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PS3 Launch Details Announced
Sony's conference offered up reassurance that a number of their titles will be playable at this year's E3. The controller will sense movement, allowing the player to move an onscreen avatar 'naturally'. They also released the system's launch details. The North American PS3 launch will occur on Nov. 17th, 2006. The 20GB HDD version will retail for $499, and the 60GB HDD version will go for $599. They promise 4 million launch units by December 31st. Update: 05/09 03:57 GMT by Z : Apparently, not only does the $499 system have a smaller harddrive, but it has fewer features as well.
My two cents:
1.) I'm honestly surprised they're this far along with these titles. They may actually make the November launch.
2.) Even through an internet feed, it was obvious the only truly next-gen title there was Heavenly Sword (from the great folks at Ninja Theory). The EyeToy stuff looked cool, but isn't something I'm likely to try out any time soon. Most of the games could have been 360 or even late-lifetime Xbox titles.
3.) I won't be able to review games for this system at the launch price. There's no way I'm dropping $599 for a game console.
4.) The controller orientation thing is ... I don't have the words. Awkward? Cash-in? Cynical? Whatever their intent, it just seems like a bad idea.
My favorite part was when the Sony rep got up on stage and said that Sony isn't interested in Gimmicks.
And then he demoed a card game that you play with a camera.
And then he demoed a karaoke game.
And then they came out and showed that their fancy new controller is going to be based around the same Goddamn "gimmick" Nintendo came up with last fall.
Just... hilarious. Do these people even think about the things they're saying? There was some absolutely fricking awesome stuff in that press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment would be such a great company if they could just somehow get their executives to stop talking in public.
Um, what's the point with the 20GB hard drive model. Aren't blue-ray disks supposed to start at 25GB, and feasably scale all the way up to 100GB each? I mean, it'd be like putting a 500MB hard drive in a computer with a CD burner.
Ripping off live was bad enough, but ripping off the tilt and motion sensing capabilities? AFTER calling it a gimmick. Comeon. I hope Nintendo and Microsoft have enough patents to bury Sony, because they really, freakin' deserve it. Failing that I hope people are smart enough to go with the leaders and not the followers, but I have little to no faith in that.
At the $500 launch price I thought it was going to be at, it was dead to me anyway, but now I wouldn't take it was half that. I prefer to vote with my dollars in a way that encourages innovation, not me-too copycatting.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
That was the most pathetic E3 conference I have seen. I felt embarrassed for them when they announced the controller and they kept smiling and saying it was their "innovation." Then the nerdy guy got up and demoed it and it looked like it didn't work very well. He could barely land the stupid plane.
The games they showed real footage of didn't look any better than the 360 titles that are already out.
Really sad. This press conference removed most of my desire for a PS3. If you didn't watch it, go grab a copy from somewhere.
My first comment is the price. What else can I comment on? $500 FOR THE BASE SYSTEM? You've got to be kidding me! The next step up is $600. And considering you'll probably need a HDTV to get the most out of the system... that is a TON of money.
They got the hard drive right though. MS got that right last time with it built in on the XBox but for some stupid reason they screwed that up with the 360. Now Sony has it right and MS has it backwards.
The games look nice, but nothing revolutionary. The list of titles is all Something 3 and Whatever 4. There wasn't too much new there. Even the new titles were the same old genres.
They "stole" the Wii-mote's features, or at least some of them. It doesn't have the light-gun like positioning. I wonder if they've had this all along or if they did it because of Nintendo. I suspect it was because of Nintendo because I think otherwise we would have heard something about it before, or at least hints. Almost all the demos they showed were the same old control style. I think they just aren't committed to this. And they said they were going to "redesign" the controller from the ugly boomerang thing. They didn't redesign it, they used the PS2 controller with some extra stuff packed in. It looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Don't get me wrong, the PS2 controller was good, but come on. I'm also skeptical about the "it weighs less" part.
