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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.
Wow, Sony as ever shows their originality. I mean, a motion-sensing controller? Who in the hell would have thought of that brilliant idea? Wasn't this one of the same companies who wrote off Nintendo's idea as a gimmick? Wow, ironic the innovation that Sony comes up with. Let's hope for their sake that they didn't take too much away from Nintendo's idea... last thing they need is another company suing them over technology theft in their controllers. BTW, I wonder if Immersion could claim this Dual Shock like controller in violation of their patent too.
As much as the patent system needs to go, companies like Sony almost make you want to have it.
Sony, say hello to third place. Consumers, say hello to an emergency price drop scheduled for Spring 2007.
The motion-sensing demo was hilarious. The guy's ship was shaking like crazy, and it was comical seeing him try to keep both hands on the controller while twisting it around. There's a good reason the Wii controller looks like a remote.
The Sony guy also said that they had their hands on the tech for a couple of weeks, suggesting they havn't been working on the feature for a large duration of development. (*hint* *hint*)
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.
Are you kidding?! This is a revolution in gamepads!
The controller basically has a gyroscope inside that can detect tilt... and an accelerometer that can detect movement in a particular direction.
This is different from the Wii in that it can't determine its location in 3d space. While the functionality is similar, the Wii still has the upper hand in terms of the "unique" functionality of the controller.
It's a smart move on Sony's part, but the Wii will still be able to do things no other system can.
Gee, which motion-sensitive controller system do I pick? The $199 Wii or the $499/$599 PS3? What a tough decision. Especially when you consider that a) the PS3 has been repeatedly reported, by developers, no less, as being way under-powered, whereas many devs have expressed enthusiasm for making games for the Wii, b) the Revolution's game lineup is, IMO, looking much better than the PS3's, and c) we've yet to hear the last about cool stuff in the Wii (that announcement should be pretty interesting) Let us further consider that for the price of a PS3, I can easily build myself a computer with many times the hard drive space, reasonable comparability hardware-wise (assuming we don't buy into Sony's hype), and the ability to do everything a computer can do that a PS3 can't (i.e. everything but play games and DVDs). Oh, did I mention I can upgrade the PC if I want to? Also that my PC has a much wider range of games than the PS3? Yeah...
We did that back when CDs were new on computers (1994 or so?).
It is still a ton of space. It will work great for save games, cache, downloadable cars/charactes/levels/etc. And if it is expandable (with all the USB ports it ought to be, Nintendo is doing this) then it really isn't a problem.
You may complain about the size. But at least it's there. *cough* *XBox 360* *cough*
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)
It might be because I missed the start of the presentation, but I don't understand why they were demonstrating Xbox live, xbox360 games and the Wii controller?
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.
The Sony guy also said that they had their hands on the tech for a couple of weeks, suggesting they havn't been working on the feature for a large duration of development.
Yeah, that was very telling. This was an obvious last minute effort to confuse the market. As sparse as the clapping was throughout the rest of the presentation I almost expected them to get booed when they pulled out the controller.
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.
It didn't take long for this pic to surface: http://hood.filefu.com/sonysteals5dq.jpg
The PSWii...
(From the Laws of Japanese Animation) Law of Inherent Combustibility -- Everything explodes. Everything.
They already showed the Canadian price, on-screen during the keynote, right next to the US price.
$499 USD / $549 CND
$599 USD / $659 CND
The exchange rate has gotten much higher lately.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
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.
"This is a revolution in gamepads!"
What will Sonii think of next?
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
The new PS3 controller not only rips of features from Wii, they droped the rumble support, PS3 gets less and less impressive:
9 be.pdf
"Pursuant to the introduction of this new six-axis sensing system, the vibration feature that is currently available on DUALSHOCK® and DUALSHOCK®2 controllers for PlayStation and PlayStation®2, will be removed from the new PS3 controller as vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor."
See: http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/06050
Ha! The Joke's on Sony for taking the bait..
Nintendo folks have been saying for some time now that there is still a big secret to be revealed about the Wii. The controller, on the other hand, has been public for some time. Nintendo execs are no fool. They knew that if the public liked the Wiimote one of the other companies would quickly follow. Sony has just hung themselves with their half-assed knockoff attempt.
Now, Sony is really going to feel the fool when Nintendo reveals the true secret of the Wii tomorrow...
