Leaked PS3 info!

[Nesh]

GAF has gotten ahold of this newly leaked info! They are watching us!

L-B, you sure this person from "EA" wasn't "ontimeposter" with a moustache and a monikle?

Whats a GAF?

Mmm, maybe that's why Namco will be launching Ridge Racer collectors edition on one BD-ROM at PLAYSTATION 3 launch? If it doesn't support DVD or CD it is the only route they can go. But we'll see at this upcoming speech that Ken is doing.

Well if its true Sony would proove even dumper than Sega with the Saturn.

Ken is hinting that PS3 will be expensive.That alone might reduce buyers.The thing is the consumer needs as much motives as possible that will make him buy the console regardless of price.Or atleast that he will feel that the price is justified

Prevent backwards compatibility=loose potential PS3 buyers that owned a PS1 and a PS2 and loved the idea of this feature

No DVD and CD compatibility=danger the BR may be misundrestood generally as being incompatible with DVD movies and CDs->bad move for establishing the medium.
Many potential PS3 owners may like the idea of being able to play DVD movies and BR movies on their device (I thought Ken wanted PS3 to be a complete entertainment device)
Also some developers may not like this idea since BR will be costy and for starters they might want to develp their games on DVDs until developing and BR cost is reduced.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Whats a GAF?

It's a contemporary derivation of the Anglo Saxon "Gan Ha'f" which roughly translates into a meeting place or collection for trouble makers.

 

[robofunk]

As you may or may not be aware of, I was speaking of the triple wavelength technology. I don't believe they've abondoned it as it would be the most efficient way on PS3 to be able to read PS1, PS2 and PS3-disks as announced earlier just before E3. In that pressrelease they also announced 54 GB dual layer BD-rom support.

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=3842&NewsAreaID=2

I don't doubt they'd use similar technology. I still don't think that player does dual layer from what I can gather from Sony's webpage. There are other recorders on the market that probably do (not made by Sony). This recorder for example which cost a mear ~2800$ http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TB5OE/250-1097493-6868245 . Sony's offering cut rate prices on the BDZ-S77 only ~2400$ http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009V8QD/qid=1129819581/250-1097493-6868245 . These are recorders, but do you honestly think they can move away from the cartriges and keep the price reasonable.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Bah, Sony could do this and it wouldn't even matter.

BC has to be the most over rated feature ever, and in Japan especially, who are you catering too the 2% of gamers that bought an XBOX instead of PS2? That 2% is most defibately buying an X360 anyways for DOA(presumably why they bought an XBOX in the first place)

The bigget deal I see here is forcing Dev's to release on BR, more expensive, and I wonder whatt he load times will be. Also since PS3 can't read DVD how do you copy files to it or play video? Windows networking?

Also lack of DVD movie playback is a big downside in my books, everyone could use an extra DVD player.

 

[avaya]

*snip*
suposedly this info comes from EA internal documents

Now discuss

H8TA.

I dunno what to think of this. It's insane in many ways, but then again if they feel threatened about losing marketshare.

 

[MasaC]

I don't doubt they'd use similar technology. I still don't think that player does dual layer from what I can gather from Sony's webpage. There are other recorders on the market that probably do (not made by Sony). This recorder for example which cost a mear ~2800$ http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TB5OE/250-1097493-6868245 . Sony's offering cut rate prices on the BDZ-S77 only ~2400$ http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009V8QD/qid=1129819581/250-1097493-6868245 . These are recorders, but do you honestly think they can move away from the cartriges and keep the price reasonable.

You do realize that the unit described in that press release is a 3-wavelength recording/playback optical head prototype and not an final product?

Why wouldn't Sony continue with this technology and develop a 3-wavelength playback optical head for PS3? Wouldn't such a device be the most efficient unit for a backwards compatible PS3 as announced back on E3?

 

[scooby_dooby]

You do realize that the unit described in that press release is a 3-wavelength recording/playback optical head prototype and not an final product?

Why wouldn't Sony continue with this technology and develop a 3-wavelength playback optical head for PS3? Wouldn't such a device be the most efficient unit for a backwards compatible PS3 as announced back on E3?

Microsoft is already losing $60-$90 on their console, that's with a standard optical drive, cheaper ram, no expensive CELL processor, and a custom GPU that they manufacture themselves.

How is sony supposed to compete with that without cutting some major corners? You just have to be realistic, sony's not going to bleed money just so we can have a $2500 machine for $400, probably only end up with $1500 machine!

 

[wco81]

AHAHAHAH It will be on these boards as "Look, this guy had sex with an EA employee and got this info off him!!"

Oh god i'll be the videogame whore on cyberspace for eternity!!!

Is LB gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Or is this just an ongoing forum inside joke?

Gay people are too cool for video games, no?

 

[MoeStooge]

This leak does jibe a bit with some of the stuff the HD-DVD camp has been saying. They've talked about how the Bluray folks haven't been able to get DL working except in a lab environment. They haven't achieved manufacturability yet. I think it might have had something to do with the protective coating....can't remember and don't really care enough to search for it. It probably doesn't matter too much as long as they have DL drives here. I certainly wouldn't buy one at launch unless it had one.

