PS3 shown before XB2

[Shifty Geezer]

From GI.biz PS3's unveiling at the Pre-E3 conference will occur 3 hours before Xenon's. That's close!

Will the PS3 steal XB2's thunder? Will Sony keep journalists around so long they miss the MS event? Will MS steal the journo's from Sony's event and sweeten them up with after-conference nibbles and free HDTVs? Or will MS shatter PS3 illusions, describing a more capable system right after Sony's declarations?

It must kinda exciting, in an uncomfortable way, for the PS3 and XB2 heads. They're going head to head against their competition, not really knowing what they've got. They've had to decide their hardware specs trying to compete, while managing budgets, and are now going to release details to the world within hours. I bet there's some nail-biting moments as both companies watch the other hoping they haven't got a trump card!

So, if you were in charge of one console and had a choice, would you rather show first or second?

 

[Andy]

Personally if I was confident I had made the better console I'd wanna announce it first, however if I had a feeling that my console was gonna be overshadowed, I'd announce second, so I would have time for a contigency plan should I need it (eg Ram upgrade, HDD included etc).

 

[rabidrabbit]

How far is the place Sony's keeping their conference from MS's place?
Will the journo's have enough time to get back to LA centre if Sony conference lasts about two hours
I wonder if the more remote location was intentional on Sony or not

 

[rabidrabbit]

Personally if I was confident I had made the better console I'd wanna announce it first, however if I had a feeling that my console was gonna be overshadowed, I'd announce second, so I would have time for a contigency plan should I need it (eg Ram upgrade, HDD included etc).

I don't think they'd decide those changes in the couple of hours there is between Sony and MS announcements

 

[London Geezer]

*imagines Ken Kutaragi calling Sony's engineers up right after MS's conference*

- NEW PLAN!! PS3 NEEDS TO HAVE 1GB RAM. NOW!!
- BUT SIR... WE'RE DUE TO GO PUBLIC IN 2 HOURS AND WE ALREADY HAVE A PROTOT...
- I DONT CARE! PS3 HAS 1GB RAM FROM NOW. OR YOU'RE FIRED.

 

[Andy]

Personally if I was confident I had made the better console I'd wanna announce it first, however if I had a feeling that my console was gonna be overshadowed, I'd announce second, so I would have time for a contigency plan should I need it (eg Ram upgrade, HDD included etc).

I don't think they'd decide those changes in the couple of hours there is between Sony and MS announcements

LOL! Not quite what I meant. The advantage of announcing second, is if you had a feeling your console wasn't gonna be better than your rival's, with the initial specs, you could have a "Plan B" console, which was better in some areas.

eg PS3 announced, 256MB RAM, 3 hours later, Microsoft could use their contigency console plan than has 512MB RAM just to stick it to Sony.

 

[London Geezer]

Thing is, they will not announce "PS3 will have x amount of RAM" or "Xbox2 will have X+1 amount of RAM".
If anything they'll announce they are targetting PS3 or Xbox2 to have x amount of RAM or x clock speeds but keeping their options open to increase the amount or RAM or speed if they can before launch.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Well, they could as well just announce within some marigins, and "revise" the specs at a later date.
Say they announce they'll launch with total 768 Megs of ram, but closer to launch they drop it to 512 Megs, but maybe up the CPU clockspeed from 2,5GHz to 3 GHz. They are not tied to launch at the exact specs they announce at E3.

All this gen consoles launched with slightly different specs to what was first announced.

 

[Andy]

Wasn't meant to be taken literally just an example. My point I was trying to make is if I was a console maker, if I didn't believe my console's specs could meet or beat my competitor's with it's initial specs, I'd wanna annouce second so I could use my contigency plan which has better specs.

