Sony Crows About Blu-ray, Upcoming PS3 DVR Functionality

Eurogamer/GamesIndustry.biz reports on Sony's pleased statements about the PlayStation 3. The company has made a point to note that Blu-ray was totally worth it after recent comments by some developers who had problems fitting their titles onto a DVD. The interview with the site promises 'big things' for the format in the future. The future of the PS3 itself seems to have changes coming too: a television tuner and DVR functionality looks to be in the offing for the console. Microsoft announced similar plans earlier this year, but there are no firm dates for either company's use of the console.

Comments

Questions Sony needs to answer

[_xeno_]

PS3 as a DVR, huh? Well, that raises the following questions:

• Does it support CableCard?
• If not, how does it change channels?
• Does it support HD? (I'd assume it does.)
• Is it an additional add-on? (I'd assume it is, with a remote.) If so, how much does it cost?
• How does it compare to other DVRs? Specifically, does it require a subscription? Offer TV listings? Offer suggestions?
• Can it record while a game is playing? While a movie (DVD/Blu-Ray) is playing?
• Does it use the same hard drive that games use? Will they be competing for available space?

I think that's my list of questions. I could see it working, but it'd have to be able to beat TiVo on ease of use. I'd rather have a separate DVR, but I can definitely understand that some people would want a combination console/DVD/Blu-Ray/DVR unit.

Zonk Vents Bile at Sony

[19thNervousBreakdown]

There's a headline for you. What, they're not supposed to be proud of their invention? A game wasn't unable to fit on a single DVD? If you're going to Sony bash, do it for something valid, like their rootkits, horrible customer service, or the way they managed to destroy Star Wars. Blu-Ray actually isn't bad, so when you gripe about it, it just makes your legitimate gripes look like more bellyaching.

Re:Zonk Vents Bile at Sony

[Winckle]

Star Wars?

Elaborate.

Re:PS2/Xbox 4/8 Gigs, PS3 25/50 Gigs, 360...7 Gigs

[Anonymous Coward]

The PS2 had a standard dual layer DVD drive that supported 4GB for single layer discs and 8GB for dual layer discs.

The Xbox had the same storage space as the PS2.

The PS3 has a BluRay drive that supports 25GB for single layer discs and 50GB for dual layer discs.

The Xbox 360 has a standard dual layer DVD drive that supports 3.5GB for single layers discs and 7GB for dual layer discs.

There is some sort of DRM/security reason that around a gigabyte of storage is used on 360 discs. The exact details have never been revealed as far as I know.

Re:PS2/Xbox 4/8 Gigs, PS3 25/50 Gigs, 360...7 Gigs

[flewp]

Well, there's just not any games YOU like for the PS3.

I know a few people who are plenty happy with a few games for their PS3s.

For what it's worth, I'm not buying a PS3 until there's a few more must have games that interest me. I'm also hoping this will coincide with a price a drop, because while I think the PS3 is fairly priced, it's still too much for budget, given I'd probably only use it to play games. (I have no desire to run Linux, etc) If they add in DVR+TV Tuning, and keep the price the same, I might be more interested though.

I also don't really remember any games for the XBox360 coming out in it's first year that made me want to get one. In fact, there's still no games out for it that make me want to get one. Isn't it kind of the natural way of things for really great games to take a year or more to come out after a system's launch? I know there's exceptions, but on the whole, the majority of good games for the past few generations of systems seem to have, for the most part, come out well after the system has launched. (hooray for excessively long sentences)

Microsoft's one not a DVR...

[spectecjr]

The future of the PS3 itself seems to have changes coming too: a television tuner and DVR functionality looks to be in the offing for the console. Microsoft announced similar plans earlier this year, but there are no firm dates for either company's use of the console

Microsoft's one doesn't look like a DVR - but is instead IPTV - it remains to be seen what recording features it will have, but presumably it can work in the background over the network the way that Live downloads work now; as it's multicast, there's probably enough bandwidth for it to come in over your regular network connection without really affecting your transfer rates for other data. Sony's looks like it plans to use an over the air tuner, and even weirder, looks like it's set to be used for Freeview (there's also a NZ equivalent).

Re:blu-ray

[Slothy]

I'm not a PS3 hater, I just wanted to see the games that are 8+. I went to IGN and I saw these:
(here's the URL: http://ps3.ign.com/index/reviews.html?constraint.n ot_null.article.overall_rating=is_true&ordering.or der=desc&ordering.attribute=article.review_date&co nstraint.max_rows=40&constraint.locale=us&sort.att ribute=article.overall_rating&sort.order=desc)

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Action 9.3 Jun 29, 2007
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The RPG 9.2 Mar 26, 2007
MotorStorm [AU] Racing 8.9 Mar 22, 2007
Ninja Gaiden Sigma [AU] Action 8.8 Jul 4, 2007
Super Stardust HD Shooter 8.7 Jul 2, 2007
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas Shooter 8.7 Jun 27, 2007
Super Stardust HD [UK] Shooter 8.5 Jun 21, 2007
Super Stardust HD [AU] Shooter 8.5 Jun 20, 2007
Calling All Cars! Action 8.5 Apr 25, 2007
Resistance: Fall of Man [AU] Shooter 8.4 Mar 27, 2007
F.E.A.R. Shooter 8.1 Apr 20, 2007
Bigs, The Sports 8.0 Jun 26, 2007
Resistance: Fall of Man [UK] Shooter 8.0 Mar 22, 2007

There are only 13 lines there, and there are multiple lines for one game. So if you eliminate the multiple listings, you get:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Action 9.3 Jun 29, 2007
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The RPG 9.2 Mar 26, 2007
MotorStorm [AU] Racing 8.9 Mar 22, 2007
Super Stardust HD Shooter 8.7 Jul 2, 2007
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas Shooter 8.7 Jun 27, 2007
Calling All Cars! Action 8.5 Apr 25, 2007
Resistance: Fall of Man [AU] Shooter 8.4 Mar 27, 2007
F.E.A.R. Shooter 8.1 Apr 20, 2007
Bigs, The Sports 8.0 Jun 26, 2007

So down to 9. Which is actually cool, 9 good games on a platform in the first year is a great thing. I'm just wondering about the 22 thing. Is this URL wrong, or lacking games that you found elsewhere?