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PS3 Launch Details Announced 796

Posted by Zonk from the that's-a-lot-of-quarters dept.
Sony's conference offered up reassurance that a number of their titles will be playable at this year's E3. The controller will sense movement, allowing the player to move an onscreen avatar 'naturally'. They also released the system's launch details. The North American PS3 launch will occur on Nov. 17th, 2006. The 20GB HDD version will retail for $499, and the 60GB HDD version will go for $599. They promise 4 million launch units by December 31st. Update: 05/09 03:57 GMT by Z : Apparently, not only does the $499 system have a smaller harddrive, but it has fewer features as well.
My two cents:

1.) I'm honestly surprised they're this far along with these titles. They may actually make the November launch.
2.) Even through an internet feed, it was obvious the only truly next-gen title there was Heavenly Sword (from the great folks at Ninja Theory). The EyeToy stuff looked cool, but isn't something I'm likely to try out any time soon. Most of the games could have been 360 or even late-lifetime Xbox titles.
3.) I won't be able to review games for this system at the launch price. There's no way I'm dropping $599 for a game console.
4.) The controller orientation thing is ... I don't have the words. Awkward? Cash-in? Cynical? Whatever their intent, it just seems like a bad idea.
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PS3 Launch Details Announced More

PS3 Launch Details Announced

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  • My favorite part (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:51PM (#15289769)
    My favorite part was when the Sony rep got up on stage and said that Sony isn't interested in Gimmicks.

    And then he demoed a card game that you play with a camera.

    And then he demoed a karaoke game.

    And then they came out and showed that their fancy new controller is going to be based around the same Goddamn "gimmick" Nintendo came up with last fall.

    Just... hilarious. Do these people even think about the things they're saying? There was some absolutely fricking awesome stuff in that press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment would be such a great company if they could just somehow get their executives to stop talking in public.

    • Re:My favorite part (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Sony (Score: -1, Redundant)

    • Re:My favorite part (Score:5, Funny)

      by AstrumPreliator ( 708436 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:36PM (#15290033)
      I completely agree with you.

      You know it's pretty sad when Microsoft is more innovative than you. What's original about the PlayStation 3? Controller? Nope, still the basic PS1 controller with features from the N64 and the new Wii controller. Console? Nope, the functionality looks pretty damn similar to the Xbox 360's dashboard (at least from what I saw). So good job Sony, way to bring something new to the table.

      On the plus side at least their final controller design wasn't that banana shaped dildo thing they were showing off earlier.

      • Re:My favorite part (Score:5, Insightful)

        by xero314 ( 722674 ) on Tuesday May 09, 2006 @12:03AM (#15290563)
        The thing here is the same reason the PS1 and PS2 were so successful. Sony does not have to inovate, they let others take those risks. Then sony comes in and does it better than any of their competitors (go ahead argue all you want). The PS3 controller is a fine example. They took the single best selling controller design in history (I mean there was a significant after market industry around allowing them to be hooked up to other machines) and added the functionallity that console fans have been saying they are interested in. Sony did the same thing with the CD rom when the ps1 came out.

        You don't have to do it first, if you can do it better.

      • Re:My favorite part (Score:5, Insightful)

        by zCyl ( 14362 ) on Tuesday May 09, 2006 @12:38AM (#15290740)
        What's original about the PlayStation 3? Controller?

        Better yet, what SHOULD be original about it? Would a Christmas-tree shaped controller be preferable? Or how about a one-button controller for simpler learning curves? If something works well, you don't have to muck with it just to be "original". Sometimes originality can get in the way of making a good product.

    • Re:My favorite part (Score:3, Informative)

      by ejdmoo ( 193585 )
      To be fair, MS had a motion sensing gamepad [amazon.com] out many years ago. I have one (haven't used it in a while). It does pitch and roll (no yaw).

      I've tried to play flying games with it (MS flight sim), and it sucked then, and I'll be surprised if it doesn't suck now. It's hard to get any precision from such things. Maybe they've improved, but I doubt it.
  • what happened to the boomerang? oh yeah nintendo came out with a real next gen controller and sony copied it. I think this is a good example of why companies like nintendo and apple are so careful about trade secrets. If the ps3 launched with what it had before nintento shoed the wii controller, it would still be a boomerang.

