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

[Anonymous Coward]

like the xbox360 only 8 months later and 100 dollars cheaper / 200 dollars more expensive

Re:The race begins

[taskforce]

You misspelled "speculation."

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

This is going to be the first time in a long time that there are just two consoles competing for top spot in a generation.

Not only that, but this is going to be the first console generation where the two consoles are competing on almost entirely different ground technologically and the library of games.

I think we are going to see massive numbers of people owning both PS3s and Revolutions.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

except they'll actually have games and not fps garbage.

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

[arodland]

Hey, with any luck what happened to Sega in 1999 will happen to Microsoft. While everyone was out building 3rd-generation systems, Sega went and released a 2.5th-generation system which was eclipsed by Sony's release. When it happened to Sega it was bad, but if it happens to MS I don't mind. XBox just isn't that good, and the last thing we need is another sector for MS to crush competition in.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

The 360 is effectively a dead platform.

There are huge numbers of people reporting stacks of unsold 360s at stores in all three major territories. Microsoft did a pretty good job at getting people to believe console fans were in a desperate search for 360s, but now there are so many unsold 360s out there MS seems to have backed off to avoid looking foolish.

Microsoft is going to have a 'relaunch' of the system in April complete with pre-orders and new marketing. So they obviously see the situation as dire for the console. I can't see a relaunch as doing anything to save the console.

One has to wonder how long Microsoft will be willing to sustain a loss generating platform that caters to such a small demographic.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Please point me to the store in North America where xbox 360's are sitting in stacks rather than having a sign in the window that says "Now taking preorders for 4/02 shipment of xbox 360s"

Re:The race begins

[MBGMorden]

Dreamcast was a 3rd gen system (or rather 4th gen. NES/SMS I'd consider 1st, SNES/Genesis/TG16 2nd, PSX/Saturn/N64 3rd); it might have been the weakest of the lot, but it's performance was clearly in the same category (I've got both, as well as GC and Xbox, and hold no loyalty to a particular system). It's only major limitation were the 1gb disks, which made developers limit game content a bit more than one would like. Still, there were a number of great titles for the system (Sould Calibur, Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia), and in the same respect Nintendo has did good with it's 1.5gb Gamecube discs.

I'd say that the main reason Dreamcast failed was illegal copying. For better or for worse, you could/can literally download an image of a Dreamcast game, burn it to a regular CDR, and pop it right in and play. In the age of broadband, a lot of people were downloading those games. No protection is fool proof, but if you at least make the user crack out a soldering iron you mitigate the risk a lot.

Re:The race begins

[The-Bavis]

Please provide us with your source of Industry Omnipotence Fairy Dust.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

"One has to wonder how long Microsoft will be willing to sustain a loss generating platform that caters to such a small demographic."

The Xbox project is massively unpopular at Microsoft and with stockholders. I was shocked to see some of the comments from employees on the minimicrosoft discussion board recently. And shareholders have been screaming over the massive red ink with little to nothing to show for it.

I have to imagine Microsoft really doesn't know what to do with the Xbox project. It would be embarrassing to have to cancel the product. But with the 360 doing worse in both hardware and software sales than the first Xbox they have to be having some painful reality check meetings up there in Redmond.

I'm sure they can see like everyone else the excitement the PS3 and Revolution are generating compared to their own system.

Re:The race begins

[arodland]

I'd say that the main reason Dreamcast failed was illegal copying. For better or for worse, you could/can literally download an image of a Dreamcast game, burn it to a regular CDR, and pop it right in and play. In the age of broadband, a lot of people were downloading those games.

On the other hand, the same exact flaw is the only reason the DreamCast is still (somewhat) alive today. Hooray for homebrew!

Re:The race begins

[The-Bavis]

Should read "Omniscient". Sorry. Taking too much of my Bad Vocabulary Fairy Dust.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

The Dreamcast was dead long before it ever hit retail.

I still remember the company meeting, one of the 5th or so largest console publishers back then, I was at some six to ten months before the Dreamcast was due to be released where someone asked about the console and the CEO flat out stated the console wasn't worth putting any effort into.

