The PlayStation 3 will be one of the worst game consoles ever made.

Nintendo's already shown a willingness to port the japanesiest of their systems' games to N.A. and a pretty unmatchable level of skill and care in localization.

I seriously doubt that the otaku market is enough to keep this one alive.

No nonvolatile memory storage - No unified online service - Only supports the next-gen standard that MSFT REFUSES to get behind and that everyone else is straddling the fence on, waiting to see what the real wholesale costs are going to be - No "killer app."

Treading on thin ice with that price point. There's a certain class of people in this world who are willing to pay that kind of premium for something based on brand alone instead of functionality, and they don't play video games.

"Gee Golly Gosh, I can't wait til I star in my first doujinshi!"

I bought Edge today solely because of the cover headline:

"PLAYSTATION 3 VERSUS THE WORLD - Has Sony already won the console war?"

I'm yet to read the article, but I hope they're being sarcastic.

Two obvious points: The weird cool games wouldn't be on that list up top anyway, because at this stage of course it's only Sequel VI: The Subtitle, and other stuff that makes me want to die. Also what's pointedly not on the list is GTA. If Rockstar decide that the 360 is the way to go, then Sony probably are completely fucked.

x-post

"Spod" = geek, with particular reference to game-playing

Metal Gear 4 seems to be a killer app for most.

Messrs. vague, Farrell, and bloomer have sort of made Reggie Fils-Aime's point (which is also mine) about the PS3 - in a market which shows all signs of shrinking, not growing, how can a company hope to recoup the expense of developing and marketing a new piece of bleeding-edge tech (which itself is a loss leader designed to create sales of blu-ray "content" and even more expensive games) when they are only playing to their current customer base (and only a fraction of that, since DDR works fine on the old model)?

I mean we're talking about a PORTION of the installed base of PS2 users buying the new console at what purports to be very significant expense, just to purchase one or optimistically TWO game titles a year. The fate of the PS3 at this point seems to very emphatically hinge on the adoption of blu-ray as the next-generation media standard that everybody needs to replace their DVDs with, and I'm not buying it, at all.

$20 says the 360 will still have more interoperability with the PSP than the PS3 when it comes out.

I'm only going to buy ps3 for GTA, res evil, and then maybe some other bonus games, anyway. i may get the nintendo for zelda but i said that about the cube and i never bothered.

Launch titles and console success have very little to do with one another, especially if you use the Dreamcast as any indication. I guess the thing I'm really trying to bring home is that Sony's "Sequel XVII: The Subtitle" launch selection doesn't bode well for the machine's lifetime. I guess if you can keep FF, MGS and GTA on your platform for initial release you have a solid base, but one slip and you're toast. $500 is a lot of money to most folks.

Though yeah as the head of SCE Asia, he does have a point.

yeah, I remembered that right after I hit submit. will any ps3 launch titles have bunny strippers?

its gonna cost $500!?! jesus, if that's true sony is doomed...

the NGage?

Although I do believe consoles that are easier to develop for end up getting the most polished games, like the Dreamcast.

As if I needed another reason to dislike both Sony and EA. The obvious solution is to only buy Megadrive games until I complete my PAL collection. Then start on Master System.

I MAD

Unsurprisingly. Strange tone though. They seem to be trying to threaten the consortiums, but all they can say is "If you don't hurry up, we'll...we'll...we'll push back the release". Which isn't going to hurt anyone, realistically.

Surely the 32x add-on for the Megadrive?

http://retropassion.co.uk/retro/stock_images/img031lg.jpghttp://www.playright.dk/covers/240/knuckleschaotix_32x_eu.jpghttp://www.mkdimension.de/MKD/MK2/mk2eu32xsmall.jpghttp://www.sega-32x.de/spaceharriercover.jpg

http://www.gameover.nl/consoles/GX4000.jpg

Microsoft has so much cashflow from every PC sold with Windows on it, plus enterprise Office + Server licenses, they could price the 360 to match the Revolution whenever THAT comes out and still survive this generation.

Sony, OTOH, is relying on the PS2 to keep them afloat at this point.
When they get undersold by both competitors and ship 10% of the units they're projecting, the company will wither and be eaten by a Korean chaebol, inciting riots.

Not that I'd miss them at all after that DRM rootkit spyware shit.

Merrill Lynch guesses at $800 PlayStation 3 cost

Rob Fahey 14:24 20/02/2006

Components bill for new console could be huge, claim analysts

The same report from analysts at Merrill Lynch that predicted that the PS3 could be delayed by over six months has also suggested that the components used to build each console could cost Sony over $800.

Presenting a list of materials needed for each console, Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha pins the highest costs on the Blu-Ray drive used by the system, at $350, and the Cell processor, at $230.

Other components including the NVIDIA RSX chip ($70) and the system's memory ($50) stack up with smaller costs such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips to bring the total to $800 (although Osha's report miscalculates this figure as $900).

Although Osha predicts that the bill of materials cost will fall to $320 within three years, his headline figure is stark - and the report describes the situation in harsh terms, stating bluntly that "it's now clear that the box is prohibitively expensive to make."

However, it should be borne in mind that Osha makes no particular claim to have insider knowledge of Sony's manufacturing or materials costs for the console - and while he explains his reasoning for some of the price tags he attaches to materials, others remain entirely inexplicable.

