PS3 delay official

[AndrewTS 0]

Source: 1up.com

 

Sony Delays PlayStation 3

Blu-ray forcing the machine into hiding until November.

by Patrick Klepek, 03/14/2006

 

 

Sony has been anything but talkative these past few months regarding their plans for PlayStation 3. No one except Sony seemed to anticipate they'd continue to meet their projected spring release date in any territory, even Japan.

Today, Sony officially conceded defeat to the recent flurry of rumors and speculation, with Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reporting the machine has been pushed back until November.

 

There aren't many details out right now, but Sony says issues over the finalization of copy protection technology related to their Blu-ray disc drive is the cause of the delay.

 

When asked for a comment, a Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson only went on record saying that SCEI has not issued any official statement itself yet.

 

As the news is coming out of Japan, that creates a worrisome scenario for America and Europe. There were already rumblings Sony wouldn't be able to launch in all territories before the end of the year, but missing out on the Christmas season over here could prove a deadly blow to Sony's next-generation plans.

 

Somewhere in Microsoft's offices, Bill Gates just opened a bottle of champagne. With more details expected at tomorrow's PlayStation conference and the Game Developers Conference just around the corner, it appears the flood gates (for good or ill) are about to be unleashed.

 

So it looks like the PS3 will likely come out even after Revolution...

[devo 0]

Meh, not a big deal. If its launch price is anywhere near what it's rumored to be, I won't be buying one for a year or two after release anyway.

[MrRant 0]

Tsk tsk tsk.

[Guest NYankees]

Meh, not a big deal. If its launch price is anywhere near what it's rumored to be, I won't be buying one for a year or two after release anyway.

 

 

Especially when you know that the first batch is going to break down after a year anyways. The first ps2's were nothing but horror stories for alot of people.

[Red Baron 0]

Probably had a problem with loading CD's in.

[Guest fanofcoils]

November 2006 is a great US release date. Hopefully they will play "smart" and release it the day after Thanksgiving when Christmas season begins. Now I wonder when the next GTA game will come out..

[razazteca 0]

It's better to fix the problems now before we find out that the PS3 has DRE on certain games or movies.

[ZGangsta 0]

DRM, DRM, DRM. Sony is fucking hanging themselves over the rabid paranoia in the movie/music industry with their crazy copy-protection schemes. Everyone remember the CD rootkit fiasco from a few months ago?

The problem here is that the various content divisions (movie and music) inside Sony have WAY too much say in how the Blu-ray DVD format should be implemented. And since the Playstation department is the only part of Sony that isn't losing money, all the other divisions are insistant on getting their hands in it. So now the PS3 has to be some ultimate super Media Center, which is just bloating the thing and inflating the price.

I swear it's like this company has no clue anymore. They used to dominate the portable music player business until downloadable music came along, and then their fanaticism about proprietary media formats (ATRAC3 anyone?) won out, and now Apple has a monopoly there and Sony is all but irrelevent.

 

/rant

 

Oh and Nov 2006 is the JAPAN release date, you won't see it in NA this Christmas.

[AndrewTS 0]

Pretty good rant, there, Z.

 

"Oh and Nov 2006 is the JAPAN release date, you won't see it in NA this Christmas."

 

The article seemed to make that rather clear. The GoW2 announcement seemed to be a rather heavy indicator this was going to happen, though, especially after Sony tried to cover up the original leak.

 

I didn't know the other Sony divisions were losing money, though. Music, movies, their home entertainment products--they've got their hands in everything.

 

The Blu-Ray thing seems nuttier and nuttier. Supposedly standalone Blu-Ray players are going to be around $500, and PS3 is going to have more features. Plus, by the time it rolls around in the US, Microsoft will be in a better position to deal them a hefty blow in price.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

This is pretty good news for Nintendo, especially if they can get the Revo launched this year and for under $249. It would have sucked if the PS3 and Revo launched near each other because you know the PS3 would get 99% of all the coverage and hype.

 

Unfortunately..theres a long wait between now and whenever it launches and only the new Zelda game to be waiting for on the Gamecube..

[ZGangsta 0]

Unfortunately..theres a long wait between now and whenever it launches and only the new Zelda game to be waiting for on the Gamecube..

Speaking of which, when's that going to come out? It was scheduled for last november, but got bumped to, what, Q1 or Q2 of 2006? Is that still on?

No matter, since the Revolution will play Gamecube games it can kind of be a 'last gasp' for the 'cube as well as a launch title for the REvolution.

Looks awesome.

[AndrewTS 0]

Iwata has stated the Revolution will be released in North America prior to Thanksgiving. There's no concrete details on exactly when the Japanese release will be (presumably earlier than that, though). He also said we'd be seeing playable Revolution titles at E3 (that's May).

