Final PS3 Dev Kit and Menu Video

[aldo]

hey aldo, you still there?

I thought this was interesting...
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33895


though their line after sounds kinda harsh towards sony, considering they had a ps3 running at e3.

The marketing chap had the lamest excuse of them all, he said that Sony doesn’t want to show the live demo as there is a hidden secret feature that Sony doesn’t want to show off yet.

Very interesting. Fuod at INQ has been bashing the PS3 all along. He's the one that supplied the Photoshopped image awhile back, but he has some great authentic looking photos in this article. The PS3 looks pretty slick with the panel opened and the mem slots visible.

Interesting that Sony is supplying thermal gloves with each PS3 for handling.

I thought something was going to be announced today about this 'secret feature' since Sony was supposed to have their GC press conference today and especially since the missing IGN article which mentioned a 'secret feature' just went back up today as well. Coincidence? Perhaps. (Sorry Titanio, I just couldn't let it go. )

Anyway over at Eurogamer they show the Sony conference start time as TBC. Is that "to be confirmed" or "to be cancelled"?

-aldo

 

[Bad_Boy]

I'm not sure there is a sony conference, I think it was just a press day. Sony really seems to be saving their cards for TGS. To be honest I'm kinda surprised we actually got some new mgs4 footage today.

 

[aldo]

I'm not sure there is a sony conference, I think it was just a press day. Sony really seems to be saving their cards for TGS. To be honest I'm kinda surprised we actually got some new mgs4 footage today.

I was basing the idea of a Sony conference today on the info over at the official GC 2006 site:

23.08.2006
SCEE__________09:30 AM - 05:00 PM_____at stand, hall 3 E01/E02_____press day
Nintendo_____10:15 AM - 11:15 AM_____at stand, hall 5 F01_________"Wii prove our promise"
Microsoft_____01:00 PM - 02:15 PM_____at stand, hall 4 A02-A07

As well as the Eurogame info:

Nintendo - 9.15 BST / 10.15 CET
Microsoft - 10.30 BST / 11.30 CET
Sony - TBC

Live text commentary of all three conferences, providing a full, up-to-the-minute rundown of important announcements

I guess I was wrong.

-aldo

 

[aldo]

Not that I'm buying into the INQ story, but if it were true that the Sony guy wouldn't power up the PS3 because it might reveal 'the secret', this would would support our contention that some sort of vibration has been added back into the controller.

Of course this forum has given Fuod a lot of heat on his past BS stories, so he might be toying with us based on this thread. At this point I wouldn't put it past the guy. I honestly thought they got rid of him after that fake Photoshop story.

-aldo

 

[one]

I thought something was going to be announced today about this 'secret feature' since Sony was supposed to have their GC press conference today and especially since the missing IGN article which mentioned a 'secret feature' just went back up today as well. Coincidence? Perhaps. (Sorry Titanio, I just couldn't let it go. )

They'll save it for the keynote speech by Ken Kutaragi which is the opening event of the Tokyo Game Show 2006. Last year Satoru Iwata revealed their Wii remote at the keynote speech for the first time.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Yeah, If they have any "secrets" left to unveil, I'd think they would definately wait until TGS next month. Especially for ken's keynote. Holding ALL cards (as painful as it might be to us) seems like the best strategy. TGS is pretty much the last huge event before the novemeber launch, so a good impression is needed to be left over after the event.

Though I still wonder what kind of secret they are going to show, and I'm sure I'll be speculating on it like hell until we actually know what it is. I'll try to restrain myself.

 

[aldo]

Until TGS here is the complete recap of the PS3 'secret feature':

PS3 controller design not finalized. “Those weren't the finalized controllers for the PS3.†– IGN 8/17/06 Dev Kit Article

A secret PS3 feature possibly linked to the controller. “Starbreeze is also looking into taking advantage of the PS3's tilt controller and is considering some possible changes with another feature we can't talk about yet.†– IGN 8/17/06 'The Darkness' Article

Feature is a PS3 exclusive feature. “Xbox 360 shouldn’t worry about feeling left out with all this talk about PS3 exclusives.†– IGN 8/17/06 'The Darkness' Article

The secret feature is something out of leftfield and very pleasing. “We can assure you that this first unveiling will, shall we say, be something you are very unlikely to have foreseen, coming from way out of leftfield. Suffice to say it brought a smile to our face as we think it will do yours.†- Spong 8/23/06 PS3 Announcements Article

Feature is in response to poor PS3 E3 reception. “It would also seem that Sony has seriously taken on board the many criticisms targeted at the company following a poorly received E3 PlayStation 3 showing†- Spong 8/23/06 PS3 Announcements Article

Development team improving PS3 technical offering. “Sony has… done what it does best – gone into lockdown mode whilst its development and marketing teams get on with the serious, hard work of ensuring that both the PS3’s technical offering and the marketing message are both spot on for the looming 17th November launch.†- Spong 8/23/06 PS3 Announcements Article

Secret feature not obvious until PS3 is powered on. “Sony didn’t want to plug it in. Sony doesn’t want to show the live demo as there is a hidden secret feature that Sony doesn’t want to show off yet.†– INQ 8/23/06 Fuad Article

*The IGN ‘The Darkness’ article disappeared after the 17th and returned on the 23rd.