The incredibly high cost of the Blu-Ray drive, for example, is an anomaly that can perhaps be explained by the widespread confusion over the difference between a simple Blu-Ray data drive, a technology which is more complex than existing DVD drives but not enormously so, and a home Blu-Ray player or recorder, which must include a variety of expensive video and audio processing hardware which the PS3 already has on-board as part of its core functionality.

Although it remains a possibility that Blu-Ray drives will be expensive to manufacture, hard evidence of this has yet to emerge - and there is widespread scepticism over the incredibly high price points being attached to the technology by many analysts, especially since the PS3 is expected to have a Read-only Blu-Ray drive, and most other Blu-Ray devices for which even tentative price points have been mentioned are more expensive Read-Write devices.

The other component which Osha expects to be incredibly expensive is Cell, with the price for the chip placed at $230 - a factor, he says, of the fact that the die size of the chip is large, and mostly made up of logic circuits rather than the easier to repair memory circuits.

However, his assertion that the chip will be difficult and hence expensive to manufacture is thrown into doubt by comments made by IBM senior vice president William Zeittler earlier this month, when he said that the firm is succeeding in ramping up yields of Cell "faster than on any chip we've done."

In other words, while Merrill Lynch's report has not only impacted Sony's share price today, but has also kicked off a storm in the mainstream media about the status of PS3, some of its basic assumptions appear to be founded on shaky ground - and like all analyst reports dealing with the technical aspects of console manufacture or game development, it deserves to be viewed with a healthy dose of scepticism.

While Sony has made a habit of announcing key details of its strategy at press conferences in Tokyo, the next planned public discussion of the firm's plans will take place at the Game Developers' Conference in San Jose in late March, where the company's worldwide studios boss Phil Harrison will take the stage to deliver a keynote speech.

I want his job, and then I can make stock prices move too! I'll be the Brent DiCrecenzo of the Consumer Electronics world!

Anyway the point about Sony needing a home run with it still stands, and the longer the delay is in getting the systems out, the more time MSFT has to stock shelves with actual playable titles while waiting for the inevitable coincidental price drop and Halo 3 announcement.

THE SONY HAS KEEP IT QUITE!

Can we make this a meme please?

yeah, it's two 12 year olds and a black labrador retriever. They also handle the localization procedures.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040511/040511_tattoo_hmed_11a.standard.jpg

So very, very wrong...

60GB HD though! Makes my list shorter, I guess. Though the fact that they let something so insipid as B-R DRM set them back over 5-6 months, if that's really what it was, and then admitted to it, is basically the biggest FUCK YOU to consumers at large since I don't even know what, probably something Apple did.

haw haws!!

Also now verbal slip-ups and dev murmurs = $499 pricetag basically confirmed!

The Revolution, OTOH, will be most definitely stackable. Oh yes.

I haven't looked at them! :DDDDDD

The fact that the SNES and N64 (never owned) weren't even a little stackable was SO FUCKING ANNOYING. My parents made me PUT AWAY the SNES if they were going to entertain because it was so goofy looking. It toook up like what.... 6 inches with a game in it? So annoying

(A really cool looking toaster oven...)

YOU GONNA GET RAPED

In a presentation in advance of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony announced it will ship the powerful new system to North America on Nov. 17.

E3 BLOG: Get the latest news from the video game conference

The price will be $499 for a system with a detachable 20GB hard drive, and $599 for one with a 60GB hard drive. Sony plans to have 4 million available by year's end worldwide. "PlayStation 3 is the most ambitious project we've ever undertaken," says Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment.

The PS3 will play PS2 games, as well as titles from the original PlayStation, CDs, DVDs and new high-definition movie discs. The PS3 also will connect to Sony's handheld PlayStation Portable (PSP) and will include a wireless, motion-sensing controller.

The wireless controller was demonstrated with a launch game called Warhawk, an aerial combat game with futuristic planes zipping through clouds and over water. Other games include Tekken 6, Stranglehold (a game by film director John Woo), Ridge Racer 7, Final Fantasy XIII, Virtua Fighter 5 and Call of Duty 3.

One racing game shown used the PSP as an "interactive wing mirror."

"You can position this next to your TV screen and see what's coming up behind you," said Sony's Phil Harrison.

An online game network also will allow voice and text messaging. "The goal is to create a virtual society or community," says Hirai.

PlayStation 3 was originally due in stores in spring, but development delays forced Sony to push back the introduction. The delay gives a yearlong head start to Microsoft's $300-and-up Xbox 360, which was introduced in November and is still in short supply. Microsoft has sold 3.2 million units worldwide, 1.8 million in the USA.

Nintendo's Wii (pronounced "we") system, which is expected to be less expensive than either the 360 or the PS3, and which comes with an innovative controller, is to be unveiled at a news conference today.

Complicating this next generation of consoles is an underlying battle over high-definition video-disc formats. PS3 games will be on the new Blu-ray Disc format, and the system will play Blu-ray high-definition movies. Microsoft plans to market an add-on drive that will play movies in the competing HD DVD format championed by Toshiba with supporting studios Warner, Universal and Paramount.

lol@sony

It's not a motion detector. The Wii will have a motion detector, and the console will know where in the room your controller is, and which direction it's moving in, and how it's oriented, and how fast it's going. The PS3 pad just has a tilt sensor. Like it Kirby Tilt n Tumble on the Gameboy Color, or the last GBA Warioware. All the console will be able to tell is which way you're tipping the pad.

god, otm

All the console will be able to tell is which way you're tipping the pad.