I was going to buy a 360 but then they cost too much ($400 for the non-crippled version). Now I'll wait until the redesign. I was going to buy a PS3 but now I'll wait ($500 for the base?). Nintendo has guaranteed that they will launch under $300, with speculation in the $200-$250 range. Nintendo will be able to clean MS and Sony's clocks based on price alone. Not even taking into account all the other great stuff (downloadable library, Wii-mote, great games, etc).
I can't wait for Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.
For the first time since the SNES generation, I won't be buying most of the consoles at launch. I waited a few months on the XBox was I was thrilled to get my PS2. The 360 doesn't excite me that much (mostly a games problem, I'm waiting to see what they show tomorrow). The PS3 doesn't excite me that much (mostly a games problem, we'll see). The Wii has me dreaming. I'll buy 'em all, I'm sure. But you won't see me spend over $300 on the console unless it includes games bundled in.
PS: The Wii is supposed to have a little speaker and some memory in the controller. So when you shoot it like a gun, it makes a gun sound (instead of it coming out of the TV). What a great idea! Your tennis racket makes the sound where your racket is (instead of speakers), your gun too, and anything else. Pure genius.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"Step 1: Copy Wii's motion tracking and put it in a clunky two-handed dual shock interface"
.. SonEs Evil
They didn't even copy it very well. There's a reason Nintendo has a sensor that goes under the TV. These dimwits probably just hooked up a couple of accellerometers to the controller.
What annoys me about this isn't that they're copying Nintendo (we ALL knew it would happen), but rather that their inferior knock-off of it will probably make people think the Nintendo's version will be worse!
Enos Lives
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Or one Wii for your son, one for your daughter (so they don't fight), and FIVE games to share between them.
Or a Wii ($200), a 360 ($300), and 2-3 games between those two systems. More if the 360 has a price drop (possible to combat the PS3, but not really neccessary with such a high launch point).
Heck, a full 360 (not core) and 3 or 4 games will cost less than the PS3 with one game.
And all this is with the cheaper PS3 price point, no scalping
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Oh, come on, guys. You're all missing the amazing way that the PS3 will interact with the game community--BY SQUEEZING OUT THEIR EVERY PENNY. Notice how long the karaoke-game presentation went on about things you can pay to download? "Now, for a fee, you can download levels, weapons and songs!" Kill me. The last thing the gaming world needs is a company encouraging developers to ship incomplete products so that people will rush onto the Sony service and buy useless, overpriced add-on content. That shop idea might've been interesting if Sony had promoted buying, oh, I dunno, GAMES on it.....but as it stands, it's just a money-grubbing version of XBox Live without any of the interesting Arcade games that make the M$ service relatively worthwhile.
Otherwise, ditto on what most everyone else is saying. The games that were presented looked utterly boring. A couple of hack-n-slashers, a camera-dependent card game... are you kidding? Cute as a tech demo, I suppose, but I think we're way past the tech demo stage in May 2006. Watch the Sony vs. M$ debate take its sharpest, quickest turn ever in the next few hours.
Coming out with another year's worth of development time, and the cheap version is still $100 more than MicroSoft's expensive model. That should tell you that it probably will pack the most graphical punch. I'm sorry, though, $499 is just too much. If MicroSoft announces a price cut for the holidays, say $350 or $329 or some such, or a bundle with HD-DVD playback still at $399, a lot of people will probably find the 360 "good enough." Hell, it's quite possible you will be able to get a 360 and a Wii-volution for the price of the PS3. I thought the 360 was going to be dead as soon as the PS3's launch info was announced. Now, I'm not so sure. Just flat out, $499 is out of the question for "working class" people, especially with rising gas prices etc. It's also out of the question for most kids and college students. It's going to be the new Neo-Geo: sure, everybody would *like* to have one, but they buy something they can afford instead. Hell, I make professional wages and have plenty of spending money, but the 360 was already more than I'm willing to spend for a console.
I predict:
1) The PS2 continues to outsell both the 360 and the PS3 through 2007.
2) The 360 outsells PS3 in the US during holiday 2006 season.
3) The PS3 outsells the 360 in Japan during holiday 2006 season. Duh.
4) The DS Lite continues to be the top seller overall.
5) The tilt-sensing abilities of the PS3 controller will be seriously under-utilized, especially in first-gen software as developers scramble to handle HD and online capabilities.