-aldo

 

[Bad_Boy]

hmm, I was thinking about the Inq article again about them not wanting to turn it on because it would show a "secret". The controller may be one thing but I don't see how the powering on of the console would all of a sudden reveal something about the controller. I think the controller is different from what the guys at GC06 were talking about.

But if you think about it, what shows up when you turn on the console? The OS right?
And with the recent news of the Cure@PS3 folding, I was thinking maybe they did not want to show the linux client/distro and how it will work with the ps3 yet? Perhaps when you power on the ps3 you can select to boot into linux or the xmb menu?

I dunno, maybe I'm reading too into it.

 

[zed]

yeah i bet its prolly gonna be something likef the gears of war 'annoncement'. ala hype hype + then what ..... 'release date'
cant guess what it'll be, i would think more mem (which would be great) but u cant tell that from turning it on
i just hope its not the following
PS3 controller design not finalized

 

[one]

But if you think about it, what shows up when you turn on the console? The OS right?
And with the recent news of the Cure@PS3 folding, I was thinking maybe they did not want to show the linux client/distro and how it will work with the ps3 yet? Perhaps when you power on the ps3 you can select to boot into linux or the xmb menu?

I also think if there's a hidden function it's not necessarily related to specific games. It'll be a function of the OS or the PS3 itself outside of its game execution function. Besides, like the Cure@PS3 distributed computing project and its visualization client, it'll be based on Cell, RSX and the network.

If you allow me to utter my own wild guess (well the time to guess is rapidly decreasing as of now less than 100 days before the PS3 release, please bear with it!), it'll be some kind of 3D visualization of an overlay network generated by PS3 and Cell servers. In other words, Cell-assisted massive-multiplayer-online environment, or the "Matrix".

For one thing, Kawanishi (the manager of the software platform division of SCEI) once said in his interview that they wanted to create an alternative internet experience which is different from what you perceive through a web browser on PC. Then there are recent SCEI patent apps for distributed computing, and the Prime Sense rumor. And lastly, the "4D" message by Ken Kutaragi which suggests a "live" 3D world.

Of course "the secret function" may be a trivial consumer-electronics function such as DVR, but what I want to see is more than that.

 

[rabidrabbit]

If you allow me to utter my own wild guess (well the time to guess is rapidly decreasing as of now less than 100 days before the PS3 release, please bear with it!), it'll be some kind of 3D visualization of an overlay network generated by PS3 and Cell servers. In other words, Cell-assisted massive-multiplayer-online environment, or the "Matrix".

I'd go with that guess too.
While offering little except visual eye-candy, that would be cool.

Remember the PS2 bootup sequence which "evolved" when you had more game saves on your memorycard. Looking back it's really lame, as it just added those columns and made them longer but fun when it was new (and I did expect it to evolve more, but to my disappointment it never did).
PS3 could have a bootup sequence of a rotating globe that shows each and every connected PS3 as a luminous dot in the map, and it could be called up whenever from the XMB, and it could be zoomed like the Google Earth. For privacy, you'd of course could block yourself from showing to others, or just show your general area.

What's "Prime Sense" btw?

 

[Bad_Boy]

That is an very interesting theory, one. I'm not too privy on the details, but I think I remember the talks of PS3's network having to be highly P2P based. Having pretty much a worldwide connectivity. Sure its pretty optimistic, and may be even exaggerated in a sense by some news sites but I dont think it would be out of the question.

It would explain the free online gaming, being able to setup you're own public servers, setup lan servers, or if you like... play on a official game server offered by developers. Or for example, putting your own "youtube" type content up for other people to see. Saying the "Matrix" or "4d" may sound very exaggerated but in a sense I think you may be on to something.

I'm not sure what you mean by "3D visualization" though, maybe you can clear up what you mean by that. Do you mean a 3d interface, or the actual 3d games themselves playing in an online environment.

One of the interesting things I remember was this slide at GDC when they were talking about the 4D stuff. http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060315/sce1_14.jpg
The "live camera" followed by the question mark just seems interesting to me. Although it may be exaggerated, it seems to suggest an online environment that is always connected (atleast when you turn on your ps3).

But yeah, I suppose we will find about what sony has planned next month. Of course I dont think all this stuff in my post will come true, but atleast the basic idea of it seems possible. I think it can be interpreted in serveral different fashions.

edit: doing some searching on b3d, finding some interesting stories from the past.
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=696651#post696651

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=686116#post686116

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=731074#post731074

 

[aldo]

hmm, I was thinking about the Inq article again about them not wanting to turn it on because it would show a "secret". The controller may be one thing but I don't see how the powering on of the console would all of a sudden reveal something about the controller. I think the controller is different from what the guys at GC06 were talking about.

But if you think about it, what shows up when you turn on the console? The OS right?
And with the recent news of the Cure@PS3 folding, I was thinking maybe they did not want to show the linux client/distro and how it will work with the ps3 yet? Perhaps when you power on the ps3 you can select to boot into linux or the xmb menu?