The press says this:
In addition to the “3-posture-axis” of roll, pitch and yaw, “3-dimension acceleration information (X, Y, and Z)” can be detected in high-precision and in real-time.

It sounds like it can detect motion as well as tilt, but yeah, maybe not orientation or spatial position. Although if it just keeps track of all the tilt/motion information I'm sure it can extrapolate that stuff given an initial calibration.

xpost

PS3 To Be The Size Of A Victorian Waffle Iron:

http://cache.kotaku.com/images/2006/05/ps3profile.jpg

not yet.

YEAR-OLD TECH PROTOTYPE UNDERGOES CHANGES
FEATURES REMOVED DURING COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

Right. Because a lot of people don't have TVs that would enable you to make use of that functionality. Because this is the UK and how many people here are HD ready? Ooh, around about NONE.

Hear hear. As much as I don't really want one, I'm tempted by this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJElsNaC6yQ&search=sony%20conference%201%20minute

Sorry if this has already been posted. I fell out of my chair after watching it.

dear sony,
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7645/youfailit9jk.png

I would agree with this completely if it weren't for the 360 iteration of Fight Night, which is mindfuckingly fun to the point of nearly selling me on a 360 all by its lonesome. Also Rockstar Table Tennis looks weird enough for me to love.

But other than that, yes, the 360 is a lifeless, arid valley of fun.

EVER HEARD OF "SOUTH KOREA" OR "JAPAN", NOOB?

and they all looked like shit.

lol

lol

also, what does this even mean

in the next 2 years or so it will be cheaper, easier and more convenient to get HD television and movies on-demand from your broadband connection than by purchasing a single-function playback device and the optical media to stick in it.

some people are touting that fiber optic cable run to your house is the way to accomplish this but from what I've seen and heard in just the past month yr standard coax cable connection works just dandy already.

A consumer in 2008 has two choices for HD: A) buy HDTV, subscribe to HD cable service and broadband internet access, get PPV on-demand shows and features; B) buy HDTV, do all of the above, and then spend another mint for an HD optical player and the movies to play in it.

The PPV content library makes or breaks the Sony machine. Either people love MGM and Columbia so much that they'll go into debt to watch them in HD, or they don't. You make that call.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sony11jul11,0,2061426.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Sony Corp. has patented technology that would prevent its PlayStation consoles from playing used, rented or borrowed video games -- raising questions about whether the electronics and entertainment giant may attempt to redefine what it means to own something in the digital age.

Speculation over Sony's plans for the technology have sparked a furor online as game fans and consumer advocates fret that the company may incorporate it into the upcoming PlayStation 3 console, due to hit stores this fall.

Scarily accurate!

http://video-games.search.ebay.com/playstation-3_Systems_W0QQsacatZ62054

10. Ridge Racer 7 looks a helluva lot better on the xbox360 than the ps3, so besides having zero launch titles anybody wants to play, what it HAS are launch titles that are best experienced via last year's system.

I just asked Nick abt this (as we're about to buy a HD teevee and it'll probably only do 720 or 1080i tops), as I was worried the Xbox is the same. He sez no, and he also said that it is true the PS3 samples down if you set it to 1080p.. but it will still do 720 if you *set* it to 720 on the PS3.

Still, that said, thats one hell of a waste of what could be a $5000+ television if you cant use its best resolution. Thats a joke.

and then turned it off to play more Gears of War.

In exchange for your PlayStation 3, you can get a lifetime supply of tacos. Send your name and phone number to the following email: tacobellnews@tacobell.com

$900 for playstation x 3

I'll leave the zingers to y'all.

I hope Sony balls up the March deadline at the last minute, really.

Gates' comments that I posted to my 2 day old ps3 keeps freezing. are dead-on. they gave themselves an extra year of lead time and used all of it doing damage control, then priced their customer base out of the market.

If I sound like a pit bull fanboy going after this thing and the company that makes it, it's because I spent most of last year learning my project management fundamentals and the business of engineering and this utter debacle deserves just about every last bit of dogging it gets. The number of mistakes and layers of pathetic, delusional spin applied here is fucking boggling, coming from a company that everyone thought couldn't possibly fuck up.

Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe Sony dared to dream the impossible dream of building a magic synergy of Bravia 1080p TVs plugged into PS3s playing Blu-Ray discs in every household, maybe they thought everybody in the world would get a 300% raise between 2001 and 2007, maybe it wasn't hubris and they really thought they were going to accomplish this great, amazing thing, in the highest definition around.

Or maybe they really thought "fuck the consumer, we'll fleece the bastards with our brand name, we can't lose" and in due course they'll wind up in one of those bestsellers that has a whole chapter on New Coke.

Oh, no, I'm not bitter....

I'm just saying that I'm glad I don't know what crow tastes like.

If that ever happened, there's simply no way that Nintendo could compete, but nothing that either Sony or Microsoft has done to date has convinced me that they're smart enough to fix these sorts of problems.

I think that we're stuck with a situation where the best games are on the worst console, and that's pretty sad, but good for Nintendo for seeing a weakness and exploiting it.

It actually reminds me of the way baseball works these days. Nintendo is the Oakland A's!

Do i as a gamer preferring weird-ass japanese stuff, zelda/metroid/castlevania games, and titles with a good narrative give a shit if the thing i'm playing it on can display 40 gazillion triangles every second with BLAST PROCESSING if the thing runs 3x the cost as my more-or-less pretty good console?

