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Low-End PS3 Comes with HDMI, Cheaper in Japan

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the little-consolation-to-the-us-fans dept.

jayintune writes "2old2play has a nice round-up on the main talking points from the Sony Keynote speech at the 2006 TGS (Tokyo Game Show). Most notably, Sony announced HDMI ports will be included on ALL models of the PS3. Initially, Sony was worried that if they put the HDMI in the lower version, some would complain about having to pay for something they don't want. Apparently they realized people would be more upset without it." Additionally, it's been confirmed that the cheaper PS3 will be even less expensive ... in Japan. For now, it seems this price drop only affects the Japanese Market. For many additional viewpoints on the announcement and keynote, click through to see this post's associated links.

13 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn... by sporkme · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How many PS3 articles can there be in a day? Can consoles really be this exciting? Many crappy blogs^W^Wnew articles, little new information.

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    1. Re:Yawn... by DrXym · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Tokyo Game Show is on but this is nothing compared the number of Nintendo announcements that appeared on /. when E3 was on.

  2. Disappointing generation by Nightspirit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Wii could be an outright failure. Yah, Nintendo fanboys will boast that they havn't played a console in years even though they have a gamecube and 12 different mario games for it, and internet hype says "oh my godz ta Wii!" which further proves the Wii may be the Snakes on a Plane of consoles. Makes a little bit of money, but eventually the hype doesn't live up. The Wii controller may be just a gimmick, and a few months after the console release we'll see if it truly lives up to the hype. But anyone saying they will buy a Wii without even playing one first is just as much of a sheep and fanboy as a final fantasy droolboy. Time will tell if it is worth buying a slightly souped up gamecube with a new controller. I may buy one just to play some gamecube games that I've missed out on though.

    The PS3 will likely deliver the goods, but nevertheless is too expensive. In the end the only exclusives will be metal gear + 100 different japanese RPGs that we've all played different incarnations of dozens of times before.

    And the 360 isn't faring much better. The most interesting titles are $5 arcade games (I may pick one up when settlers of cantan is released), and the best games that look good are not only released on the PC as well, but the PC version offers mods (looking at Oblivion and the upcoming Star trek: legacy). Perhaps I wouldn't be so disappointed with the 360 if I wasn't spoiled on xbox media center for my xbox.

    Want to know the best bet right now if you havn't jumped onto the ps2/xbox/gamecube generation? Pick up an xbox original and mod it (which is actually not that difficult), install xbox media center, and not only play nes, snes, n64, tg16, genesis, MAME, etc games for free but you'll have an extensive library of great $5-$15 used games available to load onto the harddrive (or rent and steal if you are so inclined). Alot of the xbox games have 480p 16:9 if you have an HDTV, and the only exclusives you will really miss out on are a bunch of square-enix RPGs, which honestly you arn't missing out much on (seriously, did anyone play through more than 25 hours of dragon warrior VIII or kingdom hearts 2 without wanting to rip their eyeballs out?) and katamari damacy (which is a great game, but isn't alone worth getting a console for). Otherwise most games on the ps2 are available on the xbox, and the xbox is a bit more mod friendly (with xbox media center + emulators, etc).

    I think what may happen is alot of the people who skipped out on the gamecube may just get a Wii to play gamecube games they missed out on. I actually hope Nintendo does well this generation and doesn't turn into another Sega. I'd hate for the only players in the field to be Sony and Microsoft.

    1. Re:Disappointing generation by Dan+Guisinger · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The games everyone has been waiting for on the Xbox 360 are Gears of War and Halo 3. Those are the big upcoming titles. Gears of war comes out in 2 months, and there are hundreds on reserve at every store in my area, and the gameplay and graphics are just a big WOW when you see them.

      Sure, games like Perfect Dark Zero sucked on the 360, but they are finally about to have their 2nd wind of games. Sony has such a convoluded development enviroment I'm sure it will take longer than a year for the really good Sony games to come out.

      Also, as a note, last I read Microsoft had sold 6 million xbox 360 consoles in the last year; not bad considering no one had released very good games yet. Now that the platformers are coming, expect it to catch on even more. Microsoft expects to sell another 6 million by the end of the year; thats well before Halo 3 comes into the picture. There are strong rumors that they will add an internal HD-DVD model (for video only) at the highend to compete against sony. Price cuts and die shrinkage are all coming.

      Whether or not you like Microsoft, they are in a very good position.

      I personally own a 360, and also am planning on grabbing a Wii or two. Both are excellent systems, Sony on the other hand, while I had a PS1, I will never buy a PS3, that thing was engineered by a patent committee looking to force standards on the world; if it was really designed for games it wouldnt have had 2 major delays already (BlueRay standard, and now Blue laser shortages).

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    2. Re:Disappointing generation by DrXym · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The sad thing is if the 360 came with native divx and FLAC support I'd probably pick on up right now (as I have no desire to install windows xp media center).

      Exactly. The 360 had a great potential for multimedia but was deliberately crippled to prop up Windows Media Center. I expect some flack at Microsoft thought "if we let this thing store and play movies then who is going to buy WMC? So let's cripple it so it only streams movies!".

      One would hope that as Sony is more agnostic on video formats than MS that they might at least allow you to store files on the PS3 and possibly support several major codecs. They might not support Divx though simply because that is what most pirate content is in. But if Sony are really smart, they'd let people play their own ripped content while providing convenient access to their own video store.