He was right.

Re:The race begins

[David Munch]

Personally I think the Revolution is gonna get sooo much more media attention than the PS3.
Think about it, the only thing people really wants to know about the PS3 is the price and release date at this point, nothing else.

The Revolution on the other hand is another whole matter: Price, release date, launch-games, when/what/price of older NES/SNES/GC/N64 games, what other features theres gonna be including the 'mystery-feature'.

On top of that, most are looking forward to how the new controller is gonna revolutionise gaming as we see it; Mario and Zelda is entering whole new era's IMO. And every other game that has a potent developer for that matter..

Nintendo really nailed their console this time - But oh boy, they needed it for once.

Re:The race begins

[xero314]

I'd like to add my little bit of speculation to this, since that seems like what we are doing. First the revolution is hardly Next Generation, but this should not be taken as a bad thing. The revolution is side stepping the whole generation and trying to go for something new. Sadly this puts them in the same position as the Sega CD was a few years back. It will be a cute novelty item, but not something used by the average consumer and will evetually lead to the down fall of nintendo in the home console market. The best part about that is that they will learn from their mistakes and return to focusing on quality handheld gaming and actually produce a power replacement in the GameBoy line, possibly even having a more powerfull machine than their competition for the first time since the release of the original gameboy.

Microsoft of the other hand will still churn our Xbox after Xbox dispite the horrible sales they will see in this and future generation.

Someone will eventually come in a usurp Sony dominance in the console market, but I can't see who that will be yet, since none of the current makers seem to have the momentum to do so.

Oh, and people should stop fooling themselves into beleiving that the market can't support a $700+ game console. That is not high compared to the relative cost of previous consoles.

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

Re:The race begins

[Jace of Fuse!]

including the 'mystery-feature'

Imagine if that huge fire button were touch sensitive like a virtual track ball... ...hmm...

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

Who modded this down Flamebait and why? Because it criticizes Microsoft? As far as I know, saying you don't like a company doesn't exatly constitute Flamebait.

If this comment would have said the exact same thing, but about Sony (sorry, I mean $ony), it would have been modded +5 Insightful.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

"Because it criticizes Microsoft? "

Anything that brings up the incredible similarities between Sega/Dreamcast and Microsoft/360 is a lightning rod to the local Microsoft marketing astroturfers.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you serious? The so called "Next Generation" isn't always about being bigger and badder than the previous generation. While Microsoft and Sony follow those business models, that does not mean it is the only model to follow, nor the best. You have seriously underestimated the innovative platform Nintendo decided to use instead of the bigger/better platform the others are. Take a look at Spore, Will Wright's next generation game. The game has received a lot of talk because it is innovative, not because of its graphics. Games that begin and end is not where Nintendo wants to go. Nintendo has been venturing in the direction Spore seems to be leading. Nintendo made a wise choice in this.

$700 is not high compared to the $200 Gamecube offered and celebrated. Yeah. Ok. I could buy 2.5 last generation systems for the price talked about for Playstation 3. (at their original sell price, even more with their current prices)

I personally see Sony doing the worst in this generation. X-Box 360 offers very good graphics at a much better price than the Playstation 3 and Nintendo offers something neither system can offer.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

>I personally see Sony doing the worst in this generation. X-Box 360 offers very good graphics at a much better price than the Playstation 3 and Nintendo offers something neither system can offer.

Give it a rest idiot.

Re:The race begins

[Doomstalk]

Which risks souring all of their Blu-Ray liscencees on hardware manufacturing. If you sell the PS3 at too far below cost, you're not only taking a risk of not making back your investment, but of undercutting the rest of the hardware on the market to death. They've got to keep the price at lest moderately high, or they're going to tank Blu-Ray as an open format. Furthermore, Ken Kutaragi has been pretty firm that the PS3 will be expensive- something to the extent of needing to work overtime to afford it. That doesn't sound like $500 to me, much less $450. It's possible that he's trying to depress expectations so that the final price is more palatable, but that doesn't seem likely to me- you just don't say something like that unless you're in damage control mode. I've no doubt that Sony will sell it for less than the report claims- they said that was their estimated manufacturing price, after all, not retail. But as to how much lower? Now as low as you predict.