I won't make any Wii-volution predictions until the details come out tomorrow. However, while the PS3's controller might make things interesting for hard-core gamers, it will utterly fail to attract non-gamers, which is really the point of the Wii-mote. One final prediction, though:
6) Nintendo continues to make gobs and gobs of profits, while MS and Sony continue to lose money hand-over-fist.
Sony needs to be plowed under anyway, since they felt it appropriate to stick a root-kit on people's machines.
If people voted with their pocketbooks and didn't say, "please Sony, beat me a little more," then we wouldn't have these sorts of problems.
If this comes out at $599, I'm going to upgrade my graphics card and buy a Wii before I even think about a playstation 3. This is ridiculously expensive compared to anything I can readily think of, except maybe an iPod, and that's not exactly a favorable comparison.
"I know it might be expensive for some of you, and you'll have to wait to be able to afford it, but in the long run it'll be nice to have all those features in the baseline system so game authors can design around them. This definitely looks like the best-of-breed for this generation to me."
Yeah? And what games are you most excited about? Extra credit if you'll talk about why those games will be worth the extra $200 or so you'll spend getting them up and running?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I know it might be expensive for some of you, and you'll have to wait to be able to afford it, but in the long run it'll be nice to have all those features in the baseline system so game authors can design around them.
I think the system looks nice, but the ludicrous price is going to kill it in the real world, meaning there won't be many games produced for it.
Of the current-gen systems (I have all three), I like my PS2 the best. But I think Sony really screwed up here and forgot that the hardcore gamer market is a minuscule fraction of the people out there buying console titles.
I haven't even bought a 360 yet because its price was stupid. The PS3 costs almost as much as my PC - an Athlon 3800+ with 2GB of DDR400 RAM, a 250GB SATA 3.0gb drive, an NForce4 Ultra motherboard, and a Geforce7600GT - which was $650 not including the case. I can do a LOT more with my PC, like development, graphics, and audio. There is not a chance in hell I'm paying over $300 for a game console.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Judging by the xbox360, the only real thing we can expect is more detailed graphics,
And Final Fantasy XIII, and Gran Turismo HD, and probably the next Grand Theft Auto, etc...
The PS2 didn't sell 103 million units based on the power of its graphics. It sold all those systems based on the games available for the system, and specifically the games that were available on no other system.
MS is still the odd man out here because they're going to get crushed by both Sony and Nintendo on exclusive titles. Sony's still got Japan behind them and they've got the power of numbers everywhere else (103 million PS2's vs. 25 million Xboxes). Nintendo's got their own first-party games plus with the Wii, almost every third-party game on the system will by definition be a unique experience.
The PS2 had both massive exclusives like the FF and Dragon Quest series, as well as the sheer power of quantity that saw literally thousands of niche titles released for the system. No matter what kind of gamer you are, you could find something to like on the PS2. The PS3 will probably be no different - it's certainly going to have the lion's share of Japanese development devoted to it at the very least. That gives Sony a huge built-in advantage worldwide.
Just remember, man - it's all about the games. People focus way too much on the power of these systems - historically speaking, it's actually been the *least* powerful system that has won out more often than not. (This gen is probably going to be an exception to that, but the point is you should look at the games, not the specs.)
But I think Sony really screwed up here and forgot that the hardcore gamer market is a minuscule fraction of the people out there buying console titles.
And I think you and others like you forgot that there are almost always huge shortages at console launches, and that prices are not set in stone for the life of a console.
I was one of the guys that waited in line for a PS2 on launch day. I didn't get one. You just saw recently what happened with the Xbox 360 launch and that was at $399. You don't think the PS3 will have at least that much demand attached to it? Of course it will - the PS2 sold four times more systems than the original Xbox, and the PS3 already has more exclusives attached to it than the Xbox 360.
Sony's saying they will have 4 million systems ready in the "launch window", and that's worldwide. So that's less than 2 million per territory in November and December. You will not be able to get one of these at any price.
Once demand slackens, the price will drop. As always happens.
I can do a LOT more with my PC, like development, graphics, and audio.
