Playstation 3 e3 thread 3

[Panajev2001a]

PS3 Price Revealed?
One of the most expensive consoles ever created, according to Japanese reports.
by Matt Casamassina

May 17, 2005 - According a an article published in the May 17th edition of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, the PlayStation 3 could be one of the most expensive mass-market videogame consoles ever created. Officials from Sony apparently told the newspaper that PlayStation 3s would sell in Japan for "less than 50,000 yen each." That translates to about $465 US dollars.


Sony unveiled its next-generation console at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2005. The beast of a machine utilizes the powerful Cell processor, a custom-designed graphics chip by Nvidia, and 512MBs of RAM for a quantum leap in performance. The system will also be the first-ever to support high-def movie-playback out of the box, taking advantage of the upcoming Blu-ray Disc format.
Sony claims that PS3 will be roughly 35 times more powerful than PS2. If Mainichi Shimbun is correct, gamers will be asked to pay a hefty price for the high-end functionality.

IGN was unable to validate this news with Sony officials. Stay tuned for more as the story breaks.

From IGN.

Comment: OUCH.

But then again, the UK price for PS2 was extortionate, using the good old $299=£299 exchange rate - and you could only buy bundles, making it even more expensive. £299 is $550 more or less by the way.
So i guess it's not as bad as it seems. PS2 was also very overpriced in Japan at launch. Only the US had a nice price at launch.
Funny how the richest country in the world gets everything cheaper...

Did not they say the same thing about PlayStation 2 when it was launching, that is extrapolating for the per-unit cost the MSRP ?

I do not think SCE will launch PlayStation 3 at prices like that ($399+) unless Xbox 360 follows the same pricing pattern.

 

[London Geezer]

Did not they say the same thing about PlayStation 2 when it was launching, that is extrapolating for the per-unit cost the MSRP ?

I do not think SCE will launch PlayStation 3 at prices like that ($399+) unless Xbox 360 follows the same pricing pattern.

I know that's what i said!

The US will get their good deals at $299. Or anyway no more than $350.

The UK will get the thing a year later, at double the price. Makes perfect sense. Unless they happened to check what the exchange rate is now and make a fair comparison. I'm pretty sure it will sell for at least £250 at launch in the UK, and that's almost $500.
(And before someone mentions it, NO, UK wages are not that much higher than the US ones, if at all).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

However, TAX varies. The UK price includes VAT. The US price doesn't as sales tax is added per State. Yes, it's still a rip-off, but not quite as much as it first seems. Until people stopping paying over the odds for goods it'll remain a rip off. I never buy anything at launch prices!

 

[London Geezer]

However, TAX varies. The UK price includes VAT. The US price doesn't as sales tax is added per State. Yes, it's still a rip-off, but not quite as much as it first seems. Until people stopping paying over the odds for goods it'll remain a rip off. I never buy anything at launch prices!

Me neither, but that's not the point.

 

[cybamerc]

I have a feeling neither M$ nor Sony will launch at $299. Some comments made by M$ people suggest that they're looking at increasing the price and the PS3 seems to me like it's going to be extraordinarily expensive to manufacture.

I think $350 is the minimum both companies are considering but I find $399 more likely. It's not like people aren't going to buy them at that price.

 

[London Geezer]

Besides, i think Sony will be charging a little bit extra just on the grounds they have a BlueRay drive in there that plays HD movies. I think it's the minimum they can do.

 

[joesaiditstrue]

Heavenly Sword is Deano's? Wow!

For me, that was one of the standouts in PS3's lineup. Looked really good!

i agree, it looks like a very fun game, sort of like Onimusha meets Devil May Cry

 

[cybamerc]

Besides, i think Sony will be charging a little bit extra just on the grounds they have a BlueRay drive in there that plays HD movies.

Exactly. This isn't like back when Sony put a DVD drive in PS2. Back when PS2 launched DVD players had been out for years and cheap Chinese players were starting to hit the market. When PS3 launches BD will be state of the art.

PS3 will be very expensive to manufacture.

 

[Megadrive1988]

The Getaway certainly looked like it could be realtime. There was nothing fancy going on, some nice lighting though.

Yes Getaway was obviously realtime and looked very nice. If only they got the bus routes right!!!


I'm still puzzled as to where both MS and Sony got the 1 and 2TFLOP figures, when they even specify that the XCPU is about 100GFLOPS and Cell is around 200...
So what, now the GPUs perform 900GFLOP (ati) and 1800GFLOP (NV) each?

Gotta love PR...

exactly.

remember Xbox? 3 Gflop CPU, 80 Gflop GPU.

same difference now, only an order of magnitude (or so) more.

