup without having to start risky new ventures.
3DO, Dreamcast etc were all competing with an established market of earlier consoles.
that was a hoax about Nintendo having the PlayStation name registered or something
In my personal opinion, Sony is still far from ready with a PlayStation 2 replacement.
I think Sony will probably do the following:
1. Reveal final specs for the chips on the next-generation machine some time this late this fall.
2. Reveal the final machine configuration at the spring Tokyo Game Show in 2004.
3. Ship the first machines for the Japanese market in early September 2004.
3. US market machines will ship in mid-November 2004.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
No offense to the fan boys, but in terms of overall capability, the XBox is more advanced than PS2, simply because it was designed a few years after the PS2.
I know the fan boys will say "emotion engine" like that means something, but in a practical sense, all 3 machines are equivalent from a gamer's perspective.
maybe now sony will have graphics, speed, and feel of Gamecube and Xbox? nah, I doubt it.
~ now you know
and that's all that matters. GameCube is catching up (hopefully faster....i really lvoe that system...), but not enough yet. I mean if you want the new Silent Hill, what do you buy? The new Final Fantasy? The new Xeno-game? The new Breath of Fire? not an Xbox.
Gamecube is catching up (with it's own FF release and Zelda, and RE), but it has a long way to go. PS2 has won the same reason why the PS won, and why the NES won.
click me
XBOZ forver
There seems to be an assumption this is a next generation Playstation when it is seems likely that this is actually confusion over the Broadband enabled PS2 Sony have been planning on bringing to market this summer. They may call it a PS 3 but it is not the next generation Playstation everybody seems to be assuming.
My friends work in Austin at IBM on the Cell. It aint true folks, they do not even have the prototypes running fully yet.
Sony started hyping it like a year before it was finished, trying to convince people not to buy other consoles. Their plan worked fantastically (look at the Dreamcast! Great console, great games, died horribly), and this no doubt is a refinement. Plant rumors, then deny them. They won't look as bad as last time, but they'll still shut out other consoles.
Sounds like MS is starting rumours so that people will hold off on buying PS2s. Typical MS. Can't beat 'em, so sue, lie, buy, steal, cheat, etc.
BC
PlayStation tempts gamers online
The European trials of the online gaming service for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) will start at end of March, Sony has announced.
$300 + $50 for a game for the latest console seems too high.
I've been buying the last year's 'game of the year' for at least 5 years now and am completely happy with that.
Then again, if i was 12 years old again, i would have to have the latest and greatest.
Damn it Beavis! Why didn't this rumor come out last month! Seriously, though... The PS2 goes for $250.00ish at Fry$ and I thought that sounded better than spending $500.00 to upgrade my desktop so I could play the latest games. Well, after the console, some games, memory chips and controlers I was up to around $500.00. The only thing that kept my wife from strangeling me was the game ICO. She thinks all PS2 games will be that pretty. If the PS3 is gonna be that great and that quick - I hope they wait 20 years before releasing the ps4!
This tagline brought to you by 1500 monkeys in just under 17 years.
Here are some reasons Sony wouldn't launch the PS3 this year.
1.) No advertising campaign to push them.
2.) PS2 is still going strong.
3.) They need a bunch of games to start with. Saturn's early launch didn't do much to get it in the market.
4.) Sony hasn't had time to shop it around at trade shows etc to get feedback and market it.
5.) Until Sony and MS tip their hands, Sony's unlikely to even launch the machine because the sooner they do it, the more powerful the next-gen systems will be.
Of course that's all just speculation, but I feel very strongly that this is not the year of PS3.
I would think it was just an anomoly, except that I have a couple of friends who have the exact same problems. For $200-$300, we expect the hardware to last more than a year and a half. Unless they change their act, I won't be buying a PS3 no matter when the damn thing comes out. Please don't accuse me of misusing it, I use it correctly. I turn it off when not in use, and I haven't ever had the thing on for more than 5 or 6 hours. It's just some kind of design flaw, and really I think all zillion units should be recalled.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
Maybe it is m$ FUD to slow down the PS2 sales?
I wouldn't buy a PS2 if I knew PS3 is coming soon.
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
You are correct - it was a hoax. The next console is still going to be called the PS3, unless Sony has some *other* reason to call it something else. It has nothing to do with Nintendo, etc.
I think that you are correct in saying that backwards compatability is a wildcard. However I think that it will be crucial to the fate of the PS3.
