The PlayStation 3 Thread!

[Vince]

my guess for price drop would happen at mid life of the system, likely be two to three years. keep in mind they are not making much on the hardware, price drop will be unlikely until new tech come online and lower the cost. or maybe they would do the same thing they did on hdtv sets, adding more features to keep the price high, and work on lower production cost at the same time. don't hold your breath.

[kung flu]

With the release of the PS3, its still a good idea to wait for a price drop, but also wait till a 2nd or 3rd version to come out, so most of the bugs would be sorted out. Firmware updates is great for software fixes, but what about hardware fixes.

There were a lot of early PS2s breaking down when it was first released. I had a version 3 ps2 and the laser didn't last long. When i looked for a fix, i found out many people had this problem with early ps2s. Right now my 2nd PS2 is a version 7 no problems so far.

I probably won't wait for a version 7 PS3 though, that would take years.

[cobywan]

There's nothing wrong with my PS3.

[kung flu]

There's nothing wrong with my PS3.

Hopefully you won't encounter problems, but Sony has a track record of early release products having problems in software and hardware, not specifically playstation. Though early PS1s and PS2s did have problems like the laser not lasting very long, to power problems. My first PS2 lasted less than a year and it was during a time I didn't play games much. So from that experience I intend to at least wait for a new version PS3. I don't mind waiting, they're aren't many games out now and the ones that are out don't appeal to me. Metal gear solid 4, GTA and probably golden axe is what I'm looking forward to

[Black Valkyrie]

I`ll wait for year and see how the Japanese gaming scene develops.

[Gaijin]

The PS3 hardware is already on it's second revision. And unlike the PS1 and PS2, the PS3 in it's original launch form seems to be of a much higher build quality than what you'd expect. Much more than the 360 is in that respect.

The Blu-ray player is better than many expected.as well This isn't your pop's PS2 in other words.

[Gunbuster]

PS3 finally out in the UK, it seems like a quiet launch, usually console launches are shown on TV news, showing all the people queuing up and spending the night, but there was no mention.

Right now I'll wait for the price to fall and see what future games come out for it, all the games available now don't seem to interest me.

I was in the UK for the PS3 launch and I didn't hear any "noise" either. I talked to many people and they were aware of the LCD giveaway promotion, but they didn't want the ps3 ;;

[Vince]

remember when ps2 price dropped from 299 to 149? Sony and Microsoft didn't start that if I remember right. I think they were reacting to the GameCube's price drop. Price drop is not a given, usually it would be use to gain market share, or prepare for the next generation of the product. No business will be willingly take a dive on the profit margin.

One thing I heard about slow deployment of ps3 games is due to the complexity of multi processor programming. Don't know much about that, since I haven't written multi processor code, but I'm sure it is a lot more complex than multi thread code.

[Uxi]

One VERY important thing to consider is that the PS2 is STILL selling strong (360 was in THIRD place as PS2 was #2 in Febuary according to VG Charts trailing the Wii by only about 50,000 units), though obviously trending down. Sony does NOT want a mass migration to the PS3 at this point in time when they can still milk the PS2 goose, whose expenses have been recouped years ago and is pure profit for them right now. Combined PS2 and PS3 sales still has Sony #1 for game consoles by a not insignificant margin...

Meanwhile, Blu-ray components get cheaper every month... The price is Sony's to drop at their leisure. The timing wil be tricky and they'll want to aim it at a time that they can begin writing off the PS2, which is probably about 10-12 more months IMO.

Here's an article that captures it perfectly:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=23708

[Radd]

There's some big problems with this argument, as well as the popular description of the PS3 as the 'luxury car' of the console market. Rather, the same problem puts a big hole in both arguments.

Software developers.

A console cannot afford to be the "mercedes" of the videogame market. It does not work. When you buy a luxury car, you're buying the car, for the car, and the car maker makes a profit on the sale of that car.

Sony is not pulling in a profit on PS3 sales. The way Sony has worked the market, pretty much since they entered it, is to sell the console for less than production cost, and then make up the money in software sales. A "mercedes" console can't do that for two reasons.

First, there's already a limited market. You're not going to sell nearly as many games, because not nearly as many people will own the console to begin with.

Second, the number of games being made will drop. Software developers want their games on consoles which are already popular, or they expect will become popular down the road. They might spread out a bit at the beginning of a console generation, but once a console shows a distinct lead, developers begin to concentrate on that console.

If Sony waits to make their PS3 competitive, in the expectation of milking the PS2 until it dries up, they are sticking their head right into a noose. By the time they decide, "Well, now that PS2 sales are slacking, how about this PS3?" The Wii and the 360 will have all the developers in their respective camps, and the PS3 will be out in the cold.

