Sony Press Conference Announcements (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

Just finished watching the Pre-E3 Press Conference. I don't have a full list or anything, but here's what's really important:

Controller - looks like PSOne/PS2, except it has "6 degrees of motion" (read: ripped off the idea for physical movement from Nintendo)

Release - Nov. 17 in N. America in 2 models
1) 20 GB HDD - $499
2) 60 GB HDD - $599

There's more announcements, but that's all that really mattered.

Personally, I'm not interested in many of the games, especially not to the tune of $600 (I'll be honest, I'm getting the 60 GB if anything) plus $60 per game. The controller changing back to what it used to be was nice, but the idea ripped from Nintendo is kind of lame on Sony's part.

 

[Scott_lb]

I think it's cool that the PS3 will finally be coming out soon, however, I will likely balk at the price. I already own a 360 (and absolutely love it) and the only reason I see a PS3 in my immediate future is for Blu-Ray movie playing capabilities.

 

[Chris S]

Early responces that I've been reading (and mostly agree with) are:

1. thank goodness the controller is back and its nice to have the motion control feature added
2. $$$ ouch.... thats pricey.... and I'm not too happy about it
3. is it really worth $100 for 40Gb?

 

[Mike Miskulin]

Well, some people are shelling out $100 for a 20 gig add-on for the 360, so I guess Sony thinks so...

 

[Chris S]

Well, if you bought the thing after the fact then thats true. But the Xbox360 harddrive actually provides further functionality (i.e. some backward compatibility, etc) where as the additional harddrive space on the PS3 doesn't appear to provide anything more than added game save room.

I wonder if the extra space is really going to be utilized by developers. Will you need to delete another game off the system inorder to play the next? If I'm not mistaken FFXI took up just about all the room on the PS2 harddrive. I would hate to be locked down to one or two games because I don't have the necessary harddrive space to add another.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Due to the speed of the Blu-ray drive, I doubt they would really need to cache too much onto the HDD to run games. Also, FFXI was run off the PS2 HDD completely, whereas with the PS3 games would just be cached on it.

Also, as it turns out, the cheaper model of the PS3 loses some functionality, specifically a few ports are lost (like the memory card slots) and wi-fi is lost. There are also fewer ports on either model than were announced a year ago.

 

[Chris S]

Oh.... missed the part about losing the wifi and memory card slots. Thats gives the higher price a little more justification and reason enough IMO to warrent me needing/wanting the $599 unit now. Wifi alone will save me from the wife yelling "pick up that cable" every other day. $100 well spent

Also just read on IGN that the new control is lighter but the reason appears to be because of the loss of feedback/dualshock. IGN also has a nice comparison of the Revolution controller and the PS3 controller here

 

[EricW]

also the cheaper version doesn't have HDMI - not that J6P would care...

 

[Mike Miskulin]

So much for Sony's prior claim of not releasing two seperate versions of the console...

 

[Ken Chui]

For those who haven't seen the photos of the PS3 unit (20GB vs. 60GB models), I've provided links below:

.jpg]20GB model
.jpg]60GB model

Slight cosmetic differences. I'm a little disappointed that there isn't one with a silver finish (nothing a can of Krylon can't fix ).

Can't say I'm too surprised with the price points (though the two-tier pricing structure did catch me off-guard). With Microsoft announcing a CPU redesign for the 360 in 2007, this gives me another reason to postpone my 360 purchase till next year, and allow me to focus strictly on the PS3 this year. Neither EB nor Gamestop is taking pre-orders today, but they might later this week.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

As much as I was in love with the PS3 a year ago, I have to say that Nintendo had a better show. Sony made all the right announcements (price, release date, software) for the PS3, but what they announced (two models, Nov. 11/17, lots of unknown 3rd party stuff or things that are WAY off) wasn't great.

I'm wondering if they'll show all the games from the preview reel last year, like the new Devil May Cry.

 

[Kevin M]

The price point on both of the PS3 decks might be a killer for Sony's console domination, time will tell but this is a bad move for Sony in these expensive "cost of living" times, IMHO anyway.

I think Nintendo might just have a shot at regaining some of it's lost ground.

 

[Scott_lb]

After looking over all of the E3 news, I've got to say that I am barely excited about the PS3. In short, I look at it like an Xbox 360 with a Blu-Ray disc drive. While a Blu-Ray player at $500/$600 is a pretty good value, I think it's way too much money for the average consumer. Sure, they will sell out this fall due to Xmas and the early adopters (sp?), however, I don't see it as a winner in the long run due primarily to the price. The only console that has successfully launched over $299 was the 360 (taking only the premium pack into account). Adding $200 or $300 to that price is a HUGE jump that I don't think consumers will make (except for those early folks).

 

[Christ Reynolds]

so what you're saying is, the PS3 has backwards compatibility built in, where the 360 does not.

the extra $100 buys you more than the additional 40 GB. and i was at howstuffworks.com today, and they said the 60 GB version was going to be 549, not 599. were they misinformed? or just wrong?

CJ

 

[BrianB]

Misinformed and wrong.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

probably just one or the other, it's prob just some bad info or a sloppy editor. i'll keep looking back to see if they correct their info. too bad it isn't sony that's wrong

CJ

 

[EricW]

while console talk has been generally a little disappointed in the PS3 here in north america, i wonder what the reaction is in Japan? i mean the 360 barely made a dent in its opening. it's totally Sony (and Nintendo) territory.

also, i wonder how early Sony is going to start manufacturing the units? remember how much people were pi$$ed off at MS last christmas? demand could be at least 2 fold for PS3's (there's at least that many hard core gamers out there) so alot of frustrated gamers might go for nintendo and/or a 360 in the wake of inevitable shortages - whereas last season there was no alternative.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The PS3 was a disappointment because Sony didn't show a lot of games that were announced last year that would have been big deals: Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2...games like these. In addition, their announcements were basically that the controller stayed the same (with one kind of neat feature added and rumble removed), the price was huge, and that it's coming out Nov. 17 this year. Otherwise, it wasn't a spectacularly interesting show. Microsoft already has something to show with the 360 and Nintendo blew the crowd away with the amount of information they presented over the 3 days of E3.

The PS3 is a great piece of hardware, especially when you take into consideration the backwards compatibility and the Blu-ray drive, but that's about it. The games look neat, but very few exclusive PS3 games that will be out at launch look like system-sellers.

 

[Steve Y]

Sony Corporate may be historically hesitant to take full responsibility for its systems' deficiencies (disc read error), but Sony Computer Entertainment's developers are fantastic. Sly Cooper, Ratchet & Clank, ICO... these are the franchises that excite me, and that's not even mentioning the great Atlus RPGs and Namco's "wacky Japanese games", etc.

These games are the only reason I'm interested in the PS3. Blu-ray revolution? I'll believe it when I see it, and when it's cheaper. Come back and talk to me in a year or two -- unless I suddenly acquire $600+ to burn away, I'm not gambling... yet.

Sony revealed the price now so people could get used to it before the end of the year. They KNEW people wouldn't like it. This isn't just a game console for them. It's a Trojan Horse of the new media. Who controls the spice... err, the console...

I'm very happy with my PS2 at the moment.

 

[Ken Chui]

There is a rumour that EB Games / Gamestop won't be taking PS3 pre-orders until October at the earliest. Supposedly, a PS3 reservation SKU will be discussed at the store managers' conference, which will be held in September; this info reportedly came from a district manager to one of the store managers via a conference call.