PS2 -> PS3 "It is not just a game console." Ken K.

[patsu]

Yeah, personalization of XMB is more fun than I thought. It's not really a revolutionary idea though. I have this strange urge to change the theme again and again and again. To this end, I think they should integrate the web browser tighter into the "standalone" XMB (not the in-game one).

e.g., Make selected bookmarks in the browser into individual items in XMB. That way I can jump to a bookmark (like the official PS blog) directly to get the latest news. Alternatively, they can do this in RSS or in the Message Box. Just get rid of the Information Bar (please ?).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Thanks Nesh on the Play TV, missed it.

Pay TV was a major interest of mine in PS3, where I was expecting it to be a ~£40 USB plugin at most. At £100 it's worse value than a standalone PVR. Nice concept, but lost it's value as an all-in-one. Next-gen probably internet TV will be the route and PVR need only be a software solution.

 

[Vic]

MS was doing almost everything on the list, long before Sony was.

No OS, HD format, wireless as standard, HDD as standard or high-quality DVD upscaling (its worse than Xbox 1). Not to mention HDMI, HD audio or remote play.

Many wont care, but the OP obviously does.

 

[patsu]

MS was doing almost everything on the list, long before Sony was.

See what I mean ? Any idea will need building blocks. That's why I feel that it's not too interesting to talk about feature list without a context.

On a general note, some of the points will attract scorn if the term "revolutionary" is put anywhere near them. Things like resolution, audio improvements, wireless, customisable/upgradable OS are fairly 'obvious' things. But I think it's fair to note the less obvious things, things that did even generate discussion (and scepticism) prior to PS3's release. I think it's reasonable to note them again with the benefit of hindsight, their significance to date (or lack thereof), their potential significance in the future. Those things, I would say are:

Remote Play, Blu-ray, Commodity Storage support, Region-freeness, internet support (both the obvious in browsing, and less obvious in things like in PSN openess), otherOS, DRM for DLC and game-sharing..

Those are the things, some more or less interesting, that I think are actually notable to date.

The Internet happened while PS2 was thriving. It is only fair that Sony assimilate Internet into the entertainment space with PS3. If we take a broad sweep across PS3's feature set, we can see that it attempts to capture the "The Bests/Hallmarks of Internet". e.g., Web surfing, YouTube, Folding@Home, MUD/Second Life, My Space, GoToMyPC, Java, online gaming, media sharing/exchange (e.g., via DivX) etc. As you pointed out, even the business model of PSN mimick's Internet's openness.

The idea of bringing Internet to the living room has been tried many times. Although there is still much room for improvement, PS3 represents the latest and most comprehensive attempt so far. At this moment, I'd stress that "there is still much room for improvement" [cracks whip]. BUT what's available to-date is enough to keep my faith and interest going.


If we look at Blu-ray, I think much is not explored yet (other than its hidef movie playback feature). If Fox could run a complete network game with webcam support on a prototype BD-Live player in CES 2008, then the Blu-ray platform may be a viable (casual) game console for the masses. This may change the gaming landscape (e.g., standardized gaming platform, multiple hardware manufacturers, ...) when/if Blu-ray gains mass adoption.


There are a few other intriguing ideas in PS3. I think we will see more in GDC. In particular, Playstation Home (a la "The Matrix") and how "Dress" fit in.

 

[_phil_]

The Blu-ray platform may be a viable (casual) game console for the masses

That idea crossed my mind too.There is a potentiel market for something new and casual ,video based.
cell and RSX could help for some funny tricks too.

 

[desmond]

sony is making a substantial investment in developing multimedia functionality for ps3 however it remains to be seen wether or not they are going to try to push ps3 as a universal media player or are they going to build non-gaming units based on this software/firmware. one other thing, blu ray's java based bd/j authoring is the same as on used in cable (tru2way). in theory any br player could process cable's advanced interactive content such as vod.

 

[Titanio]

Maybe you should elaborate on your posts a bit.. saying MS did most of these things (when they didn't) or that Sony is following where MS lead is a bit confusing when said in isolation.

If I was gonna talk about important steps MS made in this transition, I'd start for example with XBLA. The emergence of a viable market for smaller developers and indies on consoles is a hugely important development this generation..and while it's no longer a distinguishing one for MS, they did get the ball rolling first.