Re:The race begins

[kubrick]

NES/SMS I'd consider 1st

What about Atari 2600/Intellivision etc. Zeroth?

Re:The race begins

[Doomstalk]

Oh, and Sony hasn't manufactured their own RAM for any other systems, so why would they start now?

Re:The race begins

[justchris]

I don't expect Sony to sell the PS3 for more than $500, but I don't see how they can manage less than $500 now. They own the BluRay standard, yes, but for HD movie playback with BluRay, they have to meet AACS standards set by the members of the MPAA. Currently the only chip compatible with those standards is an Intel chip which Sony has no stake in, does not currently own the rights to manufacture themselves, and therefore will have to buy outright from Intel. That alone is going to add another $100-$150 to the manufacturing price of the system, even in bulk. Unless Sony can acquire the rights to manufacture those chips themselves (unlikely) that price will not drop significantly (the reason Microsoft lost so much money on the Xbox, they only put the system together, all the parts were manufactured by other companies and bought outright).

Re:The race begins

[master_p]

I can afford a PS3, but if it is priced at $700, then I will wait for the Revolution instead. Not because it is cheaper and I will buy lots of games with the price difference of $500, but also for the control method, which seems to open a new door in entertainment.

Re:The race begins

[Anonymous Coward]

> The revolution is side stepping the whole generation and trying to go for something new.

How exactly is "sidestepping where everyone is known to be headed" not going towards a next generation?

> Sadly this puts them in the same position as the Sega CD was a few years back. It will be a cute novelty item, but not something used by the average consumer

And now EVERY console uses CD's. The Sega CD WAS next generation when it came out.

DS Lite

[DeltaStorm]

While I'd like more information on the Revolution, right now I'm just waiting to find out when the DS Lite will be available in the US.

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.

Re:Um

[Castar]

Given that the official title of the Phil Harrison keynote is "PlayStation3: Beyond The Box", I'd have to assume that we will learn *something* new about the PS3. It may not be much, but you can't schedule a major keynote at GDC and expect to get away with no new info. That's really the only purpose of these keynotes - if they had nothing to say, they wouldn't give a keynote.

Re:Um

[Anonymous Coward]

Well here's the official topic summary of Harrison's speech from the GDC website, which must have been provided to them by Sony:

Phil Harrison
President, Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment
"PlayStation 3: Beyond the Box "
Wednesday, March 22
10:30 - 11:30am

Focusing on the new creative, technical, and business opportunities provided by the arrival of PlayStation 3, the keynote will share Sony Computer Entertainment's innovative plans for the format and will provide a look at how new technology and new business models will help fuel the growth of the computer entertainment industry by attracting new consumers.

SCE is recognized as the global leader of the video game business with over 200 million hardware units and billions of software units sold across the three PlayStation formats. The recent global success of PlayStation Portable has shown the company's commitment to continued innovation--developing the market beyond the traditional definitions of the game consumer.

This keynote will look at the tremendous opportunities presented to game developers worldwide as the industry goes "beyond the box."

I mean... that seems like a pretty big hint as to what he's going to talk about.

Re:Um

[G-funk]

Of course there'll be some PS3 Info, and it'll be something Sony can spin as "Huge" because they'll want to steal Nintendo's thunder, that's how Sony operate.

Re:Um

[Anonymous Coward]

"that's how Sony operate."

It's also true that Sony execs kick puppies.

Nice to see there are people like you out there that can see through 'teh Sony Hype(tm)'

Keep up the good work!

Re:Um

[Lisandro]

Glad to see some common sense arround here. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony announces the PS3 can cure cancer.

Re:Um

[Anonymous Coward]

Read up on the behaviour and vapourware promises of Sony during the dreamcast ps2 gap.