    Yikes! $600 console. RIP sony, even FFXIII won`t get me to dish out that much. I feel sorry for people who live in places like the UK. The usual mark up must be even worse over there.
    • Everyone seemed to hate the boomerang. They all thought it looked neat but everyone said it looked uncomfortable. We already knew there would be a new controller design.

      Of course, it looks excatly like the PS2 controller (only without a cable).

      Also, I've seen some pictures around and the PS3 seems to have gotten slightly fatter so that everything would fit inside.

    • Re:controller (Score:2, Interesting)

      by krotkruton ( 967718 )
      RIP sony

      First off, I think the PS3 is overpriced. However, most consoles are more expensive than the previous generation of consoles, depending on how you define a generation. Demand in a growing market and inflation both affect the price here. RIP for overpricing? How about RIP for only have 4 million consoles in the first month.

  • Where did they get that idea? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MaverickUW ( 177871 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:54PM (#15289787)
    Wow, Sony as ever shows their originality. I mean, a motion-sensing controller? Who in the hell would have thought of that brilliant idea? Wasn't this one of the same companies who wrote off Nintendo's idea as a gimmick? Wow, ironic the innovation that Sony comes up with. Let's hope for their sake that they didn't take too much away from Nintendo's idea... last thing they need is another company suing them over technology theft in their controllers. BTW, I wonder if Immersion could claim this Dual Shock like controller in violation of their patent too.

    As much as the patent system needs to go, companies like Sony almost make you want to have it.

    • Re:Where did they get that idea? (Score:5, Funny)

      by despisethesun ( 880261 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:58PM (#15289812)
      Just wait for the new handheld Sony will announce at E3 2007: the DSP!
    • "Wow, Sony as ever shows their originality. I mean, a motion-sensing controller? Who in the hell would have thought of that brilliant idea? Wasn't this one of the same companies who wrote off Nintendo's idea as a gimmick? Wow, ironic the innovation that Sony comes up with. Let's hope for their sake that they didn't take too much away from Nintendo's idea... last thing they need is another company suing them over technology theft in their controllers."

      Good thing Sony wasn't doing anything illegal like instal

  • $499? $599? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hirschma ( 187820 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:54PM (#15289788)
    Sony, say hello to third place. Consumers, say hello to an emergency price drop scheduled for Spring 2007.

  • What's the point? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MaverickUW ( 177871 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:57PM (#15289807)
    Um, what's the point with the 20GB hard drive model. Aren't blue-ray disks supposed to start at 25GB, and feasably scale all the way up to 100GB each? I mean, it'd be like putting a 500MB hard drive in a computer with a CD burner.

    • Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:04PM (#15289845) Homepage
      No, it's like putting a 200MB hard drive in a computer with a CD-ROM drive.

      We did that back when CDs were new on computers (1994 or so?).

      It is still a ton of space. It will work great for save games, cache, downloadable cars/charactes/levels/etc. And if it is expandable (with all the USB ports it ought to be, Nintendo is doing this) then it really isn't a problem.

      You may complain about the size. But at least it's there. *cough* *XBox 360* *cough*

      • Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Babbster ( 107076 )
        You may complain about the size. But at least it's there. *cough* *XBox 360* *cough*

        Excellent! Really, well done! Taking a shot at the X360 core system when a) Sony is also releasing two PS3 models at launch and b) the X360 core with a memory card can play every Xbox 360 game released so far for $160 less than the base PS3 system.

        One would hope that, considering Sony's price point, the complaints about the Xbox 360 (apart from the number of available games - which will probably be at worst equal to PS
    • You won't be putting games on the hard drive, it will be for downloadable content and saved games.
    • Except you don't install the game onto the drive, the drive is just for updates, saves, and your personal ATRAC3 collection. Haven't you ever used a console?

  • Pathetic. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cornface ( 900179 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:58PM (#15289810)
    That was the most pathetic E3 conference I have seen. I felt embarrassed for them when they announced the controller and they kept smiling and saying it was their "innovation." Then the nerdy guy got up and demoed it and it looked like it didn't work very well. He could barely land the stupid plane.