 

[MoeStooge]

Is LB gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Or is this just an ongoing forum inside joke?

Gay people are too cool for video games, no?

LB always seems pretty happy to me.

 

[MasaC]

Microsoft is already losing $60-$90 on their console, that's with a standard optical drive, cheaper ram, no expensive CELL processor, and a custom GPU that they manufacture themselves.

How is sony supposed to compete with that without cutting some major corners? You just have to be realistic, sony's not going to bleed money just so we can have a $2500 machine for $400, probably only end up with $1500 machine!

What has MS and their finances to do with this? And to my knowledge MS doesn't manufacture their parts themselves like Sony do.

How do you figure this triple wavenlength optical head will cost $2500 to produce?

As for how big losses Sony are willing to take you'd have to ask them. All I can say is that the cell project, the Blu-Ray project and the PS3 project are all long term projects and no-one expects them to be profitable from the get go.

 

[Carl B]

Microsoft is already losing $60-$90 on their console, that's with a standard optical drive, cheaper ram, no expensive CELL processor, and a custom GPU that they manufacture themselves.

Well, that's the analyst talk at least. There's really no way to know what they're losing on the console...

CPU costs may come out roughly equivelent also, since Sony owns the fab space whereas Microsoft is still pruchasing via a contract. And of course, Sony is really fabbing the RSX themselves.

But yeah, doubtless the PS3 costs more to make.

 

[Powderkeg]

Bah, Sony could do this and it wouldn't even matter.

BC has to be the most over rated feature ever, and in Japan especially, who are you catering too the 2% of gamers that bought an XBOX instead of PS2? That 2% is most defibately buying an X360 anyways for DOA(presumably why they bought an XBOX in the first place)

Normally BC is important to early adopters who usually have to suffer through boring launch lineups and a small trickle of games for their new system for it's first year.

After the first year BC doesn't matter at all, and if you can get a good launch lineup and a steady flow of games, it will negate most of the need for BC with the early adopters as well. But you've got to have the games if you don't have the BC.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Even in Japan??

Why not screw BC and launch in Japan with whatever line-up theye were going to have anyways. I can't believe BC would drive ANY sales in Japan, all the gamers have PS2's!!! Then launch during the holiday in NA/EU with hopefully a few graphical bombs that will make everyone forget about the jaggfest that was last gen.

WHere this will hurt them most, is X360 or XBOX owners who were considering a PS3 now there's less of a reason to buy.

My point about finances was, the 360 is cheaper in MANY ways than PS3 and they are still bleeding money pretty heavily, so don't be surprised to see some cut corners to compete cost-wise.

 

[Powderkeg]

Even in Japan??

Why not screw BC and launch in Japan with whatever line-up theye were going to have anyways.

Especially in Japan, who will probably have only a handful of rushed launch games.

I can't believe BC would drive ANY sales in Japan, all the gamers have PS2's!!!

Drive sales? No, I wouldn't go that far. But it might keep some from buying the system at launch and waiting a year or two for the game library to build up instead.

My point about finances was, the 360 is cheaper in MANY ways than PS3 and they are still bleeding money pretty heavily, so don't be surprised to see some cut corners to compete cost-wise.

No argument here. Consoles have always been the best budget gaming rig you can buy.

 

[Carl B]

I know where you're coming from with the B/C thing Scooby, but it's a pretty significant deal for me, and I have PS2, and before it PS1...

I'm pretty much an aesthetic minimalist, and I don't want to have to deal with multiple ancient consoles. Better to have one that plays all the titles I'm interested in. And indeed, I do play an old game now and then. I understand that for a lot of people, this is not the norm however.

In such a space-conscious country like Japan, I could understand them feeling the same as me however in the 'let's not have more consoels lying around than we need' mentality.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

Two words: Hari Kari.

I seriously doubt this. If this is true, the exec who greenlighted this should be hanged.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Also, PS2 games do not stop at the PS3. They continue on. Final Fantasy XII is an example of this (so is Xenosaga III). They will come late in the PS2's life cycle but if you get a PS3 and still want to play these games, BC will allow you to have just one console for your Playstation gaming needs (hopefully).

I also like to revisit PSX games from time to time. Hell, I just threw FFVII in the good 'ol PS2. Sure, my 27" Samsung HDTV makes it look like a mess of polygonal diahreah but nostalgia forces me to do these things.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

It would be better for Sony to dump BR for the PS3 entirely in favor of DVD. That would make more sense. If Sony's having problems with BR and they want to launch in March, they'll just dump it for the PS3 entirely.

But if Sony's smart (and they didn't get to #1 by being dumb), they'll just wait as long as they need to. I mean, why should they worry about the Xbox 360...I mean, it's just another Dreamcast, right? Right?

 

[wco81]

Just depends on which has greater revenues/profit potential, PS3 or Blu-Ray patent royalties.

Plus whether Sony feels the urgency to get a console out in Spring, especially in Japan where X360 won't be as much of a threat.

There is some speculation that MS is trying to slow down the Blu-Ray development process. They have some control over the AACS and they're trying to get the BDA, through HP, to change policies on Managed Copying and inserting iHD into Blu-Ray.