Why? The reason that the Genesis was able to overtake the Nintendo juggernaut was the SNESes lack of backwards compatability. Later, the SNES won but it took a long time. Without backwards compatibility, every new generation of consoles is exactly the same.
Right now the GameBoy is number one in portable handhelds, it also has backwards compatability. It can play the original Tetris that came out with the original gameboy over ten years ago. I don't think that this is just a fluke. Having good games helped the Game Boy, but the genius is the backwards compatability.
Folks who are real graphics nuts are talking about how much the PS2 lags behind the competitors in terms of how "pretty" the games are.
This was certainly true in the PlayStation vs. Nintendo 64 days. I had an N64, my friends had the PS. And the PS graphics blew!
But they had more games, they had fun games, and that is what truly matters. Yes, a percentage of the consumer population will always hold out for the lastest and greatest, but that is a small percentage (I believe under 10, but I concede this is based upon 0 research, so take with a grain of salt)- the rest just want to play games, man!
Now, couple that with the fact: PS2 is still pretty good looking and some of the PS1 games look good on it (I still play tekken 3 and I don't complain about the graphics), it is not so much of a factor for the non-fanatics!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I am ready to believe that Cell, the processor of PS3, is ready. It was to be developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. The design specs of the cell were unbelievably similar to the IBM chip specs for blue gene, a petaflop machine which IBM had said would be ready in 2004. Although the blue gene project, in its original form, has been dumped (and replaced by something called blue gene / light, or BG/L), I suppose the processors should have been ready by now. In fact, Lawrence Livermore National Lab is rumoured to have placed an order for a massive BG/L machine. So, IMHO, the Cell should be ready. But definitely the games, or even the SDK are not ready.
charmer
Hmm... Sony certainly has an interesting strategy for denying this!
Scott
Nice ripoff there. Next time try not claiming you wrote something many people here have read, and give proper credit where it's due.
The full content of the article, however, is right on track, and coming from a much more authoritative source. I encourage everyone to click and read the real article; you may want to read the rest of the site when you're done, too, if you haven't. Quite funny.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Don't forget that the Atari 7800 was backwards compatible with the Atari 2600.
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
I declare the Xbox dead... With a title like that on your console list, you can not fail.
Praystation 3
It runs on love!
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
..And all's right with the console world.
Nintendo is now a non-player. They're the equivalent of a pre-fall Sega. They've got their loyal fanbase who buy their systems for Zelda and Mario, and that's it. The new Zelda looks like crap (I'm sorry - even my most hardcore Nintendo-worshipping friends agree!).. They deny the value of networked gaming. They're going to go the route of Sega in the future unless things change.
X-Box is now what Nintendo was after the Playstation 1. A cute little system that you can't really fault people for buying, because it does have some good games. However, the X-Box has its problems. Halo is entertaining, but not a killer game. Hell, I can't think of a single killer game it has. Plus, required broadband for network play. Broadband saturation is still 'teh sUx'.
The PS2 still reigns supreme. It has the most games, the largest used game market (which is fast becoming a key market - most people who buy used games also buy new games), and has the hell advertised out of it. It doesn't require broadband for network play. It's got the Squaresoft crowd. It's got the GTA crowd.
The next generation of consoles may change things, but I don't see that happening. Nintendo needs a major thought shift to rise back to the top; they're nothing but a lumbering dinosaur now. Microsoft has far too much FUD spread about it, and no must-have games that legions of drooling fans will buy an X-Box for. They'd need to spend quite a bit of their 50 billion to bring certain developers onboard.
Of course, all bets are off if Sony truly screws up the PS3. I don't see that happening, though.
Maybe they meant Splinter Cell is ready.
"At present, Cell is "being still in a development stage" (the public-relations person in charge of a S C E rice corporation, Mr. MORI Smith)."
A translator-program did this?? Ah come on, you've got to be joking!
I just finished dealing with another reply below... pardon me if you're not saying the same thing, but it sounds like you are... See my response to this other poster.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
There is a good article about Sony in last weeks ECONOMIST. They mention that Sony is looking into dropping MS Windows and going for Linux (I'm sure that won't happen today, but there must be some R&D money put into that)
They also went on saying that the PlayStation div of Sony stays far away from the rest of Sony.
Another intresting point in the article was that sony produncts must incororate DRM becouse they own alot of music rights, unlike Apple, who does not have to worry about anyone stealing it's music.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
Xbox came out a year _after_ the ps2.