    The games they showed real footage of didn't look any better than the 360 titles that are already out.

    Really sad. This press conference removed most of my desire for a PS3. If you didn't watch it, go grab a copy from somewhere.

    • Of course the games don't look better (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @11:23PM (#15290330)
      We already know basically what the PS3's graphics chip is: It's an nVidia 7900 (notice that launched when the PS3 was orignally supposed to).

      The major graphics players have tons of R&D working overtime to keep cranking out new cards, and they throw everything they can in it. They don't have time to develop a 100% seperate architecture, nor can they afford to not put out their best technology in their cards. Thus, the console graphics cards are just modifications on their then-current technology. The 360 is more or less an ATi X1900, the PS3 will be more or less an nVidia 7900. They aren't directly comparable, since things are changed for console design, like using embedded RAM, different clock speeds, etc, but the basic technology and thus features is the same.

      So fire up a PC with a 7900 in it, you get a pretty good idea what you are going to get with a PS3. You can't run benchmarks and expect them to be spot on, but you get an idea of the kind of visual features and pciture quality you can expect. Given that the 7900 and X1900 are performing in the same class, the 360 and PS3 will do so as well graphics wise. I'm sure certian titles will be tweaked a bit for one or the other, but I wouldn't expect to see either pull ahead a significant amount from the other.
  • At that expensive of a price do they really think the PS3 will become as popular as the PS2 is now? While I understand that most of the early adopters will pay just about anything they'd better be able to drop the price pretty quickly after that.

    That said this will probably mean there won't be PS3 shortages this Christmas like there was last year with the Xbox 360.
    • Good luck with the shortages.

      As far as I know, my local GameStop has sold all their pre-order stock, and I'm pretty sure they have a list of at least 150-200 names of people who want to be called if one shows up.

      But the system is $500 for the base, not including games (probably $70 each). Not $200. Not $300. Not $400. $500.

      It doesn't matter how many kids want a PS3. With a price of $640 for a base system and two games (not including tax, which would run me about $40 putting the total at $700), just how m

      • Re:Insane price (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:12PM (#15289892) Homepage
        I forgot to mention. If the rumored $200 Wii price turns out true (along with the $50 games they are talking about), then for that same $640 you could buy a system and NINE games. Nine. Or six games and a bunch of controllers.

        Or one Wii for your son, one for your daughter (so they don't fight), and FIVE games to share between them.

        Or a Wii ($200), a 360 ($300), and 2-3 games between those two systems. More if the 360 has a price drop (possible to combat the PS3, but not really neccessary with such a high launch point).

        Heck, a full 360 (not core) and 3 or 4 games will cost less than the PS3 with one game.

        And all this is with the cheaper PS3 price point, no scalping

  • My Thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @09:59PM (#15289821) Homepage
    Wow. There is so much to say. I watched the whole thing unfold on Engadget/Joystiq.

    My first comment is the price. What else can I comment on? $500 FOR THE BASE SYSTEM? You've got to be kidding me! The next step up is $600. And considering you'll probably need a HDTV to get the most out of the system... that is a TON of money.

    They got the hard drive right though. MS got that right last time with it built in on the XBox but for some stupid reason they screwed that up with the 360. Now Sony has it right and MS has it backwards.

    The games look nice, but nothing revolutionary. The list of titles is all Something 3 and Whatever 4. There wasn't too much new there. Even the new titles were the same old genres.

    They "stole" the Wii-mote's features, or at least some of them. It doesn't have the light-gun like positioning. I wonder if they've had this all along or if they did it because of Nintendo. I suspect it was because of Nintendo because I think otherwise we would have heard something about it before, or at least hints. Almost all the demos they showed were the same old control style. I think they just aren't committed to this. And they said they were going to "redesign" the controller from the ugly boomerang thing. They didn't redesign it, they used the PS2 controller with some extra stuff packed in. It looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Don't get me wrong, the PS2 controller was good, but come on. I'm also skeptical about the "it weighs less" part.

    I was going to buy a 360 but then they cost too much ($400 for the non-crippled version). Now I'll wait until the redesign. I was going to buy a PS3 but now I'll wait ($500 for the base?). Nintendo has guaranteed that they will launch under $300, with speculation in the $200-$250 range. Nintendo will be able to clean MS and Sony's clocks based on price alone. Not even taking into account all the other great stuff (downloadable library, Wii-mote, great games, etc).