I dunno, maybe I'm reading too into it.

I considered it's most likely something in the OS as well.

Fuad didn't mention any extra weight in the controller and yet he claims to have handled it and it appears to be his hands in the INQ photos. So in line with the "those weren't the finalized controllers" comment we can 'assume' the feature was not integrated into the controller yet.

Yet the guys developing 'The Darkness' hadn't taken advantage of it yet, but they and IGN were aware of the feature. And the developers had access to developing for the feature based on the statement, “Starbreeze is...considering some possible changes with another feature we can't talk about yet.â€￾ so it was most likely updated into the PS3 system.

[font=&quot]It may have been something in line with what one is talking about, but it's also possible that the OS could have displayed a different controller design in the controller's menu icon and/or had a new option listed within the controller menu to toggle on/off or adjust a new feature.

-aldo[/font]

 

[Bad_Boy]

Yeah, I think Starbreeze/IGN and other reports of the controller may be another "secret" on it's own separate from what it whatever was at leipzig. So maybe we have 2 secrets somewhat.

On the other hand..
I wonder if the rumors about the new OPM mag are true, supposedly theres an article stating the controller has rumble, but no one seems to have the mag yet to confirm.

on the ps3forums..

According to a friend who has already received his latest issue of OPM (Official Playstation Magazine), the reason why Sony is not gonna license Immersion's vibration technology is because they're developing their own!

This would definitely confirm the many rumours about a "new feature" from Starbreeze and at Leipzig.

I haven't gotten my OPM yet so I can't confirm this, but this friend of mine wouldn't lie about something like this. He said there's a 2-page article on it in OPM. Somebody confirm it please?

I hope somebody gets ahold of the mag soon to confirm.

 

[one]

What's "Prime Sense" btw?

This rumor.
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32605
Incidentally, SCEI's Masaaki OKA made a similar patent app in 2003 but apparently it was not granted.
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=WO2004072908&F=0

I'm not sure what you mean by "3D visualization" though, maybe you can clear up what you mean by that. Do you mean a 3d interface, or the actual 3d games themselves playing in an online environment.

It's basically what rabidrabbit describes in his post above as a PS3 version of Google Earth. It's like a virtual cityscape where you can move around and meet other PS3 users. The 4D stuff was not mentioned at GDC, but at the PS Business Briefing on Mar. 15, 2006. It points to the metaphor of a city with buildings which is often seen in old cyberpunk fictions. Whether it ends up as a metaphor or a real thing depends on how serious Kutaragi is, though. It may be the PS4 vision, who knows
http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20060315/232603/PS11.jpg
http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20060315/232603/PS12.jpg
http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20060315/232603/PS13.jpg

 

[zed]

It's basically what rabidrabbit describes in his post above as a PS3 version of Google Earth. It's like a virtual cityscape where you can move around and meet other PS3 users.

if so that would be the killar app ( ie GTA3 x10 ), that would sell bucketloads of ps3's to the average joe, i dont believe its anything so grandiose though

 

[rounin]

if so that would be the killar app ( ie GTA3 x10 ), that would sell bucketloads of ps3's to the average joe, i dont believe its anything so grandiose though

Much as I want to believe this is true, I also refuse to do so without further proof.

 

[patsu]

Yeah I doubt it. There are too many hairy issues to solve with little gain for Sony. They should be able to achieve similar/better effect with "just" a HTML-based MySpace-like approach. This way, it's cheaper to run (bandwidth and PS3 resource-wise), plus PC and Mac users will be able to see 'em for marketing purposes.

I'd rather Sony spend time on the Linux OS, the software/game library and their core online services, seeing how they failed to deliver Sony Connect.

That said, I am intrigued by this "secret" feature. I hope it's not gimmicky but useful.

 

[Siraris]

I think the Starbreeze feature is something different than this "secret" that we have not seen yet with PS3.

From following things with PS3 very closely, I'm going to have to agree with the consensus and say it's OS related or even OS/Game related. I was thinking maybe booting up and seeing OSX on there, but I doubt it.

If you watch the interface video, the interface is extremely plain. Maybe it's just a shell XBar interface they got up for developers to mess with things, and the "real" interface is coming.

A lot of people are thinking it's the rumored Minority Report interface as well, which was hinted back in '03 I believe, and there's also this link as well.

I guess I feel like just a big OS change wouldn't really blow anyone away, so it has to be game related as well. We'll see, either on or before TGS.

 

[patsu]

Man, you guys are hard to please

As for not turning the PS3 on... it could be anything from startup screen logo credit (e.g., Powered by Immersion *gasp*), boot sequence (e.g., network boot, looking for DLNA devices), navigation interface (Linux integration), bundled content or applications.

I appreciate Sony's relentless effort to value add, but enough is enough. I'm actually rather wary about adding too many things to PS3 at this late stage. It can become unwieldy or unpolished.

*sigh* Yes, yes I know it can be exciting. But Sony has to respect the scope and complexity of operating/supporting a large network. I hate to encounter registration/login problems, multi-Gb patches to get to a sexy Google Earth application, and find that I'm only the 13th user there. *Touch wood*