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PlayStation 3 Delay Official
An anonymous reader writes "It's official! PS3 has been delayed until November in Japan. Apparently, it's because of copy protection technology issues associated with Blu-ray." From the article: "Today, Sony officially conceded defeat to the recent flurry of rumors and speculation, with Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reporting the machine has been pushed back until November. There aren't many details out right now, but Sony says issues over the finalization of copy protection technology related to their Blu-ray disc drive is the cause of the delay. As the news is coming out of Japan, that creates a worrisome scenario for America and Europe."
If it's November for Japan, and they don't do the same launch date worldwide, could the Revolution be out before it? Isn't it supposed to be a worldwide release around that time?
Maybe somebody with a better memory could put out some dates they've seen.
I was sooo looking forward to getting copy protection sooner than that.
[Insert pithy quote here]
I hope they pay the price for their copy protection scheme. They're most likely going to miss Christmas in the US where presumably Nintendo will have a new console and Microsoft will have a fully stocked lineup of 360s ready to roll.
After all, isn't never launching the console really the best copy protection of all? This ultimate protection of Sony copyright will certainly be a gold mine!
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
How could anyone have predicted this turn of events!?
Rob
I'll be honest, I'm not one for bandwagons, but I'm starting to get genuinely scared enough by all this SONY/DRM talk. If the delays are truly because they can't figure out a way to keep their media from becoming copied, or somesuch, then we're really in trouble. I was going to wait for a price war for getting either an 360 or PS3, and now the answer is clear. While 360 has its share of problems, to be sure, I'm definitely not waiting around for a DRM/copy-protection scheme that is half-baked, so Sony can make their delayed launch date, including all sorts of potential privacy problems.
I used to consider all y'all who said SONY="privacy killa" luddites and conspiracy theorists... now I'm not so sure. PS3 just moved from "definitely an option" to "needs a killer-app to even consider".
When the ps2 launched in November there was a shittun of info and games shown to the public (not random tech videos) in March of that year. The ps3 has almost nadda, i have gut feeling sony is just putting the blame on the blu-ray but i have a gut feeling they're having trouble in more places then one.
Hmmm... Pie...
Microsoft must be clapping with glee over the delay of the PS3. I don't think it will make much difference though unless they get their shit together and start actually making enough 360s. It's my opinion the shortage situation has really hurt sales of the 360. There was a while there where it seemed supply had picked up as my local Best Buy looked to be getting a few a week. After humming and hawing I decided to get one and I've been trying to find one for about two weeks now. I've just given up for the time being. Maybe it's better to wait as Microsoft is sure to drop the price eventually, perhaps when the PS3 is actually released.
The only real upshot to this is that all PS3 games will essentially get a few more months of dev time to polish their titles, which may result in an unusually strong launch lineup.
The downsides to this are numerous, though. Many people may discount Nintendo, but even with their declined marketshare, Nintendo is not the sort of company you want to give a chance to play catchup in any sort of way. This will also give Microsoft a bit more rope. Whether Microsoft uses that extra rope to hang its self or to help build some momentem for the 360 is another question entirely.
Another problem is that the PS2 is already in decline, due to hype over the next generation of consoles. I am damn sure that while Sony would love to wring every last penny from that cash cow, that they dont want to let their best available retail offering to be the underdog against the 360 or Revolution for very long.
Between a handfull of articles about a bunch of weak 'me too' potential features for the PS3, and the way that Nintendo is steadily edging out the PSP due to the PSP not having any high profile killer apps, Sony is looking alot weaker right now then I would have expected. And if history has proven anything in the game industry, even giants can fall.
END COMMUNICATION
A lot of people are jumping to conclusions, but what's to say they're not delaying to make the copy protection scheme less intrusive and more practical for end users?
Careful there. Some of the titles on the compatibility list are basically unplayable.
Case in point: Sega GT 2002. The game runs at less than half-speed. And that's not just framerate, the game clock runs at less than half-speed, and everything responds slowly too.
Of my Xbox games that are "compatible" with X360 (about 1/4 of them, slightly less than the official list percentage), a fair number of those run unacceptably slow.