    I can't wait for Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.

    For the first time since the SNES generation, I won't be buying most of the consoles at launch. I waited a few months on the XBox was I was thrilled to get my PS2. The 360 doesn't excite me that much (mostly a games problem, I'm waiting to see what they show tomorrow). The PS3 doesn't excite me that much (mostly a games problem, we'll see). The Wii has me dreaming. I'll buy 'em all, I'm sure. But you won't see me spend over $300 on the console unless it includes games bundled in.

    PS: The Wii is supposed to have a little speaker and some memory in the controller. So when you shoot it like a gun, it makes a gun sound (instead of it coming out of the TV). What a great idea! Your tennis racket makes the sound where your racket is (instead of speakers), your gun too, and anything else. Pure genius.

    • $500? Guess you've never built a mame cabinet...

    • Re:My Thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:19PM (#15289926) Journal
      I suspect it was because of Nintendo because I think otherwise we would have heard something about it before, or at least hints.

      My first thought.

      This is a big risk for them. Regardless of how it turns out, they've legitimized Nintendo in the eyes of the Sony-Can-Do-No-Wrong hardcore crowd, which is the crowd Sony really had locked up.

      However, getting something like this right takes time and a lot of play-testing. If this was a last-minute addition and it's basically a check-box feature, it is extremely like it will not work as well and may even be pratically useless.

      Obviously, I can't know; this is just my engineering gut feature. I think if the currently-playable titles pretty much don't use this feature, we can assume it was a last-minute addition.

      I await reviews from people who have used both capabilities. But in light of the legimization effect, it had better be a quality, useful implementation, or they're going to be throwing away one of their most useful arguments against Nintendo ("it's a gimmick", certainly a popular opinion) for little gain. Half-assed is worse than no-assed.

      • Re:My Thoughts (later news developments) (Score:4, Informative)

        by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @11:36PM (#15290399) Journal
        First, "engineering gut feature" -> "engineering gut feeling". Oops.

        Second, it turns out they cut rumble to support the sensors [pro-g.co.uk], for obvious reasons.

        So, they're cutting a long-standing feature to trade in for a novel feature that (after reading more about it) shows every sign of being half-assed that I'd expect to see. This has the stench of a management decision made against the recommendation of the engineers, and I bet the engineers about went ballistic when they were informed it had to be ready for E3.

        I don't know about Japan, but I'm smelling Microsoft/Nintendo for this next generation, and I'm increasingly wondering if it might not be ~3:1 in Nintendo's favor in three years (which is about the earliest I'd say we can "call" the results of this generation). The opening lineup for the Wii may even best the Dreamcast's opening lineup, which was spectacular for the time (as long as you could get your RPG fix somewhere else...).

    • Re:My Thoughts (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ironsides ( 739422 )
      intendo has guaranteed that they will launch under $300, with speculation in the $200-$250 range. Nintendo will be able to clean MS and Sony's clocks based on price alone. Not even taking into account all the other great stuff (downloadable library,

      We seem to be of one mind on this one. The lower garunteed price tag and the library of old Nintendo (and some SEGA) games is going to be interesting. The main reason I want a revolution ... excuse me WII is because of that old library. I never owned a syst

  • Not necessarily a copy of the Wii (Score:5, Informative)

    by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:01PM (#15289827)
    The controller basically has a gyroscope inside that can detect tilt... and an accelerometer that can detect movement in a particular direction.

    This is different from the Wii in that it can't determine its location in 3d space. While the functionality is similar, the Wii still has the upper hand in terms of the "unique" functionality of the controller.

    It's a smart move on Sony's part, but the Wii will still be able to do things no other system can.

    • What you mean is (Score:4, Funny)

      by 246o1 ( 914193 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:32PM (#15290013)
      Not necessarily a good copy of the Wii
    • Pointing won't work. Any sort of absolute position detection won't work. Add to that the fact that you will have to move two arms to gain any benefit and you have a pretty useless knock off. Nevermind the rumor that Wii has a second accelerometer in the nunchuck.