You cannot play Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo HD or Metal Gear Solid 4.
This is why people buy game consoles - to play the games that they can play nowhere else. All you're saying is that you're not interested in video games. Nobody buys game consoles to do development, graphics and audio.
I know a lot of Nintendo fanboys are outraged that Sony would steal Nintendo's ideas. But this just validates what Nintendo has been saying all along. It's the way it's always been, other companies in this industry innovate, Sony steals, but they steal well. It works in all other art forms, so it works in videogames as well. And the real winners are the consumers in the end.
On the other hand, what the hell is Sony thinking? No, seriously, are they completely stupid? Why did they go to all the trouble of holding their press conference before Nintendo?
They revealed too much. The new controller. Motion sensing technology. A firm pricetag. Specific release dates. This is now Nintendo's E3 to "win". They don't have to hold anything back. Anything they know, but haven't told us, they can go ahead and tell now. Sony's already blown their load.
If I were Sony, I would have taken great pains to arrange my conference after Nintendo's, even if it had to be early morning on Wednesday, right before the expo opened. Nintendo would have played things close to their chest (as they always do). Microsoft's conference would have absorbed some (probably not a lot, but some) of the hype Nintendo generated. Then Sony could have come back with a solid blow in the motion sensing controller.
Or, even better, they could have kept it silent, and not announced it until a few months before the Wii launched. This would have given them more time to perfect the technology, as well as giving them the chance to demo it with, I don't know, actual games? You know, like what Nintendo is going to do tomorrow.
So, in conclusion, a big Bravo to Sony Technical Operations. Those guys are on the ball. But a big WTF to Sony Marketing. For the first time in a long while you guys have totally failed. No cookie for you.
just some guy
For me personally...
HD - Couldn't care less.
Blu-Ray - ditto.
Harddrive standard - Good.
Online - About time, everyone else has it.
Wireless - Same as above, and only in the more expensive model.
Compatibility - Everyone else has this too.
All in all this seems like a system that you would only think is a good deal if you already have an HDTV, or plan to get one soon. And plan to get a Blu-Ray player. Even then it might be a bit of a stretch.
Doesn't matter, all the console differences aside, you are still dealing with the same class of hardware as the PC chips because it comes from teh same fundimental source. Like with the Xbox (orignal) the chip wasn't a direct copy of any nVidia chip. It was faster than any GeForce 3, and shared memory with the CPU. However, it's performance was in the same general class as a GeForce 3 or 4 and, more importantly, it's features were the same.
Same general thing here. Yes, in the end the console chips work different. If nothing else they don't have a PCI/AGP bus to contend with to talk to the processor, and as noted in the case of the 360 in particular, and even teh orignal Xbox, there are more differences. Heck the RSX may be more different than is currently known as Sony still hasn't given a final spec for it.
However what it boils down to is that you can look at the kind of graphics you can get from a modern, high end PC card and see what you can expect out of the consoles. If you run soimething like 3DMark2006 on a 7900 or X1900, you get the kind of lighting and shading and complexities you can expect to see.
So that's what I mean. I don't mean they are literal 1:1 equivalants. When you are working with a company on a fixed design, you can do things you can't on a PC. In ATi's case I don't think a unified shader architecture plays that well with DirectX 9's design, though it should with DX10 (which is probably the point, really Vista and the 360 will allegedly be easy to port between). However it's not like either ATi or nVidia are going to have some magic ace up their sleeve that they'll put on a console, but not on their cards.
You can rest assured that though you haven't seen an actual RSX, you've seen the generation of nVidia technology on which it's based, so you have a basic idea of what it's capable of. It may end up being faster than a 7900GTX (though probably not), but it's almost certianly not going to have graphics capabilites that the 7900s don't.
I imagine that games will look pretty similar on both platforms in general. Games released on both will probably be close to dead identicle since the less work you do on a port, the happier you are as a developer. However for platform specific games, I don't see any way that one is going to really be able to pull ahead. I'm sure the fanbois will argue until they are blue in teh face about who's got the prettier picture, but in reality they'll probably both look good and be on the same general plane.