Is the hardware spec of PS3 locked, or not?
There's another important thing to tell the future of PS3. That's the question of whether the PS3s sold in the future have the locked hardware spec for all versions or raise their spec gradually.
If the general computer aspect in the PS3 is craved strongly there will be occasions where the spec has to improve in future as times change. However if they want to emphasize the game console aspect, it's more preferable that the price goes down with a locked spec, a larger install base, and a larger margin as a game-playing platform.
"Even at the present time I think the spec is not necessarily locked. The area where hardware difference can be covered by software is growing. Till now, there was the necessity that the last one drip of the performance is squeezed out of the locked hardware spec, and the premise was that the hardware behavior is not changed even to the slightest point. But the PS3 is planned and developed by the thought that we want to change the spec in the future." says Kawanishi.
But a policy like this is hardly accepted by game vendors. With the same hardware supplied continually, vendors feel secured to devote their efforts on that platform while accumulating the know-how.
On this point, Kawanishi responds "I think we have to make it a platform that can support differences in performance and spec. For the case of PS3, in addition to softwares supplied on BD, there are titles installed in the HDD. Also there are contents on broadband connection, some are cached on the HDD too. The bandwidth and latency between PS3s connected via network will be different. Decent compatibility has to be maintained in a certain scope including the difference in the bandwidth and latency. Among these efforts, an ascending spec is not much a problem (unlike a descending spec)."
Then does it mean the PS3 as a game format is locked and PS3 contents such as a game with the same standard runs more richly and smoothly on a future hardware? Or, will there be a new format for a future PS3 such as a format for PS3 Second Edition?
"With more hardware performance, it's possible that the game format also reaches a higher version. Of course the compatibility with the older PS3 is maintained, but on a higher machine you can have a better experience in a scalable way. In other words, the game itself will be the same one though there are different parts depending on hardware performance in the future environment." (says Kawanishi)
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