PlayStation 3 Press Conference Tonight

The official unveiling of the PlayStation 3 is set to happen tonight, with folks such as the Guardian Gamesblog, Kotaku, and GamesAreFun live blogging the event as it happens. From the Guardian post: "The sign on the way into the Sony Press Conference is big - Wi-Fi access will be only available after the event. They lied - a quick wireless search has found me some access and now I'm on. The clock says 1.00pm but my body says 9pm. By the time Microsoft unveils the 360 again tonight I'll be ready for my cornflakes."

Comments

Re:Next Xbox Hard To Program?

[tc]

Y'know, if being hard to program for is a serious issue, then Sony are fucked. Talk to any game developer - three cores is more work, but at least they're symmetrical and have real random access to memory via a cache. The Cell has only one general purpose core, and you have to explicitly shuttle data to and from the embedded memory on the other processing elements, which is hugely annoying. Sure, it's fine for obvious streaming applications like video decoding, but definitely more problematic for other work. Nobody in their right mind thinks the next Playstation is going to be anything but much more difficult to work with than Xbox 360.

Of course, maybe that doesn't matter. After all, the PS2 is generally considered to be the hardest of the current generation to work with, and yet it's still the market leader by a comfortable margin.

Bottom line is that it's all going to come down to having the best games at the right time, and a superior marketing plan. The hardware is almost irrelevant.

This is impressive

[UWC]

Coming over here straight from the XBox 360 topic on down the Games page, the shift in tone is hilarious. The XBox comments were generallly guardedly optimistic or speculative, with a few straight-out anti-MS comments or rants against assumed fanboys.

So far in this PS3 topic, the base comments are: 1) a prayer for XBox 360's demise, 2) a statement that Sony's bragfest will be "quite a refreshing change from the endless hype" for the 360, and 3) speculation that developers will flock to Sony's 8 Cell vector processors because XBox 360's three PowerPC cores will be too hard to develop for. Oh, and now someone is piping in with typos a-plenty voicing excitement on what will surely be an immensely informative session about this console that is likely at least a year from release.

Granted, there have been swift and thorough rebuttals to most of these, but they are posted alongside further MS bashing from others. The MTV special will be drawing fire for months, I'm thinking. Because, you know, a hilariously pandering noninformative show intended to appeal to an audience whose intelligence they (hopefully) underestimated certainly has the same exact intent as an event aimed at the gaming media. There was a video released on OurColony the same day that provides much more information about the functionality that I hope they can deliver.

And before I'm branded as a Microsoft fanboy/apologist/astroturfer, I own all three current consoles and the current crop of portables. I've found reasons to enjoy all of them. XBox 360 is the next-gen console we know most about so far, and some of what we do know is impressive, like the cohesive Internet experience that it seems that the new Live can offer.

Re:This is impressive

[Golias]

I agree, having read both threads, that the contrast between cheerleaders for each platform is striking.

Personally, I'm hoping the PS3 is light-years ahead of the XBox360.

Not because I have anything against the XBox, but because I think the 360 looks like a really nice piece of hardware, and for something to be even better by a large margin, it must really be something special.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

While I enjoy the games on my current X-Box a lot, I still have not signed up for Live and have no intention of doing so. While the service seems nice, I just can't bring myself to pay for that which I'm accustomed to doing for free with almost every network PC game I've ever played (with the exception of MMORPG's, which you just know are going to have another fee on top of the Live costs if they ever come to the X-Box.)

What I really want is a console that lets me play cool, state-of-the-art games without having to sign up for some ongoing service just to take full advantage of them. From what I've seen so far, the XBox360 is not that console... and the PS3 is also not likely to be. The question then becomes, will either console offer a range of games good enough to make me want to put up with the elements I dislike about the platform?

Re:Next Xbox Hard To Program?

[r_benchley]

I remember when the original Xbox came out. There was a lot of talk about how hard it was to program for the PS2, and as soon as the Xbox closed the sales gap, a lot of developers were going to drop the PS2 and develop for the Xbox exclusively. First, game developers are going to develop for whatever platform is going to line their wallets with fat amounts of cash. The Sega Saturn's well publicized development difficulties were not the reason that developers dropped them. The problem was that Sega of America screwed up every single aspect of marketing the machine, didn't distribute it properly, and overpriced it at launch. The Saturn outsold the PSX in Japan until they prematurely announced the launch of the Dreamcast. If they had supported the Saturn longer, and waited another year on the Dreamcast, the console wars would have been a three-way battle between Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. Microsoft wouldn't have even tried entering the market as a fourth player. Second, good coders learn their way around the system, and learn how to develop for a platform, even if it is problematic at first. Also, there are always companies that provide middleware for a system, taking care of lots of the nuts and bolts portions of the development process. Naughty Dog (creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter) made some good coin as providers of middleware for other developers. They had bright people who understood the PS2's complex architecture, and they were able to ease the development process for other game makers (for a fee!). The console that "wins" the console wars will be the one that targets all markets, makes quality games, and offers a good value for the money.

Re:Next Xbox Hard To Program?

[superpulpsicle]

That's very well said. They terminated the Saturn so prematurely, games were still on sale for $49.99 in stores.

About the programming. I have NEVER seen all developers universally agreeing on 1 language being the easiest. I just don't believe all 100% of the developers feel the Xbox SDK was the preferred one.

The Console Information Ministers at SCE

[Cinematique]

Is it just me or do they have better spinsters than engineers over at Sony Computer Entertainment?

I'm sorry for the trollish opening, but the thing that really chafes my balls about the hype surrounding the Playstation3 can be boiled down to this:

The PS2 was purported to have "Hollywood-style" graphics capabilities.

Anyone remember the line about the PS2 being able to render Toy Story in real-time? I do - it was such a boldfaced lie. Dreamcast had better graphics than the second-gen Playstation. and it was older! Hell, Super Nintendo had better graphics than Sony's first offering... and again, it was older, too.