      If Sony is lucky, it will work as well as the Eye Toy to control games.

      The only thing Sony got with this move is the bitter aftertaste of a plaguristic freshman poet.

  • Hmmm (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jfern ( 115937 )
    I wonder how many people get the cheaper model and add their own Hard Drive?

  • Decisions, decisions... (Score:4, Funny)

    by FlamingWombat ( 901980 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:02PM (#15289835)
    Gee, which motion-sensitive controller system do I pick? The $199 Wii or the $499/$599 PS3? What a tough decision. Especially when you consider that a) the PS3 has been repeatedly reported, by developers, no less, as being way under-powered, whereas many devs have expressed enthusiasm for making games for the Wii, b) the Revolution's game lineup is, IMO, looking much better than the PS3's, and c) we've yet to hear the last about cool stuff in the Wii (that announcement should be pretty interesting) Let us further consider that for the price of a PS3, I can easily build myself a computer with many times the hard drive space, reasonable comparability hardware-wise (assuming we don't buy into Sony's hype), and the ability to do everything a computer can do that a PS3 can't (i.e. everything but play games and DVDs). Oh, did I mention I can upgrade the PC if I want to? Also that my PC has a much wider range of games than the PS3? Yeah...

  • Control Bottleneck (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 10Neon ( 932006 )
    Sony actually did Nintendo a big favor by introducing a (somewhat) similar control style: the extreme difficulty in porting games to the Wii will now be somewhat alleviated. Just one less excuse for the 3rd parties.
  • If I was Nintendo right now I'd be flipping out.

    "That's all they've got? HA!"

    You know, I've never owned a PS so I wasn't excited at all about this conference. However, I would have expected a bit more excitement and energy coming from the audience. Where was the roar of the crowd when super-popular games like MSG and FF came on the screen? I expected pandemonium when the controller was revealed, but all I could hear was the deafening silence of an audience completely under-whelmed by the big revelatio

  • Missed the beginning (Score:5, Funny)

    by CheechWizz ( 886957 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:12PM (#15289891)
    It might be because I missed the start of the presentation, but I don't understand why they were demonstrating Xbox live, xbox360 games and the Wii controller?

  • lack of innovations? puh-SHAW. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by muel ( 132794 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:14PM (#15289903)
    Oh, come on, guys. You're all missing the amazing way that the PS3 will interact with the game community--BY SQUEEZING OUT THEIR EVERY PENNY. Notice how long the karaoke-game presentation went on about things you can pay to download? "Now, for a fee, you can download levels, weapons and songs!" Kill me. The last thing the gaming world needs is a company encouraging developers to ship incomplete products so that people will rush onto the Sony service and buy useless, overpriced add-on content. That shop idea might've been interesting if Sony had promoted buying, oh, I dunno, GAMES on it.....but as it stands, it's just a money-grubbing version of XBox Live without any of the interesting Arcade games that make the M$ service relatively worthwhile.

    Otherwise, ditto on what most everyone else is saying. The games that were presented looked utterly boring. A couple of hack-n-slashers, a camera-dependent card game... are you kidding? Cute as a tech demo, I suppose, but I think we're way past the tech demo stage in May 2006. Watch the Sony vs. M$ debate take its sharpest, quickest turn ever in the next few hours.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • People really have to remember, and encourage other people to remember, the modding scene on the PC. Sony and Microsoft are both blowing over this 'pay for content' thing, and now its seeping into the PC scene courtesy of EA with their BF2 booster packs (remember Desert Combat?) and Morrowind with their ridiculous horse skins.

  • I'm sorry, but it's just too much $$$ (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LoveMe2Times ( 416048 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:19PM (#15289930) Homepage Journal
    Coming out with another year's worth of development time, and the cheap version is still $100 more than MicroSoft's expensive model. That should tell you that it probably will pack the most graphical punch. I'm sorry, though, $499 is just too much. If MicroSoft announces a price cut for the holidays, say $350 or $329 or some such, or a bundle with HD-DVD playback still at $399, a lot of people will probably find the 360 "good enough." Hell, it's quite possible you will be able to get a 360 and a Wii-volution for the price of the PS3. I thought the 360 was going to be dead as soon as the PS3's launch info was announced. Now, I'm not so sure. Just flat out, $499 is out of the question for "working class" people, especially with rising gas prices etc. It's also out of the question for most kids and college students. It's going to be the new Neo-Geo: sure, everybody would *like* to have one, but they buy something they can afford instead. Hell, I make professional wages and have plenty of spending money, but the 360 was already more than I'm willing to spend for a console.

