[[PS3]]
Personally I couldn’t care less about the E3 Sony press conference, I’m an Xbox fanboy, however I am aware that many people have a lot of love for Sonys “next gen” console. To that end you might be interested to know the press conference will be starting around 11am today and you can find real time/live feeds from Gamespot to keep you as up to date as possible. Of course I’ll also blog things as I hear them but I’m expecting to yawn a lot, so I wouldn’t hold your breath or anything. Good luck to Sony, time to put your money where your mouth is 😉
[Update 1] Well ironically the whole thing has started almost an hour late and buzz words are flying, so far there’s little information on the PS3… my fav quote so far “The next generation doesn’t start until we say it’s time”, who are these people kidding?
[Update 2] PS3 features and benefits: Powered by Cell. CD, DVD, Blu-Ray disc. Bluetooth, WiFi, Ethernet. Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Legacy SD to full HD support (1080p). Wireless controller, up to seven players, pre-installed HDD. USB, Memory Stick, SD, Compact Flash. Gigabit Ethernet network, removable hard drive.
[Update 3] I’m not really sure what the story is with their HD, they seem to be all over the place, aka 1080p is far from standard, for example they are showing off Grand Turismo Prototype in 1080i. According to the people over at joystiq “As we zoom down the Tokyo track demo, it doesn’t appear all that much sharper or higher quality than PGR3. A quick side discussion verifies that it’s not just me. The foliage doesn’t look so hot. Then again, this is just a demo. It doesn’t appear that motion blur has been added in yet, or if it’ll even be added to the game. The draw distance isn’t that hot either. We can see buildings in the distance pop into view here and there. It’s a very attractive racing game, but not heads and shoulders above PGR3, which is our basis for comparison.” Joystiq go on to say “There are hints of greatness in the demo: glimpses of polish and speed that indicate that this will be a very, very hot game by the time it’s on store shelves. For PS3’s sake, we’re hoping that the extra development time translates into clear visual distinction versus the Xbox 360’s premiere race title.”
Of course it pays to keep in mind this is a demo, not a finished game, so things look promising. Although 1080p sounds over rated and to me higher res doesn’t = better graphics or any innovation in the console.
[Update 4] Now this is what I’ve been waiting for their online strategy. Looks like they are going to copy Xbox Live as expected, friends list, messaging, player profiles, micro transactions etc etc. One cool thing they have going for them is sing star via their online service. You can go through a catalogue of songs online and purchase the ones you actually want instead of being stuck with a disc full of songs no one knows. Nice move on that one.
[Update 5] It looks like there is some nice integration between the psp and the ps3. A demo is shown of a psp showing a live feed of a wing mirror in a ps3 f1 game. It also looks like you will be able to get a back catalogue of PSone games via an online service to play on a psp. Interesting stuff, I’m not so sure the wing mirror is a useful use of the concept but it’s a start. I could see it being cool using a psp as part of your heads up display in a game, like displaying your map in a first person shooter, or even a video feed like the cross com system in GRAW on the Xbox 360.
[Update 6] Ok now this is the real kicker, the new controller (which looks the same as the old controller) is motion sensitive. That’s quite a big deal given the Xbox 360 is the only one that doesn’t have that interface (not that they can’t add it, it is after all just a controller). To be honest this is quite a cool feature, I’m sure Microsoft will match this soon enough.
[Update 7] Official pricing and the release date is Nov 11 2006 for Japan and Nov 17 for North American with pricing at 20GB for $499, 60GB for $599. Europe has 20GB for 499 Euro, 60GB for 599 Euro. 2 million to ship worldwide during the launch window. 4 million by end of calendar year 2006. I don’t want to sound like a crazy fanboy but the idea of selling 4 million by years end when you only have 2 months sounds like setting yourself up for failure, especially given the price and problems they are having producing “cell” chips at the moment.