 

LoZ: TP is simply "Fall" right now according to Reggie. What that means for Japan is unclear.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Twilight Princess is going to be an unoffical Revo launch title although its going to be for the Gamecube. The rumors are of enhanced gameplay (through use of the unique controls) if you play it on the Revo. Its actually pretty brilliant plan.

[devo 0]

That's good news for me if it's true, since I don't have a Gamecube at the moment but am almost definitely buying a Revolution at launch.

[AndrewTS 0]

Twilight Princess is going to be an unoffical Revo launch title although its going to be for the Gamecube. The rumors are of enhanced gameplay (through use of the unique controls) if you play it on the Revo. Its actually pretty brilliant plan.

 

 

You could look at it that way, but I see it more as a bonus incentive rather than a major selling point. Not *that* many of the Nintendo faithful are Zelda players, and casual gamers probably don't give two hoots about TP. I seems a number of folks who pre-ordered TP cancelled it with word of the delay (that's just anecdotal, though, and if some new info/screens/trailers are released that may change).

 

However, don't expect to play it with the Rev controller. Yeah, Reggie doesn't know all, but it doesn't make sense to delay it for a bonus feature like that. It's still a traditional-playing title.

[Sideburnious 0]

Play.com are saying that Zelda is out on the first of July.

[Sideburnious 0]

EDIT: Double post

[AndrewTS 0]

Play.com are saying that Zelda is out on the first of July.

 

Which means absolutely nothing.

[Anya 0]

I am shocked at this news.

 

Oh well. If T5 DR is a launch title I'm importing.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Twilight Princess is going to be an unoffical Revo launch title although its going to be for the Gamecube. The rumors are of enhanced gameplay (through use of the unique controls) if you play it on the Revo. Its actually pretty brilliant plan.

 

 

You could look at it that way, but I see it more as a bonus incentive rather than a major selling point. Not *that* many of the Nintendo faithful are Zelda players, and casual gamers probably don't give two hoots about TP. I seems a number of folks who pre-ordered TP cancelled it with word of the delay (that's just anecdotal, though, and if some new info/screens/trailers are released that may change).

 

However, don't expect to play it with the Rev controller. Yeah, Reggie doesn't know all, but it doesn't make sense to delay it for a bonus feature like that. It's still a traditional-playing title.

 

From what I've seen a lot of casual gamers are interested in Zelda. Around my parts anyway.

 

Who's Reggie?

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Reggie is the hip NOA marketing VP that uses profanity and is down with what the kids want today. He usually gives pretty good interviews to EGM.

[Guest ABOBO]

Not *that* many of the Nintendo faithful are Zelda players, and casual gamers probably don't give two hoots about TP.

 

Yeah, this is kind of silly.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Not *that* many of the Nintendo faithful are Zelda players, and casual gamers probably don't give two hoots about TP.

 

Yeah, this is kind of silly.

 

Maybe AndrewTS was drunk when he wrote that?

[Guest Essa_Angelico]

The way i see it is Sony is hoping to do a simultaneous launch in November...well at least they claim thats the plan.

[AndrewTS 0]

Not *that* many of the Nintendo faithful are Zelda players, and casual gamers probably don't give two hoots about TP.

 

Yeah, this is kind of silly.

 

I had meant as it stood now. Okay, maybe half-wrong there. As criticized as Wind Waker was, it appears that about 1 in 5 of Gamecube owners picked it up at some point, so it's not the damaged-goods of a franchise that constant internet skepticism makes it out to be. I stand corrected. I honestly don't see too many cases Johnny GTA with his PS2 going to buy a system over it, though.

 

And Reggie probably played dumb because he didn't know concrete details...but it plays with the Rev controller.

 

To elaborate on Essa's comments--yeah, that's what they're saying now (from 1up):

 

PS3 Conference Report - Date and More!

Full details on the PS3 from Sony's briefing in Japan.

by Sam Kennedy, 03/15/2006

 

Sony held its PlayStation Business conference in Tokyo today and 1UP's correspondents were on hand to report back all of the details.

 

Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, took center stage and delivered the big news: PlayStation 3 will not release until November 2006, as previously reported earlier today.

 

However, he also revealed that Sony plans to release the system in Japan, North America, and Europe simultaneously this November. That's right, the PS3 will be in stores before the end of the year - within the first 10 days of November, to be exact. According to the company, it will have a production capacity of 1 million units a month to attempt to keep up with the demand. 6 million units are estimated to be shipped by the end of March 2007.

 

Kutaragi stated that the purpose of today's meeting was not to show any new hardware or games, it was to offer an apology. He wanted to give the world an update since it was now Spring. He stated issues over the finalization of copy protection technology related to the Blu-ray disc drive were the cause for the delay. But Kutaragi also mentioned that the delay would allow for the latest HDMI (high-definition connection, essentially) support.