Of course that's what he said

[Anonymous Coward]

What else is Mr. GDC supposed to say? "You will learn absoluteley nothing by attending. In fact, you'll walk out dumber!"

Besides, it was obvious. E3, GDC, and obviously the Japanese conferences and trade shows always bring at least a few new details to light around product launch time, even if it's just new software announcements.

BTW, this Slashdot story is an announcement about an announcement about possible future announcements (which everyone was expecting anyway). I love it.

Re:Of course that's what he said

[Spy der Mann]

BTW, this Slashdot story is an announcement about an announcement about possible future announcements (which everyone was expecting anyway). I love it.

Thanks for announcing that :)

Re:Of course that's what he said

[fshalor]

At least it didn't make the front page like the last 6 "ps3 delayed" announcements....

er... sorry, the "1" ps3 delayed admission, and the "5" announcments of rumors that it may be delayed.

I really do want to know what chip the rev has... I couldn't wait any longer though and finally bought a game cube. Actually my very first ever new game console. I had a aged fleamarket bought NES for a while (got it when the SNES was old and the dreamcast had just came out.)

Re:Of course that's what he said

[GrumblyStuff]

In other words....

MORE AT 11!

The whole article

[skeeterific53]

The whole thing. Talkin' GDC with Jamil Moledina With the Game Developers Conference almost upon us, we spoke with GDC Director Jamil Moledina about what to look forward to at the event (including new PS3 info), preparing for GDC, the Choice Awards, and more. GameDaily BIZ: So this year's theme or catchphrase, if you will, is "What's Next." What exactly does that mean? What should attendees take away from GDC:06? Jamil Moledina: This refers to several elements. First is the obvious reference to next generation consoles, and that at its core, GDC covers from art to programming to production what you need to know to make next generation games. But beyond that, what's next refers to broadening the market, collaboration with film, and new ways of developing revenue and distribution, as well as distributed development. 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. I strongly encourage you to attend both platform keynotes. BIZ: Why do you think Microsoft isn't giving a keynote this year, or is it just that they haven't announced one yet? JM: Microsoft is not giving a keynote at GDC this year, but that makes sense since they've already had their huge debut with the Xbox 360 last fall. Keep in mind though, that GDC is more than just keynotes. Microsoft continues to play a leadership role at GDC, with a giant booth and equally large expo suite, and several Xbox 360 sessions, including postmortems of Project Gotham Racing 3, Ninety-Nine Nights, and the UI of the console itself. Plus, developers like EA and Ubisoft will be previewing certain Xbox 360 titles at the show. BIZ: This is now your second GDC as director. What lessons have you learned from last year and in what ways do you think you may have improved GDC:06 as a result? JM: The biggest lesson was time management. I started on GDC in August of 2004, for a show in March 2005. That was pure crunch. This show requires a 16-month production cycle, and I only had 7 months to gather the work done, and take it from there. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I hated to cut elements from the show. This time, I actually had some time, and the result is an extremely strong show. The obvious metric is what's new, and for that I'd point to our new art competition in conjunction with CG Society, the addition of a Modding Competition to the Independent Games Festival, and a new press preview for journalists. BIZ: What are your own personal guidelines for directing a successful GDC? JM: Great question! Officially, it's about bringing the GDC in on time and on budget. Personally, it's much more intangible; it's about hearing what developers are saying in the hallways, and how much value they get from the learning, inspiration, and networking of the GDC. BIZ: How do you feel about GDC being back in San Jose? Some people liked it in San Francisco last year, while others didn't like the change. JM: I love San Jose, there's a lot of history with the GDC there. We really take over the city, and the Fairmont Bar is practically an institution of the GDC. San Francisco was a great experiment for us, to see how the show would do in a larger city. As you may have noticed, the GDC is growing considerably, with over 12,000 attendees in SF. We are currently experiencing a hotel space shortage in San Jose, for GDC 06, and the convention center is maxed out. For those reasons, we're going back to San Francisco in 2007, with the dates of March 5-9 in Moscone West and North. Realistically though, you can't go wrong in the San Francisco Bay Area, considering how many developers are based here. BIZ: If you had

Two Keynote Speeches but he knows nothing

[WillAffleckUW]

Basically, what he was saying is that it's likely that both Sony and Nintendo will reveal information on the PS3 and NR at their two keynote speeches, but that he personally knew zip nada zilch about what they were going to say.

