PS3 Showing At Taipei Game Show
Gamespot reports that Sony will be devoting a quarter of its booth to the PS3 at next week's Taipei game show. The question is, will there be anything new? From the article: "It hasn't been disclosed whether Sony is planning something similar [to 2005's E3] with the Taipei Game Show, or if the console will finally appear in a playable form. Sony's appearance at 'the other TGS' comes just one month before Microsoft launches its Xbox 360 in Taiwan on March 16."
At the rate they're going, IBM's going to be shipping their Cell blade servers sooner than Sony ships the PS3, which is ironic in that the PS3 is what the chip was originally designed for...
On the other hand, if they're devoting 1/4 of their booth to this, it's probably going to be something bigger than "Look, here's a new trailer!". Given the size of booth that a giant worldwide conglomerate like Sony will have, 1/4 of it would be ridiculous overkill for just trailers.
"Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
"At a demonstration yesterday in New York, IBM showed off Cell's processing power with a geology application that would have been right at home in a video game. A computer rendering of Mount Rainier, created using satellite photos and geological maps, allowed an operator to make a simulated flight over and next to the mountain. London Free Press
With graphics rendering like that, there should be some wicked games (or interactive pr0n movies). Though I still like the feel of a keyboard and mouse. Maybe someone would be nice enough to make an interface for PC gamers like me? 0:)
Menya zovut Shnur
The Next Gen timeline looks like:
Feb: PS3 Taipei Show & PS3 developer only conf & retailer/publisher invite only shows up in SF
March/April: Another PS3 showing in Japan
May: E3 Big PS3 and Revolution - PS3 hits the shelves
August: Revolution hits the shelves
October: PS3 available in all regions
Where this leaves the 360 is unclear. It is being outsold in Japan by the GameCube and 5x by the PS2. And the manufacturing problems are said to have no end in sight for most of 2006. Add to the fact that 360s appear to be sitting on eBay unbid and unsold in large quantities and people are reporting 360s sitting unsold all over the US in major retailers.
Japan: 50/50 split between Rev and PS3 - 360 essentially 0 share
US: 35/60/5 split between Rev, PS3, and 360
Europe: 20/70/5 split between Rev, PS3, and 360
Huge numbers of people are going to own both a PS3 and Rev if Nintendo can really get the price down in the 200-250 dollar range.
In other news, the forecast for this evening is: dark, with intermittent light toward morning. Details forthcoming.
I can't imagine that Sony will want to unveil playable demos of the PS3 at the Taipei Game Show. When most gamers see TGS, they think about the Tokyo Game Show. I would imagine that Sony is better off saving any big news and demos for a larger audience, such as the upcoming GDC or even E3.
-- jchenx
...that all the best presentations are given by Taipei personalities.
No, I'm not sorry.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
This would be the most interesting event ever. What if Sony will publish final PS3 and starts selling it? Is there any more suitable time for that?
-Seeing the problem is ½ of solution-
did people really expect Sony to go to a trade show and, what, not mention the PS3 at all?
The Register doesn't.
It's tempting to hope next week will see the first reports from gamers who've got their hands on the highly anticipated console, but we suspect Sony will hold back until next May's E3. Taiwan is unlikely to be a focus market for the PS3's launch, not like the US, Europe and Japan. Even Microsoft's Xbox 360 has yet to launch there - it's currently scheduled for a March 16 debut after the software giant was forced to delay the console's release because of "supply constraints".
Perhaps they will demo Killzone 2, allowing people to move the camera around. Or perhaps they'll admit it was a fake...