It's the Saturn all over again, but with the original PS' reliability factor.(My saturn works like a champ and I used the hell out of that thing. I dare you to find a fully functional original playstation)

Any game on the Wii would look and play better with more horsepower. You can use that hardware for evil -- like some immense, soulless reality simulator -- but you can also use it for artistic means as well. Sony and Microsoft don't seem to understand that there is a market for games that are artful or games that are FUN, but a fun game with amazing graphics and high quality rendering would be really cool and I'd like to play it!

STFU noob, you don't know shit about PROGRAMMING or COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE.

I shall refrain from addressing them and referencing them.
I humbly suggest you do the same.

then don't get a PS3!!! At least with the 360 you have a GREAT selection of stuff on Live Arcade, road-tested network multiplayer and weird shit like Blue Dragon and Viva Pinata. I don't know any exclusives for the PS3 besides White Knight that look even remotely half-interesting and yeah, I think it's going to be obliterated - since as you noted they can't even push refurbs and trade-ins on people anymore. Price point was just too high to start with.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/livearcadexbox360/default.htm

UH

jesus I'm a fucking johnny one-note! Sorry!!

Sony's PS3 debacle continues to be mystifying though; like everyone else, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and their hidden killer ap (GTA/Tekken crossover, fleshlight attachment) to drop, because what they're doing now makes no sense at all.

I have one! I got it on launch, and it's chipped. Even Sony said that'd do the things in!

I agree with that totally, still waiting on the price-dropped non-fugly edition to come out though

Retro gaming is one thing, but new titles is another. Viva Pinata is a really good example of what Microsoft should do more of, and hopefully is a sign of things to come. If they come out with a few more titles along those lines, I'll buy a 360.

Am I seriously the only MGS whore here? MGS4 (and yeah, FFXIII) are going to tempt the hell out of me once they're out. There's also Devil May Cry 4 but it looks like everything else I wanted (GTA4, VF5, RE5) is getting a 360 port.

Bahahaa, if that's true and Square Enix comes to the same conclusion, it's game over. Devil May Cry can't carry shit.

“Kick his ass and take his name!” someone shouted from a few rows behind me.

“Who?” answered Reggie in mid-autograph.

“Phil Harrison, front row!” Sure enough, there was Phil Harrison, seated dead center, front row. Looks like he could show up on time for Nintendo’s keynote, but not Sony’s.

With a grin and a chuckle, Reggie replies, “Some would say we’ve already done that.”

Rumored $100 price drop on July 17:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160820

now it only costs twice as much as the popular kid

Ninja Gaiden Sigma!

i'm slowly coming round to the idea that the ps3 might just hang in there & become successful, but not for a couple of years. can sony afford to wait that long?

I want to play LittleBigPlanet something terrible, but not $500 worth of terrible.

The price drop is coming tomorrow.

I'll wait for the next one.

jeez - sales up 2,500% in the last 24 hours on amazon...

there's an 80GB model with free Motorstorm for $600 on the way too

Change that to "free motorboat" and maybe we'll talk.

360 Elite is said to be dropping to $400 bucks anyway, I'll have that.

Target stores now exclusively carrying Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, big price drop on the 360's HD-DVD drive.

has anybody actually watched a blu-ray or hd-dvd with any of these things?

I have an HDDVD player for the 360, and I use it all the time. Or will be, as long as they keep making HDDVD. I got it cheap.

dude mine is coming with six free Blu-ray discs. I'm sure you need a 1080p HDTV to tell the diff, but I'll be getting one of those shortly.

that Target thing isn't true:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/format-war/next-gen-slapfest-hd-dvd-responds-to-blu+rays-target-exclusivity-282967.php

You can definitely see the difference with a 720p HDTV, but not all HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs have been created equal. Just like with early DVDs (or current cheap/piss-poor DVD transfers), some of both new formats early transfers have been less than impressive. However - with a good transfer, it really pops - close to twice as sharp an image (720p vs 420p or i) really makes a difference on a bigger TV.

720p is fine, there are hundreds of forum threads all over the internets where dispute rages about whether 720p is actually maybe even BETTER than 1080i (1080p barely exists, i thought - and anyway isn't supported by any broadcasters as far as i know) - several broadcasters have already standardized on 720p (especially sports channels). anyway, it's what i have so i'll defend it to kingdom come.

btw, i still haven't seen ONE THING in HD since i bought my HD set. some day, i guess.

1080p sure as hell exists for Blu-ray discs and certain PS3 games. For everyone else, wait on that.

Well, I should say that it exists for HD-DVD but I don't think there are any 360 games that are native 1080p and not upscaled yet, some say Halo 3 might be but I haven't seen any confirmation.

My buddy has a PS3 with a 720p setup, and the Blu-ray looks great. I've never seen HD-DVD, but the Blu-ray is much nicer than regular DVD, I was impressed.

If you have HD or Blu-ray, you should rent the Planet Earth documentary!

Yeah, I've heard people talk about Planet Earth a lot as a good HD demo.

1080 x 1920 in a moving image is not something the human eye is really capable of appreciating. If you have a computer monitor that supports that resolution, try comparing a screensaver at 720 x 1280 and at the higher res (1080p) and see if you care (like $$+ worth of caring). From what I've heard 1080i and 720p are functionally equivalent except that 1080i won't be as crisp in all circumstances.

I haven't seen anything on HD with my HDTV either. Fuck a $300 receiver.