Or if they would even talk about the PS3 or the NR.

Basically, it's spin signifying "Here's a time when maybe, just maybe, they are likely to say something, and I want you to send tons of reporters just in case."

Revolution

[jshackles]

Everything about the revolution has been pretty tight-lipped, which is suprising since apparently the dev kits have already been shipped out for it.

I mean, we are expecting a release later this year (October?) and we as informed consumers know very little about it. The average joe six-pack probably doesn't even realize that it going to be on store shelves.

Nintendo has said there are more "secrets" to be revieled. I, for one, hope they will be revieled at the GDC this year.

Re:Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

The average Joe Sixpack doesn't know about the PS3 or the Revolution. He doesn't even know that the XBox 360 is available right now. Simply put, he doesn't give a rat's ass about gaming, so he doesn't follow it.

Gaming news is only followed by gamers, and they're the only ones going gaga over the next generation of consoles. To top it off, what's more likely: Seeing a link to an article on a default Yahoo portal page about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, or seeing one about the Revolution or the PS3? Joe Sixpack doesn't know what these are, but he's heard of two famous (if somewhat ungifted) actors.

Revo & DS

[paullyjunge]

I wonder how long it will take for Nintendo to announce the ability to play the classic games downloaded by the Revo to also be able to be played on the DS.... that would be a great announcement. I would cry for joy...

Re:Revo & DS

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how long it will take for Nintendo to announce the ability to play the classic games downloaded by the Revo to also be able to be played on the DS.... that would be a great announcement. I would cry for joy...

Well, you can play Nintendo's back catalogue for free (though it's illegal) using emulators on your PC, already. And you can get devices for your DS such as the SuperCard+Superpass and run emulators on that.

Re:Revo & DS

[steveo777]

I would weep as no man has wept before. I'd been really looking for a way to port SNES and NES to my DS when I had it.

Re:Revo & DS

[rohlfinator]

I think your idea is probably more likely than you think.

Instead of simply using the same screens as the GBA and GBASP, Nintendo upped the resolution slightly on the DS's screens, to 256x192 (from 240x160 on the GBA). The DS's screens use the same horizontal resolution as the NES and SNES, so emulation could be more accurate. The NES Classics series for the GBA had to scale the images down slightly to fit on the GBA's screen, but that would be mostly unnecessary for the DS.

Also, the DS's Download Play feature would work quite well for emulated classics. Only one downloaded title can be stored in RAM at a time, so Nintendo wouldn't have to worry about piracy.

Re:Revo & DS

[poot_rootbeer]

I wonder how long it will take for Nintendo to announce the ability to play the classic games downloaded by the Revo to also be able to be played on the DS.... that would be a great announcement.

And, to some extent, impractical.

The DS hardware is not powerful enough to emulate GameCube or N64, though ports of games for those systems to native DS programs can be done (vis Super Mario 64 DS et al).

The DS should be able to emulate most if not all NES and SNES titles, but the problem is that those consoles run at higher resolutions than one DS display can handle. There's several potential solutions to the problem (dropping scanlines, pan-and-scan, splitting the screen onto both of the DS's displays), but none are optimal.

Gameboy and Gameboy Color emulation are no problem; emulators exist for those platforms on the GBA already, and the DS can run GBA code natively.

So MAYBE Nintendo could devise a way to make earlier Gameboy games available on the DS, perhaps even get their multiplayer modes working via Nintendo WiFi. But I wouldn't ask for much more than that as far as classic gaming officially supported on the DS.

