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The new PS3 design unveiled during the E3 announcement
November 17 ship date, new controller, hard drive, free online service

Sony just finished up the company's E3 official announcement of Playstation 3. As expected, the company has confirmed that the console will ship early November 2006 in a simultaneous worldwide launch.  Some information about the PS3 has already been announced -- the device will feature a 60GB hard drive, Blu-ray and integrated networking capabilities. 

All of the content demonstrated in the conference was in glorious 1080p, including games.  Gran Turismo was one of the first titles featured at 1080p.  EA announced they will have 10 launch titles for PS3, though it isn't clear which titles will feature 1080p.  Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy 13 were two other memorable 1080p announcements.

Furthermore, the PS3 will come with several interoperability features, including a function that will allow the PSP to link directly into the console.  The conference call also alluded to some WiFi integration, and considering the networking between the PSP and the PS3, we can only assume this means some 802.11 protocol.  Bluetooth will also be standard on the PS3. 

The wireless controllers will allow for seven players at a time to use the same console.  The wireless controllers are a strong departure from the old "boomerang" concept design.  In fact, the controller looks almost exactly like the existing PS2 controller with the addition of two trigger buttons under the L1 and R1 pads, but also features motion sensitivity. The internal motion sensitivity gives the controller "six degrees of freedom." A mini-USB interface is also featured on the front of the controller -- we suspect for recharging the batteries. Sony stresses that this is not the final design, though our representative claims there will be very few changes before launch.

The device will also have an extensive online back end.  Unlike Microsoft's XBOX 360, Playstation online (the official name is unannounced yet) will be completely free.  The service will offer free additional content, voice messaging and a marketplace dubbed "Playstation Shop." The marketplace will act very similar to Microsoft's XBOX Live marketplace, allowing users to tie a credit card or prepaid "Playstation Card" into a specific account. 

Sony will also feature a "SingStar Store" in the marketplace that will allow users to purchase music from Sony directly.  Music can then be transferred onto the PSP or played on the PS3.  The media center for PS3 is then customizable with various skins and profiles available via the marketplace.

To wrap things up, Sony also announced the PS3 will come in two different configurations, similar to the XBOX 360 approach. One version will come with a 20GB hard drive and cost $499.  The 60GB hard drive version will cost $599.  Both models will ship November 17 in the US.  In Canada, the two models will ship for 549 CND and 649 CND on the same date, respectively. Sony anticipates shipping 2 million units at release, but there seems to be some discrepancy between the March 31, 2007 unit predictions: the graph claims 7 million units total yet the Sony representatives claimed only 6 million.

Update 05/08/06: More info about the differences between the two tiers of Playstations is available in another article on DailyTech.

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Sony failed to impress.
By MykC on 5/8/2006 9:29:50 PM , Rating: 2
After watching the most of the Sony press conference I can say that I was not impressed.

Most of the games they showed were still in CGI format. The games they did show did in real-time did not look much better or any different than 360 titles.

For those who thought Kill Zone 2 was a reflection of what the PS3 was capable of are going to be disappointed, very disappointed.




RE: Sony failed to impress.
By AnnihilatorX on 5/8/2006 9:40:07 PM , Rating: 2
I would say it's because of the Cell architecture the game developer is still not experienced in fully utilising PS3's capability. In contrast Xbox 360 is much easier to utilise and optimize due to PC like architecture.
It's like how first generation PS2 games compared to the latter ones. Heck a lot of difference


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By Shenkoa on 5/9/06, Rating: 0
RE: Sony failed to impress.
By yonzie on 5/9/2006 6:49:05 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The Xbox360's architecture is nothing like the PC you dope. The processor in the 360 is built off of IBM's power PC instruction set. The Xbox360's packs a much more innovative GFX engine.

While your claim about the architecture of the Xbox 360 being totally unlike a PC is true, the grandfather posters claim of the Xbox 360 being vastly easier to program for is true as well.

What you fail to grasp is the fundamental difference between the software architecture needed to succeed on the two consoles.

The Xbox360 has 3 cores.
The PS3's CPU has one core and 7 smaller cores.

To succeed on the PS3 as a software designer, you have to make use of the smaller cores or you won't be able to make your games look as good as they should, thereby decreasing your sales.
On the Xbox360, while certainly not optimal, it's much more feasible to only use one core since much less is wasted.