"Sony Computer Entertainment will delay the release of its PlayStation 3 next-generation video game console until early November because the copy-protection technology for the Blu-ray Disc has not been finalized," reported the paper. No specific regions were mentioned, making it unclear if the delay was for the Japanese PS3 or a worldwide release.
While authoritative in tone, it must be emphasized that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun report is in no way official. Though Sony's last-minute decision to change tomorrow's event from a closed-door presentation to a full-fledged press conference augurs a major announcement, Sony is staying mum. When contacted by GameSpot, a Sony Computer Entertainment America rep declined comment, saying "we have not made any new announcements on PlayStation 3."
Report: PS3 delayed until November
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
From the rumors that have been floating around, they're trying to make it All Things to All People, which is the surest way to please few of them.
I've been saying here since early January that we wouldn't see the PS3 officially launched in the States until March of 2007 at the earliest. (and to the AC who called me a 'good liddle fanboy', thpppt!)
It's now March of 2006. They do not yet have, to my knowledge, working hardware for the video game end of things. They don't have working Blu-Ray drives, and in fact the specs there are changing. (latest news: no degradation on analog HDTV sets, which is good.) They don't seem to have decided on a final feature set. I think a November launch might still be possible, but it's gonna take a lot of overtime by a LOT of people. And they'll have to decide on their final feature set _right now_ and push like hell to make it happen.
Sony seems to be in defensive mode, beset by rivals. It doesn't feel like they have a unified vision of what the PS3 should be. Rather, at least if you can believe the zeitgeist of the rumor sites, they seem to be in defensive mode, where they claim they'll do everything that all the other consoles do, better. That's not gonna happen. They don't have the time or the manpower to make it happen. If they keep trying, the PS3 is going to be the Duke Nukem Forever of consoles... because the 360 and Revolution will be moving targets. Now that Microsoft has hardware on the ground, new features are just a matter of writing code. If there's one company on the planet who's got expertise in doing that, it's Microsoft.
At this point, I'm not sure that the PS3 will make November. Whenever it does ship, it will be monumentally expensive, but the wealthy Japanese consumers will buy it in droves anyway; it will be successful in Japan. When they ship it in the US, they're not going to be willing to take the enormous financial hit it would take to sell it at $400; they're going to be priced higher than that, maybe a lot higher.
Now, this part gets _really_ speculative. They saw the EBay market for the 360 (many 360s sold at $800+), so I bet they're going to try a very expensive US introduction. And, paradoxically, I think it will be completely rejected as 'too expensive' by the American consumer, even though the _exact same people_ would turn around and spend $800 for one on EBay. It's okay, you see, for the Average Joe to be rapacious and greedy, but when corporations do it, it's "wrong". And I'm not sure Sony will get that.
Even if they're smart and take the financial hit of introducing at $400, I still think they're likely to end up in third place, this time around. The 360 is really solid; it's an excellent machine and they're doing lots of interesting stuff with it. And the Revolution is _really_ interesting; Nintendo is focused on doing stuff that's fun.
This time around, Microsoft shipped a Mustang. It's big, loud, and powerful. Sony is going to ship a Porsche; quieter, a little faster, more expensive. (if they choose to eat the extra cost, that would make it a great deal for the consumer.) Nintendo is going to ship a Miata. They don't win drag-races, but Miatas are cheap and fun to drive.
Overall, I suspect Nintendo has a good chance of being the big winner this time around. They'll do well in all markets. I suspect the 360 will place a solid (and profitable) second.. they'll do really well in the US and Europe, but will be lucky to sell 25 consoles in Japan. Sony will do well in Japan, simply from a combination of brand- and country-loyalty, but I now suspect they'll do a huge faceplant in the US and Europe.
The link you give is to an entirely different article. That article is about a Howard Stinger interview from several weeks ago. This article is about an article written in a Japanese newspaper this morning.
Moreover, the "dupe" you give is wrong. The article slashdot posts there claims the announcement is "official", but the "official announcement" there is nothing but a misquote. The article took a quote from Variety Magazine saying the PS3 would be out "before the holidays", attributed Variety's commentary to Howard Stinger, and made it sound like PS3 would not be out until "the holidays".