The "Cell" chip is not ready yet, it still needs to find and absorb Androids 17 and 18.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
While I don't believe this article either, I don't think we can expect the two-year anticipation of PS3 that we did with PS2. The DC absolutely toasted the PS2 to market, and was vastly superior to the PS. PS2 is still a year and a half away, so what does Sony do? "Oh, here's the PS2. It plays DVD's. It's coming. It'll play your old PS games. Don't buy a DC for $100 wait and buy our PS2 in two years at $300."
Smart move. Sega's marketing always blew, and is (imo) the real reason Sony won out.
And no, I'm not talking about just marketing to consumers, but also marketing to developers, retail stores, etc.
Before I continue, are you retarded?
// The fastest Alt-Tab in the West
OK, obviously nobody here is buying the story. We've managed to analyze all the details concerning the market, technology etc... So it is safe to assume that the PS3 will not be out for a long time (at least 1 year).
But look at what is happening here, this article (however false it may be) has generated a huge amount of hype. I think that it's reasonable to believe that SONY has intentionally started this article to start the hype. Many people have even said how they fell prey to the "hype machine" for the PS2. It's starting right now for the PS3! I am not joking. You are already making serious decisions on you next purchases, even regretting the purchase you made yesterday, when the console won't even be available to developers for more than a year! Don't let it get to you, it's all a marketing stunt, albeit a very smart one.
Hey, it's "Game Developer's Conference" time. Isn't it one of the better times to announce or "leak" some vapor, get people excited and generate some hype?
Judging from what I've read on the Net lately, Sony have succeeded in doing just that.
Why didn't Sony fit the PS2 with memory sticks instead of memory cards? They were around at the time, they're still proprietary enough for Sony to have control over and they'd have turned your PS2 into an MP3 player in the lounge for millions of people.
I don't like proprietary formats, but if they're going to have their own model instead of CF or SM then why not standardise?
And don't get me started about this new "Duo" format they put in cellphones...
I just read one of your other post.
"As an independant artists I would like to know how/if we could contribute music to these kiosks.
If so it would be a great distribution medium for us indy artists"
Indpendant artists in indy...
Your asking me if I AM RETARDED!?
Thanks for the laugh.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
"Finally, towards the end of every console cycle, consoles get so cheap that you can afford to buy more than one of them."
I had a GameCube when they were still 300$ CDN, and I grabbed an Xbox when they dropped to $300 CDN. I didn't grab a PS2 until I bought a preowned one with trades, though, simply because I didn't think it was worth even 250$ CDN.
So in the space of one year, I spent about 800$ CDN on all 3 popular and current consoles. That's the same as upgrading my current PC to something more Doom3 friendly (a little less, since I'd need a very expensive processor and 9700 Pro). Why wait until they're dirt cheap, when you can get everything hooked up to your TV for less than keeping current on one system that's only good for RTS/FPS?
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The stores didn't make $200 when a PS2 was released. Sony got all the money, the same as they do right now. If you actually cut open a current S hardware revision PS2 and compared it an R and first-gen, you'd notice the boards are simplified, and many of the chips in the first one have been combined using VLSI-like technology.
The PS2 costs less to make now, and Sony (MS, and Nintendo) pass that along to consumers. Stores make their money on the games, like everyone else. To think that a store makes money on a console is to live in your own unique word of fairies and prince frogs, who live in a lollypop house on gumdrop lane.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I really don't think Microsoft will have a easy time with backward compatability from Xbox1 to Xbox2, if they make a xbox2.
Just judging by the pc history, there's a lot of apps, and games that don't run on current hardware, that have on older hardware, and of course M$ will be putting a bunch of DRM crap in any new xbox, meaning they will have to switch from the win2k api's to something like xp.