    3. Re:Disappointing generation by Aurisor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "One would hope that as Sony is more agnostic on video formats than MS"

      BWAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

      *oh my god*

      HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      *wipes tear from eye*

    4. Re:Disappointing generation by Yosho · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yah, Nintendo fanboys will boast that they havn't played a console in years even though they have a gamecube and 12 different mario games for it

      Why would any console fanboy boast that they haven't played a console in years? That makes no sense at all.

      But anyone saying they will buy a Wii without even playing one first is just as much of a sheep and fanboy as a final fantasy droolboy.

      Except that many people have played Wiis at demos and verified that the controller works wonderfully. The only people who are calling it a "gimmick" nowadays are anti-fanboys. Besides that, there are plenty of people who would buy a Wii for the Virtual Console, regardless of whether the Wii games are any good.

      Pick up an xbox original and mod it (which is actually not that difficult), install xbox media center, and not only play nes, snes, n64, tg16, genesis, MAME, etc games for free

      If you don't like breaking multiple laws, sure. All of those ROMs aren't public domain, you know, and some of us prefer being in the legal when possible. You may say modding is "not that difficult," but a lot of people would argue that any difficulty is to much, especially when you can just plug in a Wii and go, legally.

      Alot of the xbox games have 480p 16:9 if you have an HDTV

      There are also a lot of Gamecube and PS2 games that support 16:9 and/or 480p. Your point?

      seriously, did anyone play through more than 25 hours of dragon warrior VIII or kingdom hearts 2 without wanting to rip their eyeballs out?

      Yes. What's the point of this statement, other than to troll? Should I flame all of the genres featured prominently on the Xbox that I don't enjoy, and presume that nobody else enjoys them, as well?

      Otherwise most games on the ps2 are available on the xbox, and the xbox is a bit more mod friendly (with xbox media center + emulators, etc).

      You could also argue that most of the Xbox's good games are available for the PC, not to mention all the emulators you can dream of.

      I think what may happen is alot of the people who skipped out on the gamecube may just get a Wii to play gamecube games they missed out on.

      Have you read any previous Slashdot discussions on the Wii? Almost nobody is buying a Wii because they want to play the Gamecube games they missed out on. Anybody who wants that can go pick up a Gamecube right now for $80 or less.

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  3. Re:"Price Cut", that sounds nice doesn't it... by spindizzy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except that the new price announced is:

    PS3... 47,600 yen

    Which as the article states makes the PS3 cheaper than a core XBOX 360 and HD-DVD addon which doesn't include a HD. Seems like competitive pricing there.

    Sony will have done market research to find the best price (for them) to sell the PS3. Time will tell how good this strategy is...

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  4. more bad marketing... by AceJohnny · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Initially, Sony was worried that if they put the HDMI in the lower version, some would complain about having to pay for something they don't want. Apparently they realized people would be more upset without it.

    So they misevaluated their market, and the media backlash made them change their minds? Shouldn't this be the kind of element that should've been identified earlier on? As largely mentioned earlier, if they're pushing the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, it's pretty dumb to "forget" the HD output...

    Wow, I keep being surprised by how their marketing department sucks. For a consumer-electronics company, I find this plainly catastrophic.

    Or maybe the dept doesn't suck, but they're crushed under other interests, which is just as bad.
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    1. Re:more bad marketing... by Yonatanz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Remember the old saying, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

      The more articles they get, the more the acronym "PS3" gets into people's minds.

      In today's marketing media, companies plan their campaign so that they will "change their mind" a couple of times in order to achieve another slashdot/blog/newspaper article.

      A so called bad-design-decision that gets some hype around it, is actually nothing more than a good-marketing-decision in disguise.

    2. Re:more bad marketing... by MikeBabcock · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Forget what HD output? Component video cables provide equal (or better) quality output to HDMI (especially to those of us with CRT HDTV sets). HDMI is only barely interesting for newer resolutions and encryption (ugh) and its ability to carry audio as well (which no HiFi geek or audiophile wants anyway).

      I'm currently using (and plan to continue using) component video cables to my TV and coax digital audio cables to my receiver for the near future. When I buy a new receiver with DTS Master audio support, I'll be going to new audio cables. If and when LCD or Plasma TVs look as good at variable resolutions as my CRT, I might use HDMI for video only.

      Yes yes, I know, in a few years, some discs might be encoded so that I need HDCP to play them on my TV at all. For the reasonable future, it would seem that movie companies care more about sales figures though and won't be setting that bit.

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  5. Re:"Price Cut", that sounds nice doesn't it... by DrXym · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You're right. I don't think anyone would want the ugly external HD-DVD drive. But you can bet Microsoft will stick an internal HD-DVD in their next revision of the 360. I expect they'll also want to include HDMI and some other bits and pieces to close the gap with the PS3. HD-DVD still won't be any use to games though, unlike Blu-Ray.

    Anyway, for Japan at least, the basic PS3 is almost the same price as the XBox premium which isn't bad going at all.

  6. Note how few of these there will be by robosmurf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The price drop only affects the Japanese release, and then only on the lower-end model.

    Sony have already stated that there will only be 100,000 PS3s at launch in Japan. They have also stated that the vast majority of these will be the higher end version. Thus the price cut will be on a very small number of units.