It's a little early into E3 to start prophesizing the downfall of Sony, the revival or Nintendo, or the evil dominion of Microsoft. We've seen a pre-E3 press conference for Sony. This is about equivalent to the first segment of the pre-game show. However bad or good the pre-show conferences are, there'll be plenty within the conferences themselves to sway things one way or another.
That said, the impression I've gotten from Sony's press conference is not a good one. The two reasons are as follows.
1) "Innovation" - Sony's best bet for hurting Nintendo was to give their idea no credence. They wouldn't look bad for writing off Nintendo's ideas as gimmicky. Microsoft already ignored Nintendo, Sony simply had to follow suit. Instead, they've copied Nintendo and called it "Innovation". Now when people go to shop for a next gen console, they won't be able to write Nintendo off as a gimmick. Even if Sony did just as good a job as Nintendo, they're $300-$400 more expensive. While the move covers their bases of Nintendo takes off, they're still the copycats and that hurts them.
2) "At What Cost" - $499 hurts. Because that hurts, Microsoft was kind enough to have a core package that was cheaper, lacked features, but didn't hurt so much unless you intended on using live a lot. Sony has another package too, costing $599. That there is good one two punch to the wallet. To top it off, the difference is a 20gb harddrive versus a 60gb harddrive. Last I checked, the price difference between those sizes was not $100. Is there something I failed to garner from the coverage?
Overall, Sony hasn't started off well, meaning they'll need to work doubletime to impress me this E3. However, it's entirely possible they'll succeed. With Nintendo and Microsoft still to come, there's no telling what will happen.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
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.)
I just found something they didn't bring up in the keynote:
9 ae.pdf
The cheaper version will NOT have WiFi, flash card slots, or HDMI output.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/06050
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
There are other differences between the $500 and $600 versions of the systems. According to Sony, the $500 version lacks HDMI output, which means that once DRM gets implemented, you don't get the full HD resolution that Blu-Ray is capable of. Also, the cheaper system lacks a slots for Memory Sticks, SD cards, and Compact Flash cards. The cheaper one also lacks wifi connectivity. Funny how Sony left all of that out of their presentation.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
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.
You better check those specs again. The base PS3 isn't "Feature complete"
9 ae.pdf
The $499 base unit does not have HDMI out, does not have memory stick ports, and does not have 802.11b/g wireless.
See:
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/06050
-my other sig is your mom
HD graphics : I'm not seeing a big improvement. In one case it looks like a step BACKWARD. Just take a look at their own comparison slide http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/05/DSC_2355.JPG! The PS3 version look like a pasty white guy!
Blu-Ray : One word : Hype. There has yet to be a game that spans more than 1 DVD and I'm not spending $500 for a movie player AND having to re-buy my movie collection.
Hard drive : Xbox did it years ago. The Xbox360 threw the ball away on it but considering the PS3 is priced at $500~$600, Sony just threw the ball back at Microsoft.
Online : Old news and Sony has a poor record of online gameplay. Its SOE division is one of the worst in terms of service and considering they DOMINATED last generation with the PS2, Xbox Live CRUSHED the PS2 in terms of online marketshare.
Wireless controllers : Two words : Nintendo Wavebird. And the Xbox360's controllers are wireless as well. Sony is really the last man out in this case. (And this doesn't count third party controllers.)
PS2 and PS1 full compatibility : Considering a PS1 is dirt cheap and insanely plentiful (I've seenen package deals including 10 games and the system for $50 USD) and the inevitable price drop to the all important $100 mark for the PS2 near/after the PS3's launch, this isn't really important.
As I suspected, Sony is trying to dilute Nintendo's innovation. I think most of us here are savvy enough to know that the PS3 controller is going to be far inferior to the Nintendo's "Wii-mote". Yet, how many of your regular consumers are going to know the difference?
I don't think Sony's goal was to out-do the Wii controller's feature and functionality. All it needs to do is dumb it down. Same goes for the Xbox Live experience. Let's deliver crap offerings of our competitors' features so that we can say "meeee tooo!". All they have to hope is that enough consumers figure that the PS3 offering is "good enough".
I cringe at the following scenario, which I know is going to happen:
ME - *trying to explain the Nintendo Wii controller to a non-gamer friend*
FRIEND - "Ohh, so it's like the PlayStation controller I've heard about?"
ME - *cries*
-- jchenx
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.