*sigh*

of course you can't tell on a computer monitor, Tombot. That's why they barely even sell TVs smaller than 40" with 1080p.

but you're going to be sitting a lot further away from the tv screen!

anyhoo I read somewhere most people can't tell beyond 780p and I believe it

er 720p

haha ok man, suit yrself

you can tell the difference from five feet away on a 40" screen, the bigger the screen, the further away you can sit and still see it.
http://comcal.wboc.com/img/resvsdist.jpg

uhm.. who the hell is sitting 20 feet away from their TVs, much less owning a TV with an 80" screen?? unless that diagram is intended to be read and used by a race of giants and giantesses, which i would be down with, btw

in any case, the one thing this diagram proves is that unless you live in an airplace hangar, don't buy some giant fuck-off TV that you can't afford because you'll get it home, out of the box, sit six feet away like a normal person does and start wondering why everything looks WORSE

I think you read it wrong. It says that if you sit 6 feet away you should have a 46" TV or thereabouts for the full benefit of 1080p. If you plan on sitting ten or more feet away, a big ass projector that fills the wall is the only way to tell the difference. Those lines on the chart go all the way back. It isn't saying you need to sit 18 feet away from a 100 inch screen to see 1080p.

basically if you get a regular tv that fits in a regular room and sit at a regular distance 1080p/i isn't perceptible, which I think is what the article I read was pointing out

You could say the same for 720p if that's what you're going by! If you want a fuck off TV that you're going to sit right in front of while gaming, there is a difference. If you just want a 25" TV to watch on a couch clear across the room, why would you even be interested in HD?

oh i see.

the problem comes in, as i mentioned earlier, with watching non-HD broadcasts on a 46" LCD or plasma display. unless you buy a special, smaller TV just to watch actual TV on, the moment you switch from your super-crisp game or Blu-Ray disc to watching, i dunno, Law and Order SVU, it will look BAD unless you get up and press yourself against the far wall.

which is why i got a 28" 740p TV - it's going to look good no matter what, plus it doesn't dominate my frickin room, even though it's bigger than any TV i ever had growing up.

i mean 720p. i have been infected.

I guess the difference for me is that I have a separate room from the bedroom and living room just for gaming/movies/computer so a big ass dominator TV is exactly what I want, and I'm not too concerned about the SD quality for that.

Some HDTVs are doing a decent job of SD conversion now, but it also depends on the source from your cable company. A channel for syndicated re-runs is probably going to look shittier than a premium movie channel, etc. I wouldn't dream of buying HD just for broadcast at this point, even DirecTV only offers about 18 HD channels, and none of them look all that interesting besides HBO and Showtime. You can also get HD TNT for that Law and Order fix, the big networks, Discovery and ESPN but that's about it.

hi 5z to the Hand Man
is it a Philips? because then we probably have exactly the same teevee

btw on that note, the philips pixelplus or whatever sub-pixel automatic detection and shading it does is really awesome - the words Playstation 2 have never looked more crisp (ditto with the Wii menus)

it's a toshiba. which i refer to as "the toshiba". and my bad, it's only a 26" .. this thing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-26WLT66-Widescreen-Pictureframe-Freeview/dp/customer-reviews/B000HVFQSS

not sure about subpixel stuff. my DVD is hooked up via HDMI and the PS2 is hooked up via component cable. i would imagine that playing AVIs thru a computer connected with an actual monitor cable (which is supported) would probably look pretty good but i haven't tried it yet, mainly because i can never remember what sex the ends of the cable should be when i'm near a shop that sells them

http://www.funtechtalk.com/boy-arrested-for-writing-ps3-sucks-on-game-cases/

the PS3 is going to get a DVR peripheral called PlayTV (well, in UK, France Italy, Germany & Spain initially)
"PlayTV will allow users to watch, pause and record live TV. PlayTV can also record individual shows, or entire series to the PS3 hard drive. The videos can then be watched from the PS3, or can be transferred to the PSP to watch on the go. PlayTV will provide a 7-day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG2) utilizing the "widely available" DVB-T format."
it also has two tuners (so you can watch something & record something different at the same time) & streaming via wifi to PSP.

so is this something people will buy? how much will they charge?

the DualShock 3 is more important

not sure why that's getting buried

good games are more important than either. god damn Sony, three or four PS3 games I want vs like 50 360 games I want. hop to it.

wot, no double-ended dildo controller yet?

haha marmot see the nintendo kids only had to spend half as much money to feel that way

Oh, I'm still buying a Wii when I can find one. Then I'll have all six of those cool PS3 and Wii games to play when my 360 goes kaput and I can't play all the good shit on it.

PlayTV looks like it's just a PS branded twin "digibox" - a pair of digital tv tuners - they're cool but... it's not integrated with whatever other cable/satellite you've got for one thing and for another there are, or are going to be (over in north america where you get all this stuff late) a smorgasbord of low and high end alternatives to "PlayTV"

ok, they've FINALLY confirmed the new cheaper model (at least in EU)
http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4434&NewsAreaID=2

for 399 euros you get : Bluray (duh), 40gig HD, wifi & HDMI, wireless controller (?but no rumble yet?)
whats missing : any PS2 compatibility (wuh?), two less USB ports, no card reader.

anyone interested now? maybe next year when some games come out?

i think a few good games actually drop before xmas... i forget where i was reading, but it has the most exclusive blockbuster titles between now and december 25th (of course, halo no longer coutned as it's out). but meh, i still don't care, the 360 is working out nicely.

still to come in '07:

Folklore
Haze
Ratchet & Clank
Tekken 6
Time Crisis 4
Uncharted
WipEout HD

technically the blu-ray @ magic 400 price point should make this model fly but no backwards compatibility makes this hater keep the fires burning

also it is still bigger than some amplifiers

(if msft would just come out with an xbox 360 that wasn't atrociously huge and ugly I would get one just for XBLA)

Where did you hear that Tekken 6 was coming out this year? I'm pretty sure that's not right.

