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Sony Denies PS3 Delay
Eurogamer reports that Sony is flatly denying the delay of the PlayStation 3. From the article: "Sakaguchi was responding to allegations made by Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha in a report published late last week, in which Osha claimed that the PS3 could launch in autumn in Japan, with a US launch possibly being delayed to early 2007. 'There is no change in our original plan to release the console in spring 2006," Sakaguchi told the press in Tokyo, referring to the company's only stated goal for the launch so far - namely that the console will appear in at least one territory, most likely Japan, this spring.' They have lots of opportunities at GDC and E3 to change the public perception that their next console is still very much a work in progress.
If it means having a better system with fewer bugs and more launch titles, I can't see how a delay would be bad from an end-user perspective. I realize that any delay will harm them as a corporation, and possibly drive up the system price, but these are relatively minor concerns. Then again, most manufacturers already sell the system itself at a loss.
The only thing Sony really needs to worry about time-wise is beating the Revolution out of the gates. Given that details on the Nintendo system are still sketchy at best, this probably isn't a concern either.
Numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 will all be taken care of at E3 in May. The rest can easily be done in the month span after E3 and launch.
"Any of this happening yet?"
Of course not. Sony has said 2 things recently in press released:
1) They will launch in Japan first and
2) They will not sell the console "at a loss."
This will push back a US release date till at LEAST late 3rd quarter, and push the release price most likely at about double the price of a $300 Xbox360.
Sony *needs* to pony up and strip out the Blu-Ray drive. They are trying to push their own media technology and its costing the average gamer hundreds of dollars. A 10gig dual layer DVD is enough for any game in this generation since Sony is not doing 1080p.
In the end the PS3 will be marginally better than the XBox360, and is that worth being a year later?
Here are the games I missed out because I didn't get the Xbox:
Halo, Ninja Gaiden, various PC ports
Here are the games that I would have missed out on if I got the Xbox instead:
Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Devil May Cry, God of War, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur 3, Shadow of the Colossus, etc, etc.
I get my FPS fix on the PC with keyboard and mouse, so really, the question comes down to: Is Ninja Gaiden really worth all the other games that I don't get on the Xbox? ~50% of the console market didn't think it was worth it, while ~25% -- likely people without a PC -- thought it was.
Of course they're denying the delay. Sony, if you'll remember, lies. They'll do anything to blunt momentum of the 360. If they keep people thinking that the PS3 is just around the corner, they'll hold out just a little longer. And as long as they don't release specs, people can fantasize.
They are NOT shipping in Spring. No way. Not happening. Blu-Ray isn't even finished yet. There's no specs, no launch titles, nothing but empty shells and promises. They need time to work out their manufacturing process and build up stock for the retailers, and you can't exactly go into full-scale production when you don't even have finalized hardware.
They could take a page from the NVidia and ATI playbooks and paper-launch it, I suppose, but that would be the worst of all possible outcomes.... people will finally be able to make an intelligent choice whether the 360 or the PS3 is better, and by then, the 360 is likely to actually be available.
If Microsoft can execute and get some really good, next-gen games out, they could build up some momentum. The games that are out now are, to my perception, competent but not very exciting. They have good graphics, but there's not much new, gameplay-wise. Kameo has some good moments, but it's too short, and Perfect Dark feels very unpolished and unfinished. Project Gotham Racing is probably the best game so far, and it's just not that much different from the old games... the graphics are great, sure, but that's about all there is to it. (I've heard CoD2 is very good on the 360, but I already have it on the PC and it seemed dumb to buy it again.)
The Fight Night demo looks promising, I love how there's no on-screen gauges, just two fighters in a ring. And Oblivion may be truly next-gen content... we'll have to see.
So far, the best game I've played on the 360 is the $5 Geometry Wars. A $400 console to play a $5 game... and it's the best game on the system. Nintendo may be on to something.....
Oh, and to the AC who called me a 'good liddle fanboy' for saying that Sony wouldn't ship in Spring the last time we had this conversation.... here's a big middle finger just for you.
However that was the same analyst's estimate that was predicting their ship date was going to slip. If Sony felt it was necessary to deny one aspect of that report why didn't they say anything about the other? Maybe they just feel that the ship date is the foremost issue in consumers' minds, but it makes you wonder.
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If Sony releases the PS3 for less than $500 and it includes fully functioning Blu-Ray movie playback, wouldn't that really piss off their hardware partners?
If the PS3 is a "fully functioning BluRay player" in the same way that the PS2 was a fully functioning DVD player, there won't be an issue. Also, if Blu-Ray starts to catch on, the prices won't stay in the $1000+ range for more than a few weeks before a price war kicks in. $99 DVD players were available before the PS2 launch even with all the talk about how the PS2 was going to undercut DVD player prices. Analysts, the ones you don't have to pay to get opinions from anyway, are usually full of shit.