[Dangard Ace]

Interesting tidbit(interview with David Jaffe) from gamedaily.

Jaffe: Well, a lot of it is sales dependent but a lot is scope dependent. For example, me and Cory have a story for how God of War wraps up. Whether or not we'll be able to tell that story in one game for PS3, or it's going to take 2 or 3 games is really more dependent on how much time we have to make that game. Now when that story is concluded and assuming people and we hope they are are still interested in Kratos and his universe, there's a lot of places we can go to continue to make God of War games if people are interested, but the core story of Kratos will have been told. So that's what I really want to get told is that core story. And then after that, there's all these gaps where Kratos was doing things for Ares, where Kratos was doing things for the gods and we can tell all kinds of stories. But right now we're just focused on the main story of where Kratos ultimately ends up.

If I'm reading this interview correctly Sony needs to push the hype for this game and soon. There's a huge GoW following and it'll definitely push the system.

[chrono]

Interesting tidbit(interview with David Jaffe) from gamedaily.

If I'm reading this interview correctly Sony needs to push the hype for this game and soon. There's a huge GoW following and it'll definitely push the system.

Saw the GoW2 advert 3 times durign the weekend and 2 MotoSport spots(delish!).

I'm still waiting for the game that will make me want to drop the money on the system. GT has turned into EverQuest, wtf!, and many of the other games simply lack any good gamer depth.

[bandit29]

An 80gb PS3 on the way? Sounds like it eventually...

here

Who cares. How about some 60.00 games that don't suck? Damn computer nerds ruining the industry lol

[Uxi]

Sounds to me like they're doing a new bluetooth module and are using that as an excuse for a slight bump in HD. I think the iPod analogy is probably very appropriate.

I'm planning on putting a 120GB in there, and cloning my nearly full 60GB iPod to it as an another backup point.

[Gaijin]

New Ratchet and Clank screens:

[Gaijin]

[Uxi]

Demo for AC4 is up on PSN. Pretty neat. I've been contemplating getting this and the demo might push me over the edge...

[Gaijin]

I tried it. I like it better than the last AC game I played (admittedly it was AC2 so the series has come a bit since then). Not sure if I want to purchase it but it might make the rental from Gamefly que.

[Dangard Ace]

Just picked up all four of the Ratchet and Clank series. I'll get around to playing them this summer before the PS3 Ratchet comes out.

In PS3 news Sept is going to be an EXPENSIVE month for me. Lair, Heavenly Sword and Ratchet are all slated for a Sept release. "Argh!" says me wallet.

Oh, WarHawk, and Killzone are also slated for that month.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/779/779140p1.html

http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=377

[Dangard Ace]

Woot! GH3 for PS3! ...and Xbox360 and Wii. No idea why Wiifans think using the Wiimote would be a good substitute(ie cheaper) for the Guitar. How they're going to play expert level using that controller is beyond me.

Guitar Hero III Coming to Wii, PS3, 360

http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/guitar-hero-i...-360-251025.php

Guitar Hero 3 is coming to the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 this fall, according to Red Octane.

The eagle eyes over at Cubed3 spotted the information in the site's knowledge base. Doing a little more digging I found a second reference. Unfortunately, neither are dated, so it's hard to tell how up to date the details are.

Here' they are, straight from the knowledge base:

When is Guitar Hero 2 (II) Coming? Will there be GH 2 for Wii, PS3, XBox, Xbox 360, etc?

Guitar Hero 3 for the Playstation 2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii are currently scheduled for release in the United States in Fall of 2007.

Will Any RedOctane Products Support XBox 360, Playstation 3, Wii?

Guitar Hero II from RedOctane currently supports PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Products for Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii will be out in Fall of 2007.

I have an email out to Red Octane to get to the bottom of this. Brian Crecente

Guitar Hero III on Wii [Cubed3]

So this is why Nyko canned their adapter? Damnit. I need that adapter for my PS2 rumble! Hmmm....Sony's new sixxaxis with rumble probably had something to do with it as well.....

[kung flu]

PS3 price drop in the UK shops, most shops are selling it for £400 instead of £425. Depending on which shop you also get extras like HDMI cable or movie. The PS3 must be not selling well to drop £25 in less than three weeks since the launch date. I'm going to wait longer for the price to fall further.

[Apollo Leader]

It's official:

20GB PS3 has been discontinued.

[Radd]

I dunno, but that seems kinda too bad. Unlike the 360 "Core" system, the 20 Gig PS3 actually seemed like a worthwhile buy if you wanted to save a hundred bucks. From what I heard, people hadn't been buying them, though. I wonder how much of that was because of the 360 Core system giving any lesser system package a "gimped" stigma?