    I predict:

    1) The PS2 continues to outsell both the 360 and the PS3 through 2007.
    2) The 360 outsells PS3 in the US during holiday 2006 season.
    3) The PS3 outsells the 360 in Japan during holiday 2006 season. Duh.
    4) The DS Lite continues to be the top seller overall.
    5) The tilt-sensing abilities of the PS3 controller will be seriously under-utilized, especially in first-gen software as developers scramble to handle HD and online capabilities.

    I won't make any Wii-volution predictions until the details come out tomorrow. However, while the PS3's controller might make things interesting for hard-core gamers, it will utterly fail to attract non-gamers, which is really the point of the Wii-mote. One final prediction, though:

    6) Nintendo continues to make gobs and gobs of profits, while MS and Sony continue to lose money hand-over-fist.

    • Well, pricing. Hmmm. The PS3 is going to be expensive, but only the rich fanboys will be buying it with just the launch titles available.... and they can afford these prices. They'll sell all the PS3s they ship. Demand won't be frantic like for the 360s, but they'll moves boxes. They'll also sell a lot of PS2s to people who want a new console to tide them over until the next-gen scene matures. There's a lot of PS2 content coming this year, twice as much as for Xbox (according to Gamefly's listings). And a l

  • This kind of sums it up (Score:5, Funny)

    by AIX-Hood ( 682681 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:22PM (#15289946)
    It didn't take long for this pic to surface: http://hood.filefu.com/sonysteals5dq.jpg [filefu.com]

  • I officially dub thee... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Da Rabid Duckie ( 731742 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:28PM (#15289988)
    The PSWii...

  • No rumble in PS3 Controller (Score:5, Informative)

    by grumbel ( 592662 ) <grumbel+slashdot@gmail.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @10:52PM (#15290115) Homepage
    The new PS3 controller not only rips of features from Wii, they droped the rumble support, PS3 gets less and less impressive:

    "Pursuant to the introduction of this new six-axis sensing system, the vibration feature that is currently available on DUALSHOCK® and DUALSHOCK®2 controllers for PlayStation and PlayStation®2, will be removed from the new PS3 controller as vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor."

    See: http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/060509 be.pdf [scei.co.jp]
    • Rumble is moderately interesting. But it's not worth paying those fucks at Immersion for it. It never added much to a game anyway.

      So I say if it would have added to the cost of the unit, I for one won't miss it.
    • More damming, you're stuck with that rumble-less controller if you try to play PS2 or PS1 games on your PS3, as there are no controller ports.

      No backwards-compatible memory card slots, no memory card slots of any kind on the core system, no backwards-compatible controller slots while removing functionality from the new controllers... it's seeming like Sony is doing what they can to break backwards compatability.

      As I sit here and realize that the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XI will be the first to not suppo

  • Prognostication (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MeanderingMind ( 884641 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @11:00PM (#15290172) Homepage Journal
    It's a little early into E3 to start prophesizing the downfall of Sony, the revival or Nintendo, or the evil dominion of Microsoft. We've seen a pre-E3 press conference for Sony. This is about equivalent to the first segment of the pre-game show. However bad or good the pre-show conferences are, there'll be plenty within the conferences themselves to sway things one way or another.

    That said, the impression I've gotten from Sony's press conference is not a good one. The two reasons are as follows.

    1) "Innovation" - Sony's best bet for hurting Nintendo was to give their idea no credence. They wouldn't look bad for writing off Nintendo's ideas as gimmicky. Microsoft already ignored Nintendo, Sony simply had to follow suit. Instead, they've copied Nintendo and called it "Innovation". Now when people go to shop for a next gen console, they won't be able to write Nintendo off as a gimmick. Even if Sony did just as good a job as Nintendo, they're $300-$400 more expensive. While the move covers their bases of Nintendo takes off, they're still the copycats and that hurts them.