It's really not an exciting line-up for the rest of 2007 - tho I'll probably pick up Ratchet, Uncharted - and possibly/maybe/undecided about Folklore and/or Haze. Definitely planning to download Wipeout & Everyday Shooter.

Early 2008 though with MSG4 and Burnout Paradise and hopefully Little Big Planet(?) is looking quite strong.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1649&Itemid=49

Tekken 6
Namco Bandai
US: 12/01/07
UK: TBA

Why the fuck would they remove backwards compatibility? I thought the whole point of the software compatibility was that it wouldn't cost them any more to manufacture units. God they are dumb.

But yeah the launch line up for the next 12 months looks hott. Don't forget Singstar in December!

+ Assassin's Creed

Is Folklore really that exciting? I played through the demo once (using the woman character) and was already bored by the end of that.

WIPEOUT HD SOUNDS AWESSSSSS

I JUST HOPE THE SOUNDTRACK INCLUDES PHOTEK AND THE PRODIGY AGAIN

IGN gave Folklore a 9 and they usually hate anything that isn't a ready made blockbuster in the first place. I'm getting it.

http://jbooth.blogspot.com/2007/10/ps3-misconceptions-and-spin.html

http://daveasbell.blogspot.com/2007/08/trouble-with-ps3.html

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/ratchetandclankfuturetoolsofdestruction

one holiday title from insomniac a year should definitely keep the business alive.

haha, Kaz is quitting coz the ps3 is a failure!

gran turismo 5 is awesome

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/sony.html -- sad story

The look is appropriate; almost everything about PlayStation represents a fresh take on the industry. Kaz Hirai is just 36 years old. Almost everyone in his management team is in their 30s -- too young, they say, to have much regard for the status quo. "Young people don't have preconceived notions about how things should be done," says Phil Harrison, SCEA's vice president for third-party relations and R&D. "They just come up with solutions -- without even realizing that they've arrived at success in a 'strange' way."

Harrison personifies the point. At 27, the tall, amiable Englishman works with outside game developers (Electronic Arts, Lucas Arts, Crystal Dynamics) to create a relentless stream of killer PlayStation titles. It's a role for which he seems born: ambitious, bright, and deeply interested in computers and video, he programmed his first game at 13 and at 16 quit school to become a consultant. Six years later he joined Sony and was assigned to a top-secret project known only as PSX. After two years of work, PSX became PlayStation. Harrison, still a kid, became an executive.

kingfish where did you hear that? or are you clowning my ass

Geoff Keighley: In a way, Sony is handing the keys to the kingdom to Microsoft this holiday season. But will Microsoft fully capitalize on the opportunity? I'm not so sure. Why? It might have something to do with a Nielsen study that came out which says only 14 percent of US homes have HD-capable TVs. This is less than half what was estimated by the Consumer Electronics Association in July, and may help explain why the Wii continues to dominate relative to the 360 and PS3.

N'Gai Croal: Sony has learned the hard way that it can't afford to launch a) 12 months after Microsoft with b) esoteric hardware, subpar tools and an incomplete online service at c) a $200 premium. Kutaragi's forced departure, the sale of Sony's semiconductor facilities to Toshiba and the fact that Sony Electronics has yet to launch any Cell-based products demonstrate loudly and clearly that the Era of the Visionary Engineer is over at Sony Computer Entertainment.

tom i appreciate your continuing quest to convince me to never buy something i was never going to buy anyway!

(not trying to be snarky, i like this thread)

haha I am really being a nintendo homer here but like I've said before following the implications of this particular exercise in mismanagement, how they went from being the unassailable number one to being the lol wtf of the industry, without any big changes in leadership or brain drain, is fascinating. I plan to buy another PS2 probably.

i still only have a ps2! and i'll probably pick up a 360 when the used prices come down a bit more. whatever gets me into GTA. if anyone cares!

shame about gran turismo 5, tho. pour one out.

it's too bad that "esoteric hardware" was coined to describe this instead of something actually awesome like it sounds

(not trying to be snarky, i like this thread)

Agreed. This has been great reading. Basing my next-gen buy on whatever platform "Silent Hill 5" chose, have been reading this thread and crossing fingers that they didn't go the PS3 route exclusively. Once they announced a 360 release, bought mine.

Now I only fear the red rings.

I finally have a ps2 again, after buying it from departing roommate.

I'm not sure Geoff Keighley (whoever he is) knows what he's talking about - for one thing the Neilson study didn't say "only 14 percent of US homes have HD-capable TVs," it just said only 14% of US hosehold use their TV to watch HD programming - those are two different things. I actually know at least a few people who have HDTVs but never have gotten anything HD with 'em - crazy but true. For another thing, one paragraph later in that conversation he states he's not sure if he believes Super Mario Galaxy will sell 500,000 copies in November!

I can't be bothered to tell my landladies to get DirecTV to come and upgrade our satellite to the 5-LDR whatsit you need to even get HD, so more like "lazy but true." As stated previously by me I find the additional contrast provided by finally upgrading to component cables to be more than enough for me at the moment.

