New PS3 and Revolution Info at GDC

GameDailyBiz has a talk with Jamil Molena, the Director of the Game Developer's conference, about the upcoming event. Some interesting stuff about what to expect out of the event, as well as some happy news about the Sony and Nintendo keynotes. From the article: "BIZ: What can you tell us about Phil Harrison's keynote? Will we finally get some new information on the PlayStation 3? JM: The answer is yes. In general, platform providers have a unique opportunity at the GDC to share knowledge with and inspire the people who will make or break their consoles, namely the game developers themselves. With that in mind, this GDC keynote, along with the Nintendo keynote by Satoru Iwata, have both been in development for several months, and contain significant editorial value and developer takeaway."

Comments

The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like we find out on March 20 what the next generation is going to look like...

Re:The race begins

[assassinator42]

The PS3's price is probably the most critical factor as to if it succeeds. Hardly anyone will buy a $700 console. I'm wondering just how much of a loss Sony is willing to take. Of course, Nintendo's Revolution will probably be $200 and still make them a profit. I like a powerful system, but I'm not rich, so the Revolution w ill probably be the first next-gen system I buy.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony has essentially come right out and stated that the PS3 won't be more than 400 dollars. They said the PS3's price would be similar to their previous products.

I think people have gone a little overboard on the 200 Revolution. I don't think Nintendo will be able to go that low. Other than greater than 480p support, the Revolution is going to be comperable in system power to the 360 in real world situations. The CPU in the Rev is going to be close to a dual 970 in performance, which is about what the 360 CPU is doing in real world games even though it has higher theoretical numbers. And the Revolution is going to have an ATI graphics system that is a full year more advanced than the ATI card in the 360.

Re:The race begins

[zerocool^]

FOR THE ELEVENTY BILLIONTH TIME, THE PS3 WILL NOT, NOT, NOT, NEVER COST $700 OR $900 OR $1000 MSRP.

That article about the ps3 costing $935 (or whatever) to build is flawed in so many ways. Sony owns the specs to Blu-Ray, and won't have to pay royalties. The price checks were done a year and a half before the anticipated US launch date. The price was for ONE machine, not HALF A MILLION machines; ever heard of economics of scale? Sony OWNS THEIR OWN FAB PLANTS, and will manufacture their own motherboards and ram, at a minimum, and they may manufacture the Cell processor (and simply pay royalties and consulting fees to IBM in exchange for BPOs). These parts are all "next generation", and will come down in price rapidly. Sony can sell it for whatever they want, even if MSRP is less than build cost, as it will be made up in long-run manufacturing costs and licenses for software titles.

Ugh.

Shut Up. The PS3 will at absolute most cost $499. And it will probably be more like $449 or $399. Write it down.

Sony is NOT stupid. For one, they can take a HUGE hit on each console sold if they need to in order to get it into people's hands. For two, they probably won't have to sell it below price if they do their own fabbing - certainly not for very long. I can't believe when everyone's saying "No one will buy it if it's $700", and then thinking sony doesn't know that. Jesus.

Mod parent down.

~Will

Um

[Winterblink]

JM: The answer is yes

Actually, the correct answer is "I have no idea", because chances are excellent that's entirely correct. I'll wait until an official Sony person says yes.

Oh, Puhleeeze!

[Pearson]

In general, platform providers have a unique opportunity at the GDC to share knowledge with and inspire the people who will make or break their consoles, namely the game developers themselves.

If these developers are interested in either of these consoles, then they already have dev kits and official support from the "platform provider". These consoles are coming out this year; it's not as though someone is going to be in one of those presentations and suddenly decide to make a launch title.

The only significant thing about these keynotes is that the information in them won't be under an NDA. The rest is PR BS.