Using multiple cores necessitates multi-threading.
From a programmer's point of view, threading == pain.
Nearly all games today are single-threaded.
Using threading, bugs are a nightmare to squash, getting data properly to and from the other threads, I could go on...
If threading is pain, it's much easier to not do it.
This is not feasible on PS3.
Therefore, it is easier to program for the Xbox360


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By hstewarth on 5/9/2006 12:15:10 PM , Rating: 2
Saying something is not feasible on PS3 is nuts. Microsoft attempted to these by stating that 1080p gaming is not possible - even though I already do it on my PC with dell 24in monitor at 1920x1200.

On the processors, I think it possible people are underestimating the power of the SPE, some might think they are just a small addition when more like they are major component of the Cell designed and the PowerPC unit is just a controller of the 7 SPE. Also remember that Apple got away from PowerPC - maybe because of performance.

On Multi-Threading, as as programmer myself - the main issue with threading is people are not used to it - lot because of the OS under neath. In Windows case and especiall DirectX games, multi-threading ideas are not normally done. This is slowly change because of dual processor machines, then hyperthreading and now dual core machines.

But I believe that PS/3 has be designed from ground up with multi-threading / multi-cpu in mind. Down to the OS level.

On on the easy of program, can't assume that development on the PS/3 is the same as development on PS/2. PS/2 has been known to be hard to program, but Sony's know that they desired for PS/3 to be easlier program because they want applications. But they do have an advantage - there extremely large base.


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By saratoga on 5/9/2006 1:32:02 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Saying something is not feasible on PS3 is nuts. Microsoft attempted to these by stating that 1080p gaming is not possible - even though I already do it on my PC with dell 24in monitor at 1920x1200.


Obviously writing a single threaded application on the PS3 is possible. But given that it has a single, in order core, I don't want to think what the results would look like. For game code, the per clock performance of the PPC core in Cell is going to make the P4 look amazing.



RE: Sony failed to impress.
By yonzie on 5/9/2006 2:52:59 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Saying something is not feasible on PS3 is nuts. Microsoft attempted to these by stating that 1080p gaming is not possible - even though I already do it on my PC with dell 24in monitor at 1920x1200.
"Not feasible" != impossible.
While using only the PPE (looked the name up ;-) would certainly be possible, it would be the equivalent of using a 7900GTX with an 500Mhz P3... (probably a slight exaggeration)
quote:
On the processors, I think it possible people are underestimating the power of the SPE, some might think they are just a small addition when more like they are major component of the Cell designed and the PowerPC unit is just a controller of the 7 SPE. Also remember that Apple got away from PowerPC - maybe because of performance.
The SPEs are definitely the entire point of Cell. Without them it's just a very basic PPC core.
quote:
On Multi-Threading, as as programmer myself - the main issue with threading is people are not used to it
Exactly. And it can create some evil bugs - especially when the programmer is inexperienced with threading.


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By Trisped on 5/9/2006 5:17:47 PM , Rating: 2
The basic problem with PS3 programming (and the PS2) was that the development packages were poorly constructed and the hard ware is naturally hard to program for. While multiple threads is hard, programming threads that will run on different types of processors is worse. The is only one full processor on the PS3 cell, the others are smaller, less powerful processors. In addition, Sony has not gone out of their way to make it easy to write for the system, instead focusing on market penetration through BlueRay play back. This is what sold the PS2 (DVD play back) and once it was in people's houses everyone wanted to develop for it, especially small companies with eccentric games. These eccentric games were attractive to a small number of gamers, so profits were going to be small. It was best to release the game on the one console everyone had so they could reach the most users.

This time Sony brought power and Blue-Ray to the table, but everything else is a failure.


By hstewarth on 5/9/2006 5:53:21 PM , Rating: 2
It can't be assume that PS/3 development is the same as PS/2 development. Just because PS/2 was hard to developed for - doesn't mean that PS/3 is. Epic did mention that it didn't take long to port to Unreal 3 engine on PS/3.

Also that XBox 360 development is not the same as PC development. I would guess there is a lot more to porting
a direct X game that on the PC to XBox 360 than just recompiling it.


By Duraz0rz on 5/9/2006 10:44:11 PM , Rating: 2
The Unreal 3 engine is natively multi-threaded last time I heard, so it's no surprise if it wasn't hard to port it.


