Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 3 Not So Much Delayed?
Chris Morris, on the CNN Game Over column, points out that even if Merrill Lynch's suggestion that the delayed initial launch of the PS3 is true, that's unlikely to affect the U.S. launch of the console. From the article: "Logic sometimes isn't enough, though. To get additional perspective on the situation, I spoke with several of Sony's partners (who are in regular contact with the company) and competitors (who keep a close eye on the PS3's launch window) about the report. No one was willing to talk on the record for fear of reprisal, but the consensus was nearly universal. The promised spring launch (which was expected in Japan, but not North America) will likely be pushed back, they said. The North American launch, which was always expected to occur later this year (November is the consensus), is not expected to change. Europe may well not see the PS3 until next year." The price tag reported, though, is still probably accurate. C|Net has a breakdown of the PlayStation 3's components.
The price tag reported, though, is still probably accurate.
Oh, please. The article itself says why it's not accurate. It lists the memory price as the same for the 360, and the PS3, and then goes on to describe how the PS3 is the first to use the new, expensive XDR memory, while the 360 uses GDDR3 which was designed speciffically to be cheaper than DDR2.
Not only that, but they have component prices listed as if they were being sold with a profit margin. You can bet Sony isn't going to markup chips it sells to itself, and for third party chips, you can bet they're paying a lot less. Even the launch quantities of these boxes far surpass what normally qualifies as economies of scale.
I'd say they have the costs far too high for both machines in that article. Both machines will have sub-$100 manufacturing costs on the CPU very early on in the production life, for example. Also, the BD-ROM drive is probably going to end up being more like $70. The DVD drive in the 360 is even cheaper than the $20 quoted, etc...
The PS3 will be expensive... More expensive to build than the 360, but neither machine is as expensive as this over-rated Merryl-Lynch report that's been being passed around.
As the proud owner of a PS2, Xbox and XBox 360 I can say, atleast IMHO you games are better on the 360 already. I say that subjectively as I prefer certain types of games that you may not, especially racing games. As a result two games im playing to death right now are Project Gotham Racing 3 and Need for Speed Most Wanted.
In every measurably regard, NFS:MW on the 360 is better then the XBox or PS2 versions.
With PGR3, graphically and controlwise, it is a much superior game to PGR2. They made some design decisions some people dont like ( car acquisition ) but excluding that, it is a much better game.
Lastly, CoD2 imho, is a better FPS then anything released for either platform, including Halo. Only beef here is online, which is rumoured to be fixed.
So, early on, I can already give you 3 examples of games that are much improved over the current generation, atleast, in my opinion.
Dont get me wrong, some arent going to compare as well ( Gun and 2k sport games come to mind ), but you will see that with every platform launch.
Who cares how long it is delayed, or how early it comes out. No one should be buying Sony crap anyways after the DRM scandals. Besides, the new generation of gaming consoles are just going to be reasons for software companies to milk every penny they can by making remakes of old games in higher resolution, maybe adding crappy online play. Bottom line, DON'T BUY SONY!!!
Cheesy Movie Night
Sony actually payed for a part of IBM's fab in fishkill, NY... So it's not a relationship like IBM had with apple where apple basically just ordered processors.
So if Sony is basically the "manufacturer" of the Cell processor and the manufacturer of the BluRay drive, the cost to them is way off. They don't have to pay someone else's marketing, sales and profit on these products, only the core cost of actually building the parts.
This is like a short term gasoline shortage we had about a decade ago. Almost all the the companies that sold gas got squeezed because they had to pay high prices to their suppliers yet keep prices as low as possible to the consumer. However, one of the big gasoline sellers happend to also be a big oil company that drilled and refined it's own product. They cleaned up. They were able to undercut the competition by several cents, yet make boatloads of money because their "supplier" "charged" them basically the exact same rate through the whole shortage. It's like they say in the comercial, "we cut out the middleman and pass the savings on to you!" The gas pumb was the middleman and the supplier cut it out by selling gas itself.
Will Sony be able to pull it off? Will Sony be able to be both component supplier and console manufacture and therefore be able to offer superior equipment for a price that undercuts the competition? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
TW