Re:Revo & DS

[paullyjunge]

The DS should be able to emulate most if not all NES and SNES titles

Yeah, that's what I had meant about classic games. I should have clarified. Super Mario World was ported to the GBA(Super Mario Advance 2), so I think playing all of the SNES/NES collection would not be a problem. (Portable Chrono Trigger anyone?)

Re:Revo & DS

[SmittyTheBold]

It'd be even better (for users) if you just put in "classic games" game card into the DS that had it's own client working through the Nintendo WFC to download games on-demand. Mmmmm, deciding to play ExciteBike while hanging out at the local Starbucks. Of course, Nintendo really likes tying their consoles together more than that, so it's doubtful they'd let the DS stand on its own in such a way.

Re:Revo & DS

[elrous0]

Look, for the 100th time,,who CARES that Starbuck is a woman? The series is so good that it makes me forget the original anyway. Besides Katee Sackoff is HOT.

Oh wait, what were we talking about again?

-Eric

Re:Revo & DS

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh wait, what were we talking about again?

I think your ADD...or your ability to be distracted by a shiny moth ball.

PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Kamalot]

Nobody cares about the PS3 any more. The PS3 is nothing more than a Bluray trojan horse, a way to get you to buy your movies all over again. Take a look at the PSP. Same thing; a directionless feature-bloated, slow-loading DRM nightmare.

Anyone who is really a gamer will be busy playing on their 360 or Nintendo DS, two machines created specifically for gaming.

Re:PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Dance_Dance_Karnov]

the 360? specifically to play games? maybe you know of a different 360 than I do.

Re:PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

how many forums are you going to post this exact same message to?

Re: PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh right, the XBox 360

Why would anyone want to buy a Playstation 3, with all its boring Blu-Ray movies like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4

when instead they could get an Xbox 360 and play great games like XBox Live Marketplace and Windows Media Center Extender

Re: PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

MGS4 is nothing but a tech demo and GTA4 is vaporware.

Re: PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait

Wait

So you are saying then that that the video game console which will not be out for three to nine months does not actually have completed games yet?

Heavens to betsy, my fragile naive little consumer mind is blown

Re: PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would anyone want to buy a Playstation 3, with all its boring Blu-Ray movies like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4

Whoa, I didn't realise you were being sarcastic until you mentioned GTA.

Face it, all the previous MGS "games" have basically been movies, and there's no reason to assume they'll spoil a popular formula by introducing gameplay at this late stage... :P

(By the way, I see both the titles you identify are not only sequels, but sequels of sequels of sequels. Any news on whether there'll be anything new for the PS3?)

Re: PS3 = A Sad Sad joke

[Anonymous Coward]

(By the way, I see both the titles you identify are not only sequels, but sequels of sequels of sequels. Any news on whether there'll be anything new for the PS3?)

Lair and Warhawk both look interesting, at least to me, and it looks like both of those titles may be launch or near-launch titles in the US. But, of course, humorously, since they aren't sequels, we don't know if they'll actually be any good and nobody really cares about them.

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.

Nothing to see here .. move along.

[AzraelKans]

Seriously, they are not going to say they are not revealing anything important about the most hyped and eagerly awaited consoles coming, however historically the GDC hasnt revealed info about new consoles, You have to realize the GDC is aimed at developers NOT general public and developers already now target release dates under NDA's so that info has absolutely no use to them.

You want to know more about those consoles? wait for the E3.

I'm...

[BkBen7]

...More interested in what Will Wright has to say.

No Microsoft keynote? Good riddance to their lies!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah the Microsoft keynote of the last year at GDC 2005 was pathetic, they touted Hi-Def Era and gave away samsung TVs bought by Bill G's pocket money. According to them all Xbox 360 games are in HD and with smooth 4xAA.

And now on the actual Xbox 360 what have you got?
Their flagship racer PGR3 couldn't achieve HD res, it's a sub-720p (600p) crap at 30fps. Antialias? Tell you what, in the other Microsoft Game Studio flagship game called Kameo, you have no AA!! What a load of jaggy crap. It's no wonder Xbox 360 as an inferior product sell less than purple GameCube in Japan.