This honestly makes me a little suspicious about this article (today's article, the new article you think for some reason is a dupe), to be honest. We've already had one case where Variety implied a November release for the PS3, a video game blog misquoted it as a Sony statement, and Slashdot reprinted the misquote as an "official" announcement. What if we have a case now where a Japanese newspaper implied a November release for the PS3, a video game blog misquoted it as a Sony statement, and Slashdot reprinted the misquote as an "official" announcement? Can we get a corroborating source besides just 1UP, or an actual quote from Sony about this somehow?
In other news, Microsoft announced today that it was dismayed at the delay in the launch of the PS3. A spokesman was quoted as saying "Come on Sony, get your act together! Gamers are waiting for Halo 3, and we're not going to sit on this thing forever!"
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Nothing can be done before the tremendous power!
RabidComics
After they found out they were not allowed to use rootkits for copy protection it was back to the drawing board.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
If it were true. But hey, 1up doesn't mind the fanatic traffic.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145919.html
While authoritative in tone, it must be emphasized that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun report is in no way official. Though Sony's last-minute decision to change tomorrow's event from a closed-door presentation to a full-fledged press conference augurs a major announcement, Sony is staying mum. When contacted by GameSpot, a Sony Computer Entertainment America rep declined comment, saying "we have not made any new announcements on PlayStation 3."
Thanks CNet, at least you try to be objective.
Heck, even if you're sick of the same old game box, you can always run Linux on the darn thing and use it for other purposes. The way I see it, these game system makers are just taking advantage of the fact that people always want to have the newest box.
Not that 960x540 is half-bad:
A motion picture DVD on a progressive scan player is already 720x480 at 24fps or 720x576 at 25fps depending on TV system. Compared to DVD, 960x540 at movie frame rates is only 50% better than NTSC DVD and 25% better than PAL DVD. Is that so noticeable? Based on specs alone, it looks more like the difference between composite and S-video than the night and day that is progressive-scan DVD vs. HDTV.
As a resident in Japan, I can tell you that reaction to this delay will be subdued and probably non-existent. In fact, I argue that sony picked the best time to announce this - one day before the relase of arguably the biggest game on the Japanese calendar - Final Fantasy XII. People here dont seem to care about the graphics or new specs as much - hence why the Xbox 360 has done so utterly poorly after its release here. Some slashdotters write about not being able to find an Xbox 360, I could walk into almost any electronics store in Tokyo and find one neglected on a back shelf. The Japanese will contently wait for the PS3, just like they have waited for Final Fantasy XII. Its not all about graphics to them, and they have enough games like FFX12 coming out on the PS2 to tide them over until November.
They haven't shown a single playable game, ever.
They haven't shown working hardware.
They haven't even shown the non-terrible controller.
And now they say that copyprotection is the reason for the delay?
I'm not quite sure which emperical evidence to believe, but they were nowhere near hitting their ship for Spring. Without hardware, software, or even finalized images, what were they going to sell? The letters "3" "S" and "P" printed on little cards?
They weren't ready, plain and simple. They probably held out announcing it for a little while in order to choke off X360 sales, but it has been clear for some time now. They just weren't ready.
The ______ Agenda
2003 Operating Income (Yen in billions)
2004 Operating Income (Yen in billions) 2005 Operating Income (Yen in billions): Of course, Electronics (which doesn't include Playstation) has the largest portion of sales (66.5% in 2005). But Games (includes consoles) brought in the most operating income in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Games income dropped below Pictures (movies, tv) and Financial Services, but maybe that's because the PS2 is becoming a stale platform.TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
Quote : "that creates a worrisome scenario for America and Europe.".
No. Worrisome is when you have an unexpected tissue growth under your skin. Worrisome is when your state/country begins to write law about censorship and reducing free speech like they print bank notes. Worrisome is when your neighbour country (or nearly) starts showing the finger to everybody and go on a cruisade to develop nuclear weapon. That is the definition of worrisome. The PS3 delaying for USA and EU by a few months is at best annoying or even disappointing, but if it make you build up worry you really need a better life.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
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