 

[desmond]

For remote play to be really worthwhile, it needs to extend beyond the limited reach of Wifi; it really needs Cellphone coverage. Otherwise, fine for beaming around the house, but you don't get your media experience from your PlayStation 'server' to wherever you are in the world. The idea of having media on your PS3, remote access to TV tuning and recording, and playback to a TV over PSP, is fantastic in theory. It lets you take your media on holiday with you. Only you need wifi to do it, and renting a villa in France where you might have use for remote play, it comes a cropper on this limitation.

Sony are ahead of the game in this respect, with the competition only really coming from downloads to phones (better coverage) but without TV linkup on the receiving side. The question is whether phones will add media services and TV out before Sony adds broad network coverage.

you can use a wifi router add-on for your 3g phone, that way you can connect any wifi device via the 3g connection.

 

[AW0L]

the new gen needs to take into consderation what the public actually wants. XBOX 1 with user mods was almost the perfect console. the blue prints of what people want were already here and i think sony and MS are are taking there time looking for a way to charge people for these things. its not that they dont want to put options its just they need to figure out how much the avg person will pay for these options. its not a bad thing but its more of a slow process. alot of us already have these options with our computers (cant keep well anuff alone) but the living room and mr joe nothing is the next big frontier for these guys finding a balance of price and acessibility aswell as need takes time.

 

[Heinrich4]

That idea crossed my mind too.There is a potentiel market for something new and casual ,video based.
cell and RSX could help for some funny tricks too.

Cam/pseye +Sixaxis/DS3/Motion controller? Things like "Mirror" processing by cell showed if not my mistake by Toshiba?

Evolution lineage old games movie+game (old lasergames arcades,first 3DO games shooting etc) maybe would be very atractive for casuals.

 

[Crossbar]

For remote play to be really worthwhile, it needs to extend beyond the limited reach of Wifi; it really needs Cellphone coverage. Otherwise, fine for beaming around the house, but you don't get your media experience from your PlayStation 'server' to wherever you are in the world. The idea of having media on your PS3, remote access to TV tuning and recording, and playback to a TV over PSP, is fantastic in theory. It lets you take your media on holiday with you. Only you need wifi to do it, and renting a villa in France where you might have use for remote play, it comes a cropper on this limitation.

Sony are ahead of the game in this respect, with the competition only really coming from downloads to phones (better coverage) but without TV linkup on the receiving side. The question is whether phones will add media services and TV out before Sony adds broad network coverage.

Those are damn good points. I´ve always looked upon remote play as a somewhat awkward feature, requiring a wifi connection to be useful. But put the PSP in a 3G handset with fixed-price monthly fee and unlimited download size and you will be able to access your PS3 content, setup PlayTV recordings, etc. from pretty much everywhere in the world. Sweet!!!

 

[dantruon]

most of things listed in the OP is an evolution of the Playstation but the Cell inside the PS3 is IMO a revolution in CPU design.

 

[catisfit]

most of things listed in the OP is an evolution of the Playstation but the Cell inside the PS3 is IMO a revolution in CPU design.

I agree. It's very easy to see the PS4 being fundamentally a Cell with several times more SPEs. Now developers are getting used to the shift to thinking about utilising SPEs instead of the PC/360 general purpose CPU/threads concept, it can only be good news for future consoles.

 

[Arwin]

In terms of the line of Playstations, certainly firmware upgrade capability is the biggest and most important fundamental change, built-in harddrive a close second. In the PS2, the harddrive was optional but never really took off, and firmware couldn't be upgraded.

In that sense, the original Xbox was ahead of its time, having the HDD and I think also downloadable firmware already built in.

All other changes, cool and many though that they are, are almost all of them possible primarily thanks to these two fundamental changes.

That's not to dismiss how versatile the hardware has become, but Sony wouldn't have been able to use it all nearly as effectively.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's true. Sony didn't nail down a console spec, but basically released a hardware platform for running future software functions, and over time they can add to these functions however they choose. All three of the new consoles have done this realizing flexibility is essential to keeping pace with competing systems and services, or even just to differentiate (Wii's services tend towards simple fun rather than competing with multimedia applications; they haven't even added DVD playback yet!)