If Keighley means in North America alone, then I can see it not necessarily moving 500,000 copies by December.

I have a 360 and no HD-TV, and have been very satisfied with my purchase. The graphics might not be as good as they could be, but they're still obviously better than my PS2 or the Wii, and unfortunately that does matter to me.

I did say "at the moment" btw

uncharted: drake's fortune demo out today! if it's as good as everyone says it is, sounds like it will be the best ps3 exclusive of the year.

i really think sony are starting to get their act together. maybe that's wishful thinking

The fate of the PS3 at this point seems to very emphatically hinge on the adoption of blu-ray as the next-generation media standard that everybody needs to replace their DVDs with, and I'm not buying it, at all.

lol

WHAT SAY YOU NOW, WISEGUY?

that everybody needs to replace their DVDs with

still not satisfied!! NEMBM

(not even michael bay movies)

divx/xvid hd ftw

the ps3 can play those too!

to follow up on a few of my previous posts to this thread:

1) i have now finally bought a real monitor cable to connect my laptop to my TV, and i have to say -- a well-encoded divx/xvid looks FANTASTIC. who needs bluray when i can essentially watch DVDs, in DVD quality, for free.

2) on the other hand, the PlayTV thing looks a lot neater to me now than it did back then. a PVR with a nice interface and twin Freeview tuners, all controllable via the PS3? uh.. OK then!!! i guess the only slight caveat is the relatively paltry amount of space on a PS3 harddrive. my PVR has 160G.

here's the most recent news about PlayTV, priced at £99 and available in spring 2008 - http://www.psu.com/PlayTV-DVR-service-priced-and-dated-for-UK--a0002267-p0.php

TH - you do know you can switch out the harddrive in a ps3 to whatever size you so desire?
http://kotaku.com/gaming/howto/upgrade-your-ps3-hard-drive-326750.php

oh man $400 for the console + $160 for a useful size disk + $60 for the cable + $150 for the PVR add-on AND I still get to pay for HD programming on a monthly basis! THAT's a steal

(GBP mileage will vary obv but I don't imagine by much)

I agree that all this TV, blu-ray and download movie add on stuff is pretty much just a waste of time and money (and focus). I just wanna play games!

I play my 360 on a pathetic 20" standard television, so I won't be buying a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD anything for some time. Also, I still watch a surprising number of VHS movies, so maybe I'm not the target market.

Still, it would be nice to be able to actually read game menus.

I hate that just as much as you do. My lousy little TV set just isn't good enough to read text during a game.

That's the developer's fault though.

$60 for a cable tombot? where do you shop?

ok it does appear that some economies of scale have started working in HDMI consumers' favor

I hadn't checked in probably 1-2 years tbh

That's the developer's fault though.

OK, I'll call em up and tell em to re-do the menus.

while you're there can you ask them to take out the boss battles because they got boring 12 years ago kthx

u down with hd-dvd?
yeah u know me~

just 4 context btw:

Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD after Warner Brothers’ recent backing of Sony’s Blu-ray technology, in a move that will sound the death knell of HD DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.

However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner Bros backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.

That's the developer's fault though.

Yeah, but whata re you gonna do? Tell them to patch every game they've ade to be SDTV-friendly? Nah, you gots to go buy a HDTV (or a VGS adapter for the 360, much cheaper)

But seriously, isn't this like companies only making Betamax and abandoning VHS? Or is Sony handling their proprietary format differently this time (unlike Betamax, A-Trac, Minidisc, Memory Stick Duo... any others I am forgetting?)?

What does a VGS adapter do?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/home_entertainment/video/e3i3fd4ee13311f04022e54b3409b401b2e

LAS VEGAS -- A New Line Home Entertainment spokesman confirms reports that the minimajor is following distributor Warner Home Video's lead in abandoning HD DVD and releasing all future next-generation titles only in the Blu-ray Disc format.

And HBO Video president Henry McGee says HBO, too, is "following the same policy as Warner Home Video."

i meant to say VGA adapter... allows you to attach a 360 to your computer monitor

But seriously, isn't this like companies only making Betamax and abandoning VHS? Or is Sony handling their proprietary format differently this time (unlike Betamax, A-Trac, Minidisc, Memory Stick Duo... any others I am forgetting?)?

-- Will M., Friday, 11 January 2008 02:12 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Not really. You can't assume everyone playing your game will have a 200 inch HD screen. Just don't use tiny fonts unless you genuinely need to.

This, and dopey developers forgetting those of us who are red/greed colour deficient and chucking an incredibly stupid colour combination puzzle bang in the middle of a game that prevents us playing any further. 'Just shoot the purple ones! The blue ones are wholesome and will lose you points!' I mean seriously, it's not like two people in the world have colour impaired vision ffs.

$400 for the console + $160 for a useful size disk + $60 for the cable + $150 for the PVR add-on AND I still get to pay for HD programming on a monthly basis!

- i already have the cable
- no need to pay for HD programming, since DVB over the air is free

it is still quite a bit of money for a game device that can record TV..

Eh? AA, that's not at all what I was asking about... I was talking about Sony's proprietary formats, and how they usually all end up doomed because Sony handles them really stupidly. But yeah, the red-green thing sucks, one of my best buddies is a giant puzzle game nerd and automatically can't play a BUNCH of games due to this. Also, he can't see the purple guys against the blue bkgd in Geo Wars.

So, um, are there any good games for this that aren't FPSs? I'm looking at getting Virtua Tennis 3 and Virtua Fighter 5 so far and I have Rock Band.

are there any good games for this that aren't FPSs?

ok lol

Yeah, I know.

