PlayStation 3 To Debut at E3 2005

Yorrike writes "According to the BBC, Sony are planning to officially reveal the PlayStation 3 at the E3 Expo in May 2005. They're obviously not wanting to be outdone by Nintendo, who announced the same plans for the GameCube successor, as well as Xbox 2's rumored debut around that time. Looks like E3 2005 is going to be a biggy." Worth noting that's not the ship date, but when people will see it.

Comments

I'm beginning to have my doubts...

[Anonymous Coward]

...after they renamed the project Playstation Forever.

yay.. more linux porting

[TheAtomicElec]

haha... time to port linux to the next generation Xbox :b

Re:Text (We know what's gonna happen to their serv

[Grey Ninja]

Don't they mean 70 million PS2 units SHIPPED, and not sold?

In other news, Nintendo describes Sony's marketting division as a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the Revolution comes.

(sorry, had to.)

Oh fun

[Turn-X Alphonse]

So we're what two years away from another FF game, another DDR series with erm.. better graphics?

Nah, I don't think I'll bother with the PS3, it won't be hugely different to the PS2 and well I'd rather support someone like Nintendo who can make a console which doesn't die after a year (I'm sure everyone has seen or heard of a bad PS2 like that).

Sony can make fine TVs, DVDs, VHS and whatever else you wish to name. But the PS systems after the first just need alot of work.. we're on what the 10th model now and they still don't run right...

Re:Oh fun

[th1ckasabr1ck]

So we're what two years away from another FF game, another DDR series with erm.. better graphics? I understand if you have a problem with PS2s breaking down, but if you buy the next Nintendo console and don't expect the big games to be MarioX, ZeldaX, and MetroidX you're fooling yourself.

Re:Oh fun

[PainKilleR-CE]

I'll just do the same thing I did with this generation of consoles:

1) Buy games for previous generation console dirt cheap when new console is released.

2) Wait for new console to have 3 or more games that I must have.

3) Buy the new console and the 3 or more games.

4) Repeat.

Gee, I wonder why I have 4 consoles and am considering buying a PSOne for the PS1 games I own that won't play on the PS2. This is what taught me:

5) Don't sell the old system until I've tested every single game I already have on the new system (if the new system makes any claims of backwards compatability).

I can buy switches to handle as many consoles as I could possibly collect. I can buy ports (or sequels that manage to replace the games they follow) to reduce my need for older consoles. When I don't play a console very much I can even box it up and store it in a closet until I just need to play that game. I can't get my old games and systems back if I sell them, though, and I see no reason not to preserve these old games for my daughter should she ever show any interest in retro gaming later in her life (though by then she may just be able to zap them all into some VR rig for pennies a ROM).

Re:Oh fun

[hawkbug]

Well, I know 3 people with PS2s that ended up not working, and it has nothing to do with modding. It has to do with watching dvds on them. The damn lasers in the PS2 are worthless, the new models are better, but the old ones are horrible. First gen PS2 was a huge pile of crap in a lot of ways (it was noisy and the laser sucked to name a few). After a while, these PS2s quit loading DVD based PS2 games and DVD movies. The still seem to load CD based (blue backed games) without issue in most cases, even though the laser is extremely noisy when loading blue games. Enough evidence for you? Don't get me wrong - I own a PS2, and will also own a PS3. Why? Backwards compatibility. Xbox won't have it, Nintendo never has it, so PS3 it is.

Ars Technica

[strictnein]

claims that Nintendo will not be showcasing its nextgen unit next E3. It will just be discussing its "vision" for its nextgen unit.

I couldn't find links showing official info either way. Who's right?

Re:Ars Technica

[SilentChris]

"I couldn't find links showing official info either way."

You must be new to E3. Companies often don't have a set plan until a few weeks before the show. Even price changes are often laid down spur of the moment (although people at the company generally have some idea what price they will go to, they often wait for a competitor to ante up first). Considering demos are often burned the night before the show, and hardware that arrives with a curtain sometimes stays that way (Google both), I'm not surprised there's no official info.

Also the Jaguar 2

[sjonke]

Atari will also return to form with their new 128-bit Jaguar 2 & Jaguar 2 CD, now more toilet-like than ever!

Well, they're on track...

[ajservo]

They said it was going to be like 2064 before the PS9 was coming out right? That's what the TV ads from 3 years ago told me. That and the (PS9) console was an implant... Seriously, I'm disappointed that no console outside of the portables has tried an innovation pushing on how we play games. All these consoles for the last 20 years have been tied to a TV. Only the GB/A/SP, The Nomad, and Virtual Boy have tried to innovate in these areas. I'd seriously consider buying a console that made some intelligent use of the 3D computer montior technology that's out on PC. Console manufacturers are too reticent to try something like this, but that'd be a true innovation over the current generation, without a loss on graphic capabilities.