 

[London Geezer]

Besides, i think Sony will be charging a little bit extra just on the grounds they have a BlueRay drive in there that plays HD movies.

Exactly. This isn't like back when Sony put a DVD drive in PS2. Back when PS2 launched DVD players had been out for years and cheap Chinese players were starting to hit the market. When PS3 launches BD will be state of the art.

PS3 will be very expensive to manufacture.

Yep, and even if the BlueRay drive turns out to be just a marginal increase (which it won't, but just for the sake of argument), just the luxury of it being there will drive the cost up for us consumers.

 

[Megadrive1988]

OMG, I was extremely impressed with the screens but when I SAW THE VIDS IT AIN:T BELIEVABLE!!! This is indeed a miracle machine!!!

Fight Night/Motostorm(whatevah)/killzone 2 all look uber. If fight night's for real, I've no doubt the tekken one can be achieved in-game... and yeah, in the eyes of the casuals that'd mean ps3>most any psx/ps2 era cgi(I said most people/ meaning mostly the cheap ps2 ones, and most psx ones.), and better than most any 90s cgis in the eyes of casuals.

FFVII ps3 > FFVII FMV/CG !!!
.

YES!

compare

original 1996-1997 PS1 FFVII CG intro
http://s14.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2WDV9KYACH6KF1QCCO98TPOND0

realtime FFVII technical demo for PS3
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=5846&type=wmv


aside from the far more advanced character models, the city seems to be rendered in more detail. the camera takes a longer, deeper zoom downward, revealing more city detail in the PS3 realtime demo. the train cuts seem more detailed geometry wise and there are finer sparks and more of them. the PS3 train is missing some bump-mapping like detail that the CGI had, but that's because the PS3 rendition is slightly different. it is not a 1:1 reproduction (PS3 is better!) and there is more geometry in the PS3 version by far, and its running at 60fps whereas the CGI is probably 20-24 fps.

 

[jimpo]

They have no other choice. ... I don't see the moral difference in "hyping your console 304%" and "hyping your console 862%"...

The difference is between the truth and a lie. I don't see that as being a minor differentiation.

So what was the truth and what was the lie? I assume you mean that MS told the truth, and Sony lied?

 

[Qroach]

The scale in those pictures is completely messed up. The xbox 360 is the same size as PS2. Jusdging from other pics I've seen of PS3, it is the same size or larger than the PS2.

 

[London Geezer]

The scale in those pictures is completely messed up. The xbox 360 is the same size as PS2. Jusdging from other pics I've seen of PS3, it is the same size or larger than the PS2.

Yep. Either that or Ken Kutaragi is a VERY small man.

 

[Qroach]

exactly. however the impression everyone on the net has, is that the xbox 360 is way larger then the PS3. The amount of fud floating around is astonishing.

 

[London Geezer]

exactly. however the impression everyone on the net has, is that the xbox 360 is way larger then the PS3. The amount of fud floating around is astonishing.

Well, having a nice slim girl carrying the thing at the beginning of the conference didn't help either, the thing looked huge compared to her.

Nintendo are much better at that, they always get the big guy to hold their GameBoy's (whatever version), and they always look tiny in his big hands!

 

[cleardayout]

Yeah its the same trick drag queens use, carry around a large glass to make your hands look small.

I really think Nintendo are going to stay where they are as they look like going head to head with PS3 release date wise and I don't think even if their tech is on a par (minus HD DVD) that it will matter - the PS base is too big.

Microsoft will probably grab a good chunk of next-gen wannabes before PS3 comes out though especially if the titles look like Unreal 3 AND they can get out enough games before PS3 launches. Very tempting.

Personally I think HD-DVD is so young that it wont be a big selling point when PS and Xbox go head-to-head and its a gamble to put such new and potentially expensive tech in - this may be the clincher for Microsoft - a cheap fast console that does the job.

Problem is if PS3 titles aren't *that* much better do you want to spend more just to get the HD-DVD with bugger all HD media available.

Dunno, my 2c.

 

[_xxx_]

If I may diverge from the topic (is there one?), PS3 design, like, totally sucks.

Nintendo did a great design job, kudos to them. I'd get that one just as an accessory for my living room, it's so beautiful.

 

[Gerry]

Unless the Xbox360 can compete with this it's dead in the water quite frankly:

http://www.omlette.net/mirror/up/ps3grill.jpg

 

[cybamerc]

About Killzone Demo - From John Davision blog - 1Up

Anyone remember the first Getaway screens? Never trust these people.