    2) "At What Cost" - $499 hurts. Because that hurts, Microsoft was kind enough to have a core package that was cheaper, lacked features, but didn't hurt so much unless you intended on using live a lot. Sony has another package too, costing $599. That there is good one two punch to the wallet. To top it off, the difference is a 20gb harddrive versus a 60gb harddrive. Last I checked, the price difference between those sizes was not $100. Is there something I failed to garner from the coverage?

    Overall, Sony hasn't started off well, meaning they'll need to work doubletime to impress me this E3. However, it's entirely possible they'll succeed. With Nintendo and Microsoft still to come, there's no telling what will happen.

  • Other details... (Score:5, Informative)

    by HAKdragon ( 193605 ) <hakdragon.gmail@com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @11:13PM (#15290256)
    There are other differences between the $500 and $600 versions of the systems. According to Sony [scei.co.jp], the $500 version lacks HDMI output, which means that once DRM gets implemented, you don't get the full HD resolution that Blu-Ray is capable of. Also, the cheaper system lacks a slots for Memory Sticks, SD cards, and Compact Flash cards. The cheaper one also lacks wifi connectivity. Funny how Sony left all of that out of their presentation.

    • Re:Other details... (Score:5, Informative)

      by isd_glory ( 787646 ) * on Tuesday May 09, 2006 @12:05AM (#15290573)
      Another "feature" not mentioned is that is is apparently larger and heavier than the old Xbox.

      PS3 from the press release:
      Approximately 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D)
      Approximately 5 kg

      The original Xbox
      Dimensions: 320 × 100 × 260 milimeters (12.5 × 4 × 10.5 in)
      Weight: 3.86 kilograms (8.5 lb)

  • Good idea / Bad idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by justchris ( 802302 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @11:20PM (#15290303) Homepage
    Good job Sony. I did not expect them to copy the motion sensing idea until next generation. I thought it would take stellar Wii sales to sell them on the idea, but obviously Sony is a lot savvier than I expected.

    I know a lot of Nintendo fanboys are outraged that Sony would steal Nintendo's ideas. But this just validates what Nintendo has been saying all along. It's the way it's always been, other companies in this industry innovate, Sony steals, but they steal well. It works in all other art forms, so it works in videogames as well. And the real winners are the consumers in the end.

    On the other hand, what the hell is Sony thinking? No, seriously, are they completely stupid? Why did they go to all the trouble of holding their press conference before Nintendo?

    They revealed too much. The new controller. Motion sensing technology. A firm pricetag. Specific release dates. This is now Nintendo's E3 to "win". They don't have to hold anything back. Anything they know, but haven't told us, they can go ahead and tell now. Sony's already blown their load.

    If I were Sony, I would have taken great pains to arrange my conference after Nintendo's, even if it had to be early morning on Wednesday, right before the expo opened. Nintendo would have played things close to their chest (as they always do). Microsoft's conference would have absorbed some (probably not a lot, but some) of the hype Nintendo generated. Then Sony could have come back with a solid blow in the motion sensing controller.

    Or, even better, they could have kept it silent, and not announced it until a few months before the Wii launched. This would have given them more time to perfect the technology, as well as giving them the chance to demo it with, I don't know, actual games? You know, like what Nintendo is going to do tomorrow.

    So, in conclusion, a big Bravo to Sony Technical Operations. Those guys are on the ball. But a big WTF to Sony Marketing. For the first time in a long while you guys have totally failed. No cookie for you.

  • Saturn (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Megane ( 129182 ) on Tuesday May 09, 2006 @12:44AM (#15290774)
    Anyone remember when Sega announced the Saturn would be coming out three months early, and it would be $399?

    The Sony guy walked up to the mike and said one thing that got the crowd going: "$299"

    Somehow, I think that Sony is opening themselves up to exactly what they took advantage of.

    I don't want a 360, and I'll probably buy a Wii-volution on release day (as I did with GameCube), but I'm going to hold off on the PS3 until it significantly goes down in price. At least the stripped down PS3 will be more usable than the stripped down 360. (I don't need HDMI, and I don't need WiFi in the console.)

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