PS3 details (60 GB HDD, Worldwide Launch, etc)

[Paco]

News is sort of thin now...but lo and behold, I can present to you a beautiful bulletpoint list of current PS3 info from the Japanese conference.

• Worldwide Launch - November 11.
  
• Six million units produced in 2006 alone, a move to stem shortages.
  
• The price will not be less than 50,000 yen ($420 US)
  
• Full backwards compatibility, hi-res and texture filtering for all titles, akin to what the Xbox 360 does.
  
• 60GB HDD standard, loaded with Linux.
  
• Every PS3 game will be on a Blu Ray Disc, in an attempt to prevent piracy.
  
• The online service will be working off of GameSpy technology.
  

More as it comes, and a much better formatted article in the morning.

http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2006/3/15-27

[Paco]

Blu-Ray Only

March 14, 2006 - At its PlayStation Business Briefing 2006 in Japan, Sony announced its production plans for BD-ROM discs (Blu-ray). Firstly, all PlayStation 3 games will ship on Blu-ray to help prevent piracy. In other words, no "cheap" DVD releases; Blu-ray only. Of course, it'll still play PS2 and movies on DVD, but all PS3 releases will be on Blu-ray.

The company expects initial BD-ROM production to reach 2.5 million in Japan and Europe and 5 million in the US.

60 GB HDD standard

As part of the PlayStation Business Brief today in Tokyo, Ken Kutaragi confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will require a hard drive peripheral for games. Developers are being told to create games with the assumption that a hard disk will be present.

"The hardware was developed with the hard disk in mind," Kutaragi said.

Earlier, we mistakenly reported that Sony would including the hard disk with the PS3 right out of the box. Kutaragi actually stopped short of confirming this, leaving it as an area of speculation for now. He did state that Sony hopes to avoid a situation where some systems have the drive and others don't (Kutaragi didn't mention Xbox 360, but he was probably thinking it).

It's live!...?

At the PlayStation Business Briefing 2006, Ken Kutaragi has just added another infamous quote to his belt, this time stating that PS3 games are "live" and that the PS3 concept is "4D".

He claims that games have gone from 8-bit to 16-bit planes, to the "space" that you saw on the PS1/PS2, and now PS3 will be "live".

[Great Rumbler]

At the PlayStation Business Briefing 2006, Ken Kutaragi has just added another infamous quote to his belt, this time stating that PS3 games are "live" and that the PS3 concept is "4D".

He claims that games have gone from 8-bit to 16-bit planes, to the "space" that you saw on the PS1/PS2, and now PS3 will be "live".

[lazyfatbum]

So they're actually going for a worldwide launch for November? For Japan, USA and Europe? Amazing. I didn't think they had it in them.

The 420 price point sounds like an odd number, it'll probably get rounded down to 400 or up to 450 for the states. But what does the package include? And what the hell "It was designd with the HDD in mind but officially TBA"?

[Dark Jaguar]

At the PlayStation Business Briefing 2006, Ken Kutaragi has just added another infamous quote to his belt, this time stating that PS3 games are "live" and that the PS3 concept is "4D".

He claims that games have gone from 8-bit to 16-bit planes, to the "space" that you saw on the PS1/PS2, and now PS3 will be "live".

I understand the meaning of the individual words and it uses proper grammar rules, but other than that this entire statement is meaningless.

[Great Rumbler]

Ken Kutaragi is known for saying all kinds of insane things. Such as, that people would be able to "jack into the Matrix" with the PS2. So far I haven't seen anything like that.

[Dark Jaguar]

At least that's a fully fledged statement. I can actually understand what that means, even if it is a blatant lie. This though, it is gibberish.

[A Black Falcon]

Ken Kutaragi is known for saying all kinds of insane things. Such as, that people would be able to "jack into the Matrix" with the PS2. So far I haven't seen anything like that.

And he did not dissapoint this time...

Anyway, Sony will have a hard time being ready for a worldwide launch in November. They need to try, and know that it's important to get something out, especially with Microsoft steadily gaining ground in the West with 360, but still, getting it out there worldwide... at best, it'll have shortages as bad as the 360 has had...

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archiv..._math.html

[Smoke]

GAF's Sony Conference Summary
There was also new PSP info:

PSP:
- videophone in autumn
- GPS (Hot Shots Golf with GPS revealed; October 2006 for Japan)
- Eyetoy
- Flash support with next update
- Mem.Stick boot support in autumn
- first-gen PS1 official emulator
- buy/download games from net
- 199 CORE PACK PSP being released in USA/Europe by end of March (March 22nd for Europe)
- 19,800 yen Ceramic White PSP CORE PACK from 15 April in Japan