Does it still run on love?

[FleaPlus]

I remember seeing a preview interview of the Playstation 3 a few years ago.

Sony: Dreamcast? Ha ha, funny stupid yankee! You dishonor me with your mention of this Dreamcast. The Praystation 3 does not connect to internet, Praystation 3 CONTAIN the internet. You prugga in the computer to the port, the internet isa all there. We copy it inside machine for fast access.

mis: Wait, so you're saying that you copied every single file on the internet into this box? That doesn't even make any sense! The internet is a constantly changing network of millions of individual machines. How does the PS3 update its so called "internet" if it has no connections to the real network?

Sony: Thasa right. No connections. Praystation 3 get internet from outerspace.

mis: And its power?

Sony: It run on love.

Re:New Gamecube?

[Grey Ninja]

Nintendo is alive and well. They are keeping the specs of the Revolution close to their heart for the time being. (although there are rumors to the effect of a dual processor G5, or something like that... but I personally think those are bogus). Reports of Nintendo's death were greatly exaggerated.

Nintendo seems to have something up their sleeve though. They are talking about it like they were before they announced the DS. I am expecting something very strange that will have people going WTF.

I am also curious how the next Gameboy is going to factor into this. It seems to me that the DS is the perfect complement to a console, connectivity-wise but I am sure Nintendo will try to leverage the Gameboy more... Not sure how that will pan out.

For Nintendo console news, check out these sites:
www.planetgamecube.com
www.gcadvanced.com
www.gametabs.com

Re:New Gamecube?

[Wild Bill TX]

I thought Nintendo was going the same route as Sega which was not to release any more consols?

A while back, Nintendo's Satoru Iwata declared, "When we withdraw from the home game console, that's when we withdraw from the video game business."

I would use a different term...

[oofoe]

...Sony are planning to officially reveal the PlayStation 3 at the E3 Expo in May 2005. They're obviously not wanting to be outdone by Nintendo, who announced the same plans for the GameCube successor, as well as Xbox 2's rumored debut around that time. Looks like E3 2005 is going to be a biggy.

Hmmm... All that new hardware. I suspect that it's more likely that E3 2005 is going to be a buggy...

Re:Too late

[LWATCDR]

The best technology does not always win. OS/2, The Amiga , The Atari ST, and the Mac would have killed Microsoft back at MS-DOS 4.
What matter for consoles is Games. Are they fun. From what I hear from my game nut friends. The PS/2 has the best games followed by the Gamecube. XBox has Halo.
The Single API might also not be an Advantage for the XBox. If every game that I can get on the XBox. To make such a bold claim sight unseen is foolish at best.

Re:Rambus scuttlebutt?

[inkdesign]

Fraid not brother,as PS3 will use RAMBUS memory.
http://www.ps3insider.com/modules.php?nam e=News&fi le=article&sid=122
(XDR on Schedule for Mid-2005)

Good for the marketplace?

[lacrymology.com]

I was a wee lad when the early console wars happened (8-bit, handheld, and 16-bit), and didn't give a toss about anything but the NES system. After a time I grew older and missed the most recent wars. However, now that I have some time to indulge in gameplay, it's become increasingly irrtating to keep up. Is this massive turnover killing the industry? I realize that it has been quite a while since the PS2, GC, and XBox came out, but they only recently seem to have acquired widespread acceptance. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems that unless each company plans on making their new consoles backwards compatible they are setting themselves up for a huge fall in this mad race to get the latest greatest technology out the door. To mee it seems that gameplay is the greatest draw, and technology is secondary. As far as gameplay goes, no one can touch Nintendo (although they tend to lean far to heavily on their franchises), but perhaps I am biased. There is something to be said for developer apis as companies are more inclined to develop for a platform that allows them to create and distribute games with the least amount of overhead... and it seems that M$ wins in that arena.
-m

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Too late

[Incoherent07]

There are two rather large assumptions here.
1) The console gaming market wants to be like the PC gaming market, or vice versa.
2) Someone will actually develop for the Xbox.

The former is only obvious if you've actually followed the two realms. What makes a good PC game does not necessarily make a good console game, and what makes a popular PC game does not necessarily make a popular console game. It's not just the difference in how you control them, but also a difference in what sorts of games you tend to see. Console RPGs and PC RPGs have diverged quite a bit, for example. So the idea of having a single API for PC and console isn't as huge of an advantage as you'd think, simply because the two groups aren't all that alike, and I daresay won't be all that alike for awhile.

The second is probably a non-issue. Even if Microsoft can't get a dead monkey to develop for Xbox, they have enough cash to keep cranking out new generations for quite some time, or to buy out developers as exclusives (see: Rare).

Re:Rambus scuttlebutt?