By Trisped on 5/10/2006 12:42:16 PM , Rating: 2
Not a programmer huh? That’s ok. Porting is as easy as recompiling. The difficulty is getting the compiler to do everything it is suppose to.

Still, I don't think that is the point. It is the development tools which are complained about, as Nintendo had a pretty convoluted set up last time, but they put a lot into the development tools.

My advices is talk to a few people who actually program or work on games for multiple consoles and find out what they like and don't like about the consoles.


By ZeeStorm on 5/10/2006 3:39:00 PM , Rating: 1
The PS2 development was all on the EE (emotion engine). Sony realizes they had made a pretty large mistake by using this approach, as the EE was an absolutely PAIN to program for. The PS3's programming, compared to the PS2 is MUCH easier. And if you want to compare it to the X360. X360 is basically a Mac (did I say that? all the X360 dev pics have G5's). The DX (or maybe it's a form of Avalon? hah!) instructions are much different compared to traditional (Xbox 1)'s or Window's DX9(c). People are saying that the PPE and SPE instructions are difficult to maintain, with all the different cores and multi-threading, blah blah. The basic instructions on how the Cell works has been released for quite some time. Developers can take advantage of using the cores seperately or just rely on Sony (well, technically not, it's jointed)'s compiler to space it out as needed (which is automatically done). The triple-core IBM processor in the X360 is VERY similar to how the Cell works. The only difference really is the IBM processor is a true triple-core processor. Each core can handle it's own share or more of instructions. While the SPE's in the Cell do not. According to early documentation, the SPE's take single instructions but can all work simulatenously with each other around 220GB/S (about the same as the IBM processor). With M$'s vast display of horrible development languages, the X360 programming is very similar to the Xbox 1's with just another framework (oh wait, they're throwing .NET out...).

The thing that bothers me the most between PS2->PS3 and Xbox 1->Xbox 360. M$ STILL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THINGS BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE! They will ALWAYS struggle with that. They just... don't get it.


By epsilonparadox on 5/15/2006 1:49:19 PM , Rating: 2
its better to phrase it PS1->PS2->PS3 and Xbox 1->Xbox 360, that way people realize that this is MS's second console attempt. BC wasn't a priority until late in x360 dev, according to Dean Takahashi' book "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked".

quote:
M$ STILL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THINGS BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE! They will ALWAYS struggle with that. They just... don't get it.


How can you always struggle with something that wasn't part of the original development cycle?


By shortylickens on 6/12/2006 10:27:40 PM , Rating: 2
Microsoft doesnt know how to make things backwards compatible?
Gee thats funny. How come I still have DOS and Win95 programs that work just fine?

Sorry sir, I do not agree. They do know how and often go our of their way to keep old stuff running. They just decided that not enough people would give a damn in a game console.


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By AnnihilatorX on 5/9/2006 7:16:13 AM , Rating: 2
The SDK Microsoft Provides makes the Xbox as easy to program as the PC. This includes the DirectX SDK

And why would a console's success base on its GFX engine?
It all blogs down to games

To me games in Xbox 360 are not appealing that's why I don't want one


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By One43637 on 5/9/2006 12:08:36 AM , Rating: 2
that's the impression i had last year at E3. especially after standing in that long ass line. stuff was in CG instead of actual game play and the unit was incased in plastic.

still going to be some nice eye candy with games on 1080p


RE: Sony failed to impress.
By Lakku on 5/9/2006 2:23:24 PM , Rating: 2
I was saying that a couple months ago when they showed some real gameplay footage finally. Very underwhelming to say the least. They may think all of their games will work with 1080p, but I can bet one reason they are still using CGI is that most of the games simply aren't performing well at that level. Besides, who owns a real 1080p TV that doesn't downsample to 540p? And yes, many do for whatever reason, and those that don't are about 3 to 5k dollars. I have to say I can build a MUCH better computer for the price of a PS3 and 1080p TV. Or get a nice 720p TV and a 360 and have it look as good as it ever needs to.


the new controller
By brownba on 5/8/2006 9:44:53 PM , Rating: 2
that pic of the new PS3 controller looks so... un-'revolutionary'.
that's not necessarily a bad thing,
I just can't get excited about it.





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