Also can someone clear up the compatibility thing for me? According to my manual, PS2 games are NOT compatible????

Never mind:

40GB PlayStation®3 System:
This model of the PLAYSTATION®3 system is designed to play PLAYSTATION®3 format software and has limited backward compatibility. This system is not compatible with and will not play PlayStation®2 format software. Some PlayStation® format software may play on this system.

THANKS SONY (not yr fault, Dad; how could you know?)

Oblivion, if you haven't got it on something else. Not long til GTA 4. That's all I got.

The last Virtua Tennis was pretty disappointing (I had the 360 version but sold it back). The problem with Virtua Fighter on the ps3 is no online play - maybe not a problem for you? Tekken DR is available as a digital download for 30 bucks, I think, and does feature online play - though it has a weird matchmaking system - and not too many players - which can too often lead to frustratingly laggy games (I still play it tho).

Burnout Paradise is out today!
Skate?
Hot Shots Golf just officially announced for March
Super Stardust HD is a fun twin stick shooter (available for download - eight or ten bucks)

Soul Calibur 4 comes out this year, right?

also Ninja Gaiden Sigma if you didn't play the earlier versions and are up for a challenge.

The Ratchet and Clank is sort of a combo platformer / shooter. What I've played (1/3?), I've only thought was ok (put it down when Super mario came out a week or so later), but some other people seem to have enjoyed it a lot.

and I haven't played it (not my kind of thing), but some people seem to think the rpg-ish Folklore is worth a look (there's probably a demo on the store, I can't remember).

Both Soul Calibur 4 and Tekken 6 are supposed to be out later this year... no dates yet though?

Isn't Uncharted supposed to be hell of good except for the clunky, tacked-on motion controls?

assassin's creed isn't really an FPS? you might dig it. probably easy to run down a used copy, too

I tried the Folklore demo. It is a bag of dicks.

Also all of the used copies of Assassin's Creed I've seen so far are only $5 off the new price (wtf Gamestop).

never shop gamestop/eb unless you are in a dire and terrible video game emergency

motorstorm is pretty great, as is colin mcrae dirt
fight night 3 is supposed to be pretty good and you can pick it up for very cheap these days i think

seconding super stardust hd, and everyday shooter is pretty good too. tekken 5: dr is worth the 20 or so bux

Tho Gamecrazy is good if you're 2-3 years off of release date and you want to get a neat jrpg for $13-$15

I still play Motorstorm sometimes - though I never played it too much. I feel like it is kind of limited and the races can be kind of cheap. Though it's a pretty good looking game. The menu thing does kind of bug me every time I put it in though.

What I've played of Dirt (which I only just recently picked up) has been really solid. Great looking game too. It's hard, challenging, but fair. It also works with racing wheels (if you have one). I would knock a point off though for it not having a proper online mode. In this day and age that seems cheap in a racing game - even GT5: Prologue has online racing.

Motorstorm's online mode works surprisingly well and can be fun in a more casual (mario kart?) kind of way...

wait, PS3 isn't compatible with PS2 games, wtf????

by the way i am still ordering PS1 games off ebay - i can't help it, i'm addicted!

The 40GB version isn't compatible with PS2 games. I don't know why.

they took out the bits that made ps2 games work, helping reduce the cost of the console. i suppose it makes sense cos ps2s are so cheap these days + a lot of the target market already own one anyway.
is there a way of finding out the software attach rate for the ps3? theres been some talk about how a lot of people buy the ps3 as its one of the cheapest bluray players, and when the price of standalones fall the ps3 will sell even less (i kinda doubt this though)

fight night 3 is supposed to be pretty good

Fight Night 3 is stupidly great and I will rep for it anytime anyone mentions it ever.

Another theory about taking out the ps2 backwards compatibility (besides cost cutting) is that eventually they want to be able to sell the ps2 library as software emulated downloadables on the store, killing off the used games industry, or at least getting a piece of it (like the 360 has started to do with their xbox classics line, but since you can still buy the used discs of those games for less and they'll work on the 360, I don't know how successfully that's going).

It's a shame that they took it out though, because when you upscale the ps2 games via the other models of ps3, many of them actually look a fair bit sharper on an hdtv than when played on the ps2

Rumors are that Sony are going to drop the price of the 40 gig PS3 and introduce a new white PS3.

Also, Sony have a deal where you get http://sonycard.sony.com/sonygateway/gateway.asp?offerlink=adbrit100&PID=none&SPID=B7RZ&CELL=628Y&MSC=MO001001&AFFID=&CLICK=&CID=&PROMO=DF0100 back if you sign up with their credit card and buy a PS3. You get 0% interest for 12 months too. $199 Playstation? Pretty good if it's true.

argh fuckin code. that is supposed to say you get $100 back if you buy a ps3

http://bp2.blogger.com/_dFTTyOQ8rOY/R4L3D9rPVDI/AAAAAAAAACU/Un7ZJ-jWgf4/s1600-h/whichconsole.jpg

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4732/whichconsolerb9.jpg

the first question must be code for "do you have $2000?"

"Are you one of those assholes who will only play a FPS with a mouse?"

Slutsky made this masterwork (my name is Luc):

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/8162/whichconsolerb9wm7.jpg

I didn't know my name was Luc!

so now that's settled, should i buy one of these?

lol, I'm cool!

you also like video games! go back to ITR, nerd!