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Sony Announces PS3 Slim, Price Cut, Improvements To Home
Sony's press conference today at the Gamescom convention was full of announcements. They officially revealed the PS3 Slim, which will be 36% lighter and 33% smaller than the normal PS3. It will come with a 120 GB hard drive and list for $299 when it hits retail stores in early September. Normal PS3s will drop to that price as well starting tomorrow. (Unfortunately for Sony, their unveiling was spoiled a bit by several retailers jumping the gun on new advertisements, not to mention the rumors that had been swirling for weeks ahead of time.) Sony also announced a PS3 firmware update as well as new features and customization options for Home. In addition to that, the PS3 and PSP will be getting a digital reader service. At launch it will bring access to Marvel comic books, and will expand from there. They didn't talk much about their upcoming motion control scheme, but promised more details next month at the Tokyo Game Show.
It only seems strange that the PS2 is still selling so well, until you realize that the PS3 really isn't "standard def. TV friendly".... I know quite a few people who play games on their PS2, and bought replacements when their old unit broke/wore out, but have no real interest in a PS3, simply because they're still using a large-ish tube type standard-def TV as their main television set. (If you have cable or satellite, you really have no need to replace it, after all.)
My experience with using a PS3 in standard def resolution was eye-strain inducing, trying to read many of the text fonts the games would display.
There's a pretty big ratio of PS3 owners who coupled the purchase with a new plasma or LCD TV .... partially because they wanted a Blu-Ray player for that fancy new set, but realistically, it's practically a requirement to enjoy many of the game titles too.
New Features:
Things People Actually Want:
Thanks a bunch, Sony.
The failure rates were published on joystiq a couple of days ago: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/game-informer-xbox-360-at-54-2-percent-failure-rate/.
xbox: 54.2%
ps3 10.3%
wii 6.8%
Too bad Greenpeace didn't consider those when they named Nintendo such a non-green company.
When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?
I agree. What I think they should do is offer those items as accomplishments for in game goals, and have a place to shoe them off. Use the peple desire to collect and show off stuff to sell games.
Shocking, I know.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My prediction:
- The PS3 slim will be hacked. Now that there is no Other OS support, there is the same incentive as there has been for running homebrew on every other console.
- Said hacks will be used for warez, probably by people other than those who developed the hacks.
Linux hackers tend to be much more successful at system reverse engineering and exploitation than the kids who want warez. This is why Other OS is a Good Thing for Sony: it removes the incentive to bypass their security for a lot of people. By removing this option, they're setting themselves to have their security broken. And we all know how long it takes for "other" people to use these hacks for less than legal purposes (I learned this the hard way).
I firmly believe Other OS is one of the main reasons why there is no PS3 software piracy so far. Check out this table from our 25C3 presentation.