 

[rabidrabbit]

In terms of the line of Playstations, certainly firmware upgrade capability is the biggest and most important fundamental change, built-in harddrive a close second. In the PS2, the harddrive was optional but never really took off, and firmware couldn't be upgraded.

If I recall correct, the PS2 did receive at least one firmware update.
It was for improving the DVD playback compatibility and the use of the official Sony DVD infrared remote control, and required a memory card where the update was installed, but essentially, it was a firmware update that added a function to the PS2.
Also, the network adapter required some software to be installed to PS2 memory card.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

the new gen needs to take into consderation what the public actually wants. XBOX 1 with user mods was almost the perfect console. the blue prints of what people want were already here and i think sony and MS are are taking there time looking for a way to charge people for these things.

I dont totally agree with this. I, and alot of others I think, dont want to pay extra for functions that arnt at the base of the machine. If I buy a sony, ms or a nintendo machine I want it to play games. I buy a playstation, not a watchstation. Sure, its nice to have some media options, but I dont want to pay for it. Why would I want that? My pc can do everything a mediaconsole will ever do and than some more. I'll never have to worry about if its going to play my format or not because it will. Always. Why would I want to be charged for that in my console? I find it weird a company wants to charge for this anyway as its nothing more than a small codec issue, all the hardware is already in place anyway.

 

[Arwin]

You could load drivers into the PS2's memory, and these examples you give just sound like a driver was added onto a memory card, and that's about it. That's not quite the same as updating the firmware properly. Also, I doubt that the flash-memory had much to spare to do a lot of significant updates.

 

[Nesh]

I dont totally agree with this. I, and alot of others I think, dont want to pay extra for functions that arnt at the base of the machine. If I buy a sony, ms or a nintendo machine I want it to play games. I buy a playstation, not a watchstation. Sure, its nice to have some media options, but I dont want to pay for it. Why would I want that? My pc can do everything a mediaconsole will ever do and than some more. I'll never have to worry about if its going to play my format or not because it will. Always. Why would I want to be charged for that in my console? I find it weird a company wants to charge for this anyway as its nothing more than a small codec issue, all the hardware is already in place anyway.

Well do you know how much extra does it cost for PS3 or 360 to do those extra functions? XBOX could do lots of these without even being designed to do them. Only a slight mod was needed.

These functions are becoming less and less expensive to implement. The basic cost comes from things that are directly related to gaming.

Personally I bought the PS3 to play games, but I got lots of awesome bonuses with it. And they are brilliant. My PS3 is beginning to replace my DVD player as well as my PC for playing my media thanks to DLNA. I can access everything on the spot. Everyone watches movies and listens to music. I can change my entertainment at any moment on the same machine while I was originally doing something else. It is so convenient!

If the PS3 didnt have those extra features and were available on the 360 only I would have probably went to the 360 despite that the primary purpose I bought my console are games.

The consumer is starting to realize the benefits of that functionality. Some hardcore nintendo fans may be using this argument again and again (consoles are for playing games) but it doesnt matter. There is a great deal of other people that arent hardcore for a specific company and buy a console to have fun. All entertainment media are becoming a part of that fun and more consumers are starting to realize this.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well do you know how much extra does it cost for PS3 or 360 to do those extra functions? XBOX could do lots of these without even being designed to do them. Only a slight mod was needed. These functions are becoming less and less expensive to implement.

The relative cost to implement is basically zero, as you say. The hardware needed to play games facilitates all the other functions. All you need is software which is basically negligible cost to write a web browser or media player. That's why media extension is a smart move. For those like tongue who are PC happy, fine. There are plenty of people, me included, who want a straight-forward, compact solution. Case in point I watched Ratatouille round a friend's on the weekend on his media PC. The sound was glitched up and needed some system poking to get working (and for the record he got a PS3 yesterday!). It's not the same experience as putting a DVD in a DVD player and watching. A console offers that, and if you're going to buy the console anyway for games, why not add functions and extend the use you get from the hardware you've bought? In PS3's case one can complain that the media functions did hike the price of the console due to BRD inclusion, but that's both the exception to the norm, and it does bring something to the game experience as well - it's not a media only device so can't be isolated as an added cost just for unwanted media functions.