 

He did offer some tantalizing new details about the system, though. PS3 will include a 60GB hard drive (which is upgradeable) with Linux preinstalled. According to Kutaragi, developers should create games for the PS3 with assumption the hard drive will be present in the system (his slide was titled "HDD is required!"). He also revealed that the system will be backwards compatible with the entire PS1 and PS2 libraries, and that games will be displayed in high-definition resolutions when played on the PS3 (similar to what the Xbox 360 does with compatible Xbox 1 titles).

 

Kutaragi described the shift to the PS3 as a move into the 4D world. The 8/16 bit era with 2D sprites was refered to as "Plane", the PS1/PS2 era with 3D graphics was described as "Space", and the PS3 era was with its, according to him, 4D worlds, was described as "Live" (Space + Time). Some of this concept is surely lost in translation.

 

Kutaragi also revealed details on the online service Sony is planning for the PS3 called the "PlayStation Network Platform". Beginning at the system's November launch, the service will feature such functions as matchmaking, messaging, rankings, friends lists, voice/video chat, in-game shopping, and game downloads to the hard drive. Best of all, the service will be free (as of right now, it isn't clear on whether there will also be a paid tier of service similar to Xbox Live Gold). The service will also allow for publishers to connect their own game servers. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), makers of such online games as EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, is provided the infrastructure and GameSpy is providing tools and middleware. Kutaragi also mentioned that the PS3 can serve as a wireless access point for the PSP.

 

Final PS3 controllers and development kits are going to be sent to the development community by May. This will include the final specs for Cell, the final RSX graphics chip, the final Blu-ray specs, and will be at a cost close to that of a PS2 development kit.

 

Kutaragi also had a few big announcements that pertained to the PSP, the most immediate being a price drop to $199 for the basic pack at the end of March in the U.S. This spring will also see a browser upgrade that will include Macromedia Flash 6.0 support. Kutaragi gave details on some later technology enhancements to look forward to this fall as well: RSS support, video and voice-over-IP, and a USB GPS receiver that will interface with new games (a version of Hot Shots Golf was mentioned for this). A PSP EyeToy camera will release in September and will feature a version of EyeToy Play and video chat.

 

Interestingly, Kutaragi also discussed an "E-Distribution" strategy for the PSP which will include downloading classic PS1 games to a PSP's Memory Stick. Users will be able to boot games directly off of the Memory Stick and the games will play under emulation.

 

Hm.

 

Doesn't sound like they're prepared to meet demand. However, there's no price mentioned yet.

 

No launch titles announced.

 

Final Dev kits go out May.

 

They're trying to clone Live...

 

"GameSpy is providing tools and middleware" -- Well, that's probably going to suck.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

The PS3 will sell just based on the fact that even at $700 it will be the cheapest Blu-Ray player available, but Im pretty sure thats not the gamer demographic. Im sure Sony doesnt care though.

[razazteca 0]

The Playstation is not a video game system it is perceived by the SONY execs as the perfect example of synergy! With the PS3 you can play movies and music, use it as your terminal for internet use, and let's not forget about all of the memory and flash cards that you can plug into it, video games is just the hook to get people to buy into the SONY brand of entertainment.

[AndrewTS 0]

The Playstation is not a video game system it is perceived by the SONY execs as the perfect example of synergy! With the PS3 you can play movies and music, use it as your terminal for internet use, and let's not forget about all of the memory and flash cards that you can plug into it, video games is just the hook to get people to buy into the SONY brand of entertainment.

 

 

Well, that seemed obvious from the moment Ken claimed it's "not a console," and plenty of the early boasts/hype.

 

I paid $700 for my current PC, so if you look at it simply by what's being offered, it's a good deal. However, I have a PC already, I have a PS2, the Blu-Ray player features won't matter unless Blu-Ray becomes a significant industry standard (HD-DVD seems to be losing steam, but PS3 isn't right around the corner to push the format like the PS2 did with DVDs).

 

Linux pre-installed is really old news, but it'll be interesting how that pans out. Plenty of competent people are idiots using Linux.

[ZGangsta 0]

So apparently it IS going to be a worldwide release in november. Boy, hey'd better know what they're doing.

 

And this bit of news (from Gamespot and everywhere else) is kind of disconcerting.

Kutaragi also made it clear that the hard drive will be necessary to play games--Sony is telling developers to make games assuming every PS3 has a hard drive installed. "We view the hard drive to be mandatory for the PS3," he said. "Rather than have developers create games for the PS3 with or without the HDD, we will be asking them to develop games as though all PS3s have the HDD installed."

 

However, Kutaragi revealed that Sony had not decided whether or not the PlayStation 3 would come with the hard-drive preinstalled. "We might end up installing it in all PS3s, though that depends on the market," he said. This raises the possibility that the PS3 could be sold without a piece of hardware needed to play PS3 games--in effect forcing consumers to buy a peripheral for basic functionality.

 

This 'whole' not a game system, but a giant 'synergy' system could bite them on the ass big time.

[razazteca 0]

It sold millions of PS2's.