[IdleTime]

Looks like your boycott was a huge success!

Only 70 million PS2 boxes was sold! Way to go!

News Update? March 2005 release date

[WebGangsta]

Well, now the news is that the timeline has been accelerated.

They're saying that the PS3 is coming out in March 2005.

If confirmed, that timeline would mean Sony's new game console will be out before the E3 convention in Los Angeles, scheduled for May. Sony and other video game makers have used E3, which draws game developers, fans and industry officials, for major product launches.

If this isn't accurate, I'm sure it will be corrected here shortly.

We need better games, not better consoles

[c0d3h4x0r]

The current consoles are more than powerful enough already. We need better games, not better consoles. All this focus on newer fancier (and more expensive) hardware is misplaced effort. It's just going to turn the video game industry into the same mess that the PC industry has been for years: perpetual upgrade cycle with no time for developers to make software that truly utilizes the current generation of capabilities well.

Re:Could be a crapfest

[AuMatar]

Based on worldwide numbers, if one of them is doomed its the Xbox. Remember that gaming is a much bigger inustry in Asia than in US, and gamecube kills it there.

XBox Response

[WebGangsta]

And in related news, rumors are that Microsoft may introduce XBox2 at the X04 trade show in September 2004, with their launch in October 2005.

Nintendo Nintendo Revolution

[drwiii]

It'll probably play DVD Video and come with a universal cartridge adapter. Nintendo will claim universal compatibility with all Nintendo console titles.

Then Nintendo will fuck it up, right on schedule:

Nintendo hardware design team will somehow manage to make the console look like yet another cheap toy. Packaging team, eager to leave GCN handle debacle behind them, will suggest shipping the console to retailers in a commemorative bookbag with Pokemon all over it.

Some designer on his lunch break will manage to relocate the Z button directly on the left circular edge of the analog stick and shrink the d-pad by another 50%. The d-pad is laid out such that you have to flip the controller over and rotate it at a 45 degree angle even have access to the d-pad. Since Nintendo invented the d-pad, his co-workers do not question him.

Console shipping color will be purple, pink, or bright orange, and it will not have any Certified-Badass blue status LEDs. Don't worry: true to Nintendo form, the only accessories available in your local EB will be colored differently than your console.

System's flash memory cards/drives will be 16 times too small. Nintendo will bitch about how developers are getting too lazy, and how they should strive to fit 20 encyclopedias worth of data in 3 memory blocks. (will not be remedied until 4 years after console launch.) Sony takes note and evolves PS3's units of storage from "kilobytes" to "encyclopedias".

Sony will outbid Nintendo for exclusive "GTA4" to be released at PS3 launch, and no Mario game will be ready at 'Revolution' launch. To make up for it, Nintendo releases four games that are only 25% fun.

Console will have 8+ ports on the bottom that will never be used for anything, just so you know it's a Nintendo system. Will be left unlabeled, since "SP" acronym was already taken for something other than "Speculation Ports". Fucking idiots will lose port covers, causing console to sit unbalanced. Nintendo, sensing a new market for mismatched-colored accessories, starts selling replacement port covers.

Network adapter not integrated and no wireless connectivity except to the portable Dual Boy (which was released two years ago at Christmas). Simplicity-oriented Nintendo will hand the plug-and-play Internet gaming market to Sony and Microsoft on a silver platter.

Third parties, already scared away during the N64 and GCN iterations, go with Sony.

Nintendo will ship Ultra Mario Bros. a whole 8 months after system launch, which just happens to be in May, a nice safe 6 to 7 months away from the lucrative Christmas shopping season.

Ultra Mario Bros. will have some stupid goddamned gimmick, like Mario wearing (oh, I don't know..) toasters instead of shoes. He won't punch blocks or collect coins, though. God forbid he should punch blocks or collect fucking coins. Nobody born prior to 1993 will like the game, and everyone will bitch.

Similar bullshit happens with the next Zelda pre-post-post-pre-post-prequel. Oh, by the way, Link's a kid in this one again. And get this, he's got a musical instrument. There's an option available to turn off cel-shading, but only if you beat the game twice on the same save.

Miyamoto will surface from his underground bunker 3 weeks later to insist that the players are wrong and that Nintendo's new batch of artists and programmers are innovators and that toaster shoes improve gameplay and that Link was always a kid. Suddenly, noticing the Mushroom Signal in the skies high over Kyoto, he hurriedly leaves in order to urgently not-supervise the next Mario game.

Dual Boy SP will be released 3 years and 1 month (December 26th) after complaints surface about the screens on the original Dual Boy acting as a black hole. Upon finding that shining light from both screens cancels out any external light, thereby darkening the space around it and making it impossible to see much less play, Nintendo proudly proclaims that, hey, it worked in R&D!

Jak