 

[Acert93]

It looks like MS may be showing some X2 related stuff on May 12th (based on that odd advertising). It looks like the unveilings are both on Monday the 16th, while E3 itself does not begin until the 17th/18th (Expo 18-20 & Conference 17-19). So the dates are:

12th - MS
16th - Sony
16th - MS
17th - E3 Conference begins
18th - E3 Expo begins

It will be interesting to see what happens at each event in regards to the invieling of:

- Console names
- Console controllers
- Specs
- Console casing
- Games
- Launch specifics
- Game videos
- Playable game demos

I wonder how much cat-and-mouse we will see.

 

[rabidrabbit]

If I was a console maker, I'd let the marketing and PR do their magic thing and come up with specs that are sure to impress

 

[passerby]

I echo Acert's opinions about this mentioned in an earliar thread. Sony is still a solid 10 mths away from Japanese launch in May. I highly doubt we will see the box, or get information about RAM size, GPU details, etc. They'll reveal some details, show a FMV or two, talk about a few launch titles. Reveal 'just enough', and combine with a solid line of upcoming PS2 titles to counter the competition's earlier lunch.

 

[Acert93]

Wasn't meant to be taken literally just an example. My point I was trying to make is if I was a console maker, if I didn't believe my console's specs could meet or beat my competitor's with it's initial specs, I'd wanna annouce second so I could use my contigency plan which has better specs.

I could see this. Most console makers have a couple designs and goes with the design that meets their performance:cost landmarks best. And as we saw with Sega with the SS, if you find out you are really screwed you can throw in an extra CPU I doubt anyone will do that again, but nothing stops them from having alternate plans with RAM amounts, CPU core frequencies, etc...

My guess is that Sony is in the better position. If they launch in 2006, nothing stops them from either a) not announcing RAM and frequency specs of the GPU/CELL or b) giving general numbers like "500MHz+ GPU" that gives them wiggle room down the road. The GPU is not completed yet so it would be very easy for them to announce their system in projected terms and change things later. I would expect the X2 to be more locked in.

 

[Acert93]

I echo Acert's opinions about this mentioned in an earliar thread. Sony is still a solid 10 mths away from Japanese launch in May. I highly doubt we will see the box, or get information about RAM size, GPU details, etc. They'll reveal some details, show a FMV or two, talk about a few launch titles. Reveal 'just enough', and combine with a solid line of upcoming PS2 titles to counter the competition's earlier lunch.

Someone read one of my posts

But yeah, I think Sony will try to keep the focus on PSP and PS2 for the rest of 2005 with some "mouth wetting" in regards to PS3...

Wow... someone read one of my posts...

 

[London Geezer]

Someone read one of my posts
Wow... someone read one of my posts...

We all do, we just choose to forget very fast

 

[one]

Where's Nintendo?

 

[London Geezer]

Where's Nintendo?

Japan? Mostly...

 

[one]

Where's Nintendo?

Japan? Mostly...

Ur dang fast
So no one thinks Nintendo will present a massive spec for the Revolution and make others rethink their own specs?

 

[London Geezer]

Where's Nintendo?

Japan? Mostly...

Ur dang fast
So no one thinks Nintendo will present a massive spec for the Revolution and make others rethink their own specs?

Anything's possible. Certainly they'll come up with a very powerful machine, but it seems Sony and MS are only interested in each other, than Nintendo.
Whatever hardware Nintendo will have, they need to fight on the software level, cause GC was a very cool machine, powerful and easy to code for, but it wasn't commercially successful for software reasons (quantity mainly).

 

[Acert93]

Where's Nintendo?

Japan? Mostly...

Ur dang fast
So no one thinks Nintendo will present a massive spec for the Revolution and make others rethink their own specs?

No, they are going to wait until E3 2006 to drop that bomb 8) PS3 will be out in Japan and X2 worldwide and Nintendo is going to announce their quantum Console The real "Dream Machine" where you plug eletrodes into your scalp and it projects immersive worlds into your brain. Now THAT will be revolutionary... and it comes with a free Morphine drip

Seriously, I think Nintendo will be pretty quiet, no specs, and will show more stuff in 2006.