Playstation 3 Not A Video Game Machine

Gamespot has coverage of a pair of interviews with Ken Kutaragi in which he states that the PS3 isn't really a gaming console. Instead, it will be an all around device that will allow the owner to experience all sorts of different types of new entertainment. From the article: "The PS3 is the product we have been aiming for since the establishment of SCEI...We haven't been creating our [past] PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to [explore ways of] applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment. We equipped the original PlayStation with a 3D graphics chip, and we equipped the PS2 with the Emotion engine. The PS3 isn't designed to lean towards games. It's not a computer for children. In the sense that our goal has been [to create] a computer that's meant for entertainment, you could say that the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had existed as steps towards the PlayStation 3."

Comments

More like a media control machine

[etymxris]

They want entertainment to become prevalent on machines that the media companies have more control over than the users. This will eventually create a corporate utopia where every little thing is restricted and must be paid for to gain access to. Obviously, this corporate utopia will be a consumer dystopia. The average consumer won't even notice or care. They tend to drink whatever kool aid media companies serve them.

if it wasn't a game machine...

[Naikrovek]

they wouldn't call it a playstation.

well i guess you can play music and movies... uh nevermind.

I have an 'all in one magic box', it's my computer

[GoNINzo]

I RTFA earlier today and I believe this is a huge mistake. I realize that all the media companies are converging on a single device that will fit into a home entertainment capacity, but the successful part of consoles is that they are focused on one task: games. Look how well other fusion devices have done such as the N-Gage.

The more you focus on trying to be everything to everyone, the more you start to fail everyone in everything. Focus on your core, the stuff you're good at, and you will have those interested in that core beating a path to your door.

Also, the codec comment is a little disturbing. Codecs do matter. If you have unlimited processing power, you still cannot convert a privately held codec due to the DMCA. Also, converting things to the PSP format is what it seems to imply, but I think that's a very small feature in the big picture.

The "emotion" engine. Riiight.

[2Flower]

Just like how the "emotion" engine was supposed to allow PS2 games to exhibit emotions in some vague and poorly explained way. Sony was trying to push early PS2 games to develop AI that would react emotionally to things (like drivers getting aggressive, and so on) to emphasize this point. In the end it was just marketing hype -- it's a game console, okay? Deal with it.

The closest you can get to claiming the PS2 had functions other than games was the DVD playback; and a lot of folks DID buy them for just that purpose, but it still primarily was a game console.

Throw in a Tivo-like system and an out of the box way of delivering eyetoy video emails and an integrated online network with consistent user logins and THEN you can start calling it an Entertainment Computer or whatever you decided on this week.

Translation:

[rmarll]

Observing the fallout from E3, Sony counters the XBox 360 and it's media centric marketing with a "me too" and some "vision" cooked up in meetings earlier this week.

I'm not complaining, an XBox Live equivalent would be nice and some media functions are alright. If it play's HD DVD that's just dandy. Much of what they've talked about over the last few weeks however is just a bit of software the PS1 was more than capable of (minus hddvd) from a processing power standpoint.

As for the interview... They can posture, reposition, and justify all they want. Working all the talking points and feature equivalents 'till they're blue in the face. But it still, sounds like something they made up in a meeting yesterday rather than something I'd really want to do. I deffinately don't believe that the PS1 and PS2 were stepping stones to "aging" video online into HD as if that were possible.

Maybe they will do something interesting, but nobody is going to care if there aren't any games worth playing at launch.

Re: Remember all the hype... Emotion Engine?

[prockcore]

So I've been looking for any of the hype- Penny Arcade mentioned a tech demo video that was shown and complained that they certainly never saw anything like that coming out of their playstations. I have not been able to find that video

It was the Ballroom scene from FF8. They showed it rendered "in real time".

I can't find the video.. it was never released online, only shown at E3.

Here are some photos someone took of that scene though:

one
two
three

Positioning it to avoid tax?

[barkholt]

Anyone remember how Sony was eager to push the PS2 as being a computer in Europe, to get some kind of tax advange? They even went so far as to bundle a BASIC interprenter (YABASIC) to let it be programmed by anyone. Maybe they are just getting ready to pull the same stunt again.

And I would love them to include a small language again, preferably Python with SDL bindings - thank you :)

In other words...

[andrewski]

In other words, it's going to be much more expensive. Not an impulse buy for Mom at Wal-Mart.

Just as with the PS and PS2, I'm sure that eventually there will be a lower cost variant. But are there going to be enough first rate games to lure fans away from their PS2 and towards a $400+ system with extra controllers and at least one or two games, as a system is traditionally purchased?

They aren't bullshitting you, it's just the Japanese way of beating around the bush and giving you bad news in an indirect fashion.

Sony has a point.

[MrCopilot]

Does any one here think we would be talking backwards compatability, DVD, HD on all consoles if Sony hadn't said it all first? Its like all of us have amnesia & can't remember what games & controllers were like before the PSX.
No offense intended, I love my cube but no way it would be even close to its current state without SONY, let alone its new sibling. Microsoft clearly has infuence inasmuch as Sony did then.

Its a little strange to hear this from a community who spends a considerable amount of thier life & resources to use devices intended to play games for other purposes, or more often devices whose purpose has nothing to do with games playing othello. I applaud them for touting its multientertaining(TM) features. Saves us some of the effort.

Yeah DRM is evil at least its not as droconian a WarnerBrothers box (TWC) and a Microsoft box (XBOX) and a SONY box (PS3), hey, wait a minute

Those multinational conglomerate bastards!
I miss my SEGA and ATARI boxes!
I was trying to say at least the PS3 will show a Disney movie. But I probably shouldn't say it too loud.

Re:3DO...?

[fwitness]

No, the 3DO was an innovative concept in a world that had only two people, Sega and Nintendo. 3DO licensed the *hardware* out to companies to make their own (3DO Branded) machines. Which is why we had different 3DO machines (Goldstar/Panasonic, and my favorite, the 3DO Blaster PC-Card).

Yeah, they had some nifty (for the time) multimedia features (I still think my Panasonic's FZ-1 trancified audio visualization was one of the best ever), but this whole 'media convergence' idea wasn't an egg hatched by them.

Trip Hawkins, I salute you for your incredibly spectacular failed attempt at making your own market.