[Gaijin]

Most people thought the 20Gig PS3 was like the Core and just assumed it was the "retard pack". Howvere in the PS3's case, the 20Gig was a super hell of a deal. You got everything the 60GB did except for Wi-Fi, the card readers, and 40GB of space. HDMI and Blu-ray included. You could add a Wireless router and larger HDD and even a USB card reader if you needed to(with ordinary off the shelf stuff too).

But to this day, some people insist the 20GB had no HDMI and can not play Blu-ray, nor can they upgrade the HDD. I've heard Gamestop employees tell people this. It's Sony's fault really...they should have pushed the 20GB more and explained to the consumer what it was. Although they did lose more on the 20 than the 60 so maybe that was intentional.

My guess is the 20GB will be replaced by the 60, with a larger HDD replacing the 60, and price drops coming in Sept-Oct.

[cobywan]

My only concern when I bought the 20G model was the lack of remote play with my PSP because of the lack of the internal Wi-Fi module.

The last firmware update made it work through my network infrastructure.

[Uxi]

Spiderman 3 trailer is awesome. So is MK2.

[Dangard Ace]

I could've sworn Kotaku had new Lair movies from last week show casing Rhino head bowling but.....

Rhino-head bowling. All you really need to know.

[Gaijin]

I think I saw them on Gametrailers. That was pretty cool. The game is really looking good.

[Gaijin]

Free Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo now on the PS Store. It's pretty good. Seems a tad easier than Black, though maybe because it's the demo.

[Dangard Ace]

WTF? A feel good PS3 story?! A dead PS3?? Sony Customer Service came through?!! OMG it's the apocalypse!!!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150137

[bandit29]

looks around...hmm where is everyone?

80gb PS3 due in South Korea june 16th

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171181.html?...newstop;title;1

Speculation that a new PlayStation 3 model would be coming started back in March, when it was reported that Sony had filed for permission to change the PS3's specs with the Federal Communications Commission, including an upgrade of the console's hard drive to 80GB. Sony's official line was that there were "various possibilities in mind," but a new product was not right around the corner.

Recently, Sony discontinued the 20GB model in North America, and Europeans have never been given the option of the cheaper console--at launch, only the 60GB version was available, and the release of the 20GB version is now looking increasingly unlikely. Microsoft's new Xbox 360 Elite--which sports a 120GB hard drive--recently went on sale in North America.

Now, finally, the 80GB cat is out of the bag. The new PS3 model will be released in less than a month--although currently only in South Korea.

The release date is set for June 16, and the price of the new model will be 518,000 won (approximately $558). However, the Korean market will not have the option of choosing between models of the PS3--Sony has confirmed that only the 80GB version will be available in the region.

The 80GB PS3 on sale in Korea, like the existing European 60GB edition, will rely on software emulation for backward compatibility, as it too lacks the Emotion Engine chip that was present in the original models on sale in Japan and the US. Sony said in a statement that the Korean PS3 version is "identical to the European model in terms of all other technical specs [apart from the size of the hard drive]."

When asked if the release of the new console in Korea would mean that 80GB models would be going on sale in other regions, a Sony spokesperson said, "We have no plans to release the 80GB model PS3 in Europe at this time."

[eugimon]

yeah, I saw that as well. All I know is when I see sony doing stuff like this, it makes me want to hold off buying a PS3 even more.

[Uxi]

I got Spiderman 3 today (along with the two Pirates movies and Apocalypto - ah... 1080p uncompressed PCM niravana!).

I had skipped ultimate spiderman, so am enjoying it about as much as I hoped. Done a couple missions, but really enjoying just exploring, webslinging and crawling up walls as I go. Took MJ around the town and did a little crime fighting....

[Uxi]

1.8 is out.

DVD Upscaling to 1080p over HDMI, they fixed DVD deinterlacing.

Upscaling of PS1 and PS2 games to 1080p

PSP Remote Play allows to watch and listen to content stored on the PS3 from any wi-fi connection in the world.

DLNA media center connectivity.

Photo Printing available to Epson printers over LAN/USB

PS1/PS2 saves can now go back over to the memory card adapter so you can use them on your PS1/PS2 (before it was only used to go FROM the PS1/PS2 to the PS3 and not the other way).

EDIT: Also added 24p output option for those few of you with plasmas/ front projectors that support it.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Uxi

[Gaijin]

The upscaling is nice, the memory card adapter transfer is really nice. All I want mostly now is audio output from both the AV out and optical or HDMI depending on what I sound I want.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Gaijin