And remember, backward compatability is always harder when you are changing graphics chips also. Plus, Xbox has a real wacky configuration... A Nvidia nForce board, only with a PIII? why didn't they use a athlon, or why didn't they make the nForce for the pIII? Microsoft certainly didn't put out a machine comparable with current hardware when they made the xbox, and I dont think it will be any different in the future.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
I have an Xbox, which i do not regret buying, although i will admit that good new xbox games have been sparse for a few months.. and yes, i will purchase a ps3 if it is backwards compatible/really worth it, but i keep seeing people say that they see very little graphical improvements from ps2 to xbox/gc.
are you kidding???
the ps2 couldnt show the CREDITS for halo, steel batallion, any of the resident evil games, metroid prime...
take a look at blood omen 2 on xbox, and then on ps2... i played it, and it really COULDNT show the credits for the game... are thats with MAJOR poly reduction, texture reductions, no FSAA, no bumpmapping, no anisotropic filtering... ps2 people who bought the game were demanding refunds/throwing out their copy, while people playing it on there xboxen enjoyed the game thoroughly.
now, i do like some of ps2s games, and if i had the money, i would buy it also... but i dont, and oh god, those controllers hurt my hands...
say what you want about xbox's big controllers, but at least theyre comfortable, and ergonomical..
Mr.Big
LOL.
"Your asking me if I AM RETARDED!?"
Let's have a look at some of your intelligent quotes:
"That is a HUGE everyone else!" (a paragraph on it's own no less)
"Understand that Microsoft generally sets extreemly low expectations"
"The Xbox is just a Inter/Windows PC"
"Software development companies that "port" their games to the Xbox from the PC because it is "easy" find out that 95+% of their sales comes from the PC market." (oh, yes, "port" right.. we wouldn't want to "port" anything because it is "easy". Excellent use of quotation marks.)
"The customers that have an Xbox seem to also have a great PC, and the games play much better on their PC. There are a few exceptions, specifically sports games."
"Nvidea"
"Another mistake is betting heavy on online games with the Xbox." (Um, have you seen the PS3s chip design?)
"I will agree that Halo was/is a good game. Now put that game at 1280X1024 on a new(er) ATI or Nvidea card, or better yet look at it at 1600X1200 resolution. Now do the comparison to a TV and Xbox." (now do that comparison with any PS2 game)
"I have heard that the avearage Xbox owner owns less than 5 games. Now granted that is because it hasn't been out as long as the PS2, but if your statistic was correct then the average owner of an Xbox would have around 20+ games now. That seems a bit high." (Oh, you "have heard" have you. Nice.)
"Now let me add that if you decide to play online people with PC's will have a big advantage over the Xbox, because they will be able to "see" further." (Thanks for that tip, I dont need my glasses anymore)
"My main point still stands. The Xbox and the PC are going after the same market. ~14-35 year old males."
Yeah, which happens to be the same market as the Playstation. Did you really even need to make one post on that enlightening insight?
// The fastest Alt-Tab in the West
Well at least you commented on something instead of posting some stupid comment like before.
I will sum up your issues with my post as best I can.
1. Bad english, and spelling. Yep you got me on that one. I wish I could run my post through a spell checker.
2. You believe that Sony is also going heavy on online games because of the specs of the PS3. Could be; I don't know. Other than the Cell processor design overview I haven't seen much on it. I am willing to bet that Sony won't force software development shops to use ONLY their online service though...
3. You seem to doubt my ESTIMATE on the average number of games that a Xbox owner has. My ESTIMATE comes from the fact that Microsoft has reported that they need to make that average to break even on the hardware. That was at the $200.00 price. Now it has been reported that they are still loosing money, some would say bleeding money on the Xbox. If it was around the 20-26 games that the previous poster said, they would be in the black big time.
4. Sony and Microsoft target the same market. I agree somewhat, but sony didn't give up on the family market, nor did they ever say anything like... Your younger kids will probably be downstairs playing a GameCube or something, and the older children will be upstairs playing on their Xbox... That was foolish. That was a director of sales at Microsoft on Tech TV.
My main point is that the Xbox and the PC are very similar platforms and compete against each other. The people that would own an Xbox and NOT own a high end gaming pc are rare.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
OK, we got all this crud about games getting smarter and smarter. Pretty soon, why don't we just put some smart chinese guy in a console and make him do all the thinking? We are gonna kill ourselves for one of these games. Personally, what I see coming is portable X-boxes. They could call them X-trons! then we could have Nintendo competing with Backpack-cubed where it holo projects the screen portAbly wherever you go! Then we could have some idiot refry (re-program) a gameboy and put in compicated software! We could have the portable fad! Wouldnt THAT be fun?
-Pay no attention to the man in the Snes. (Nintendo forever!)
When you are about to do an objective and scientific piece of investigation
of a topic, it is well to gave the answer firmly in hand, so that you can
proceed forthrightly, without being deflected or swayed, directly to the goal.
-- Amrom Katz
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...