PlayStation 3

Sony’s Playstation 3 video game console was announced at E3 on May 16, 2005 and was released worldwide in 2 packages, with either a 20GB hard drive or with a 60GB hard drive for roughly $100 more. In Japan the system was released on November 11th. In North America the system was be released on November 17th and the 20GB package (when it was available) costed $500 (€500) with the 60GB package costing $499 (€600). Europe and other PAL territory launches followed on March 23, 2007. The most notable launch after that was the 80GB PS3 model that was only for Korea on June 16, 2007. The only color available since launch has been black. A memory card/SD reader will be made available separately to play your old PS1/PS2 savegames.

According to the specs released by Sony, the 20GB version did not only have 40GB less hard disk space, it missed the WiFi option. Sony stopped production of 20GB model PS3 in April 2007, since 90% of customers wanted the 60GB version.

In July 2007 Sony dropped the PS3’s price of the 60GB package by $100 to US$499 / $549 CND. At the same time Sony introduced the new PS3 80GB package including Motorstorm costing US$599/$659 CND.

The PS3 is an absolute powerhouse of computing power, where developers will be able to create real-time graphics that look as good as any high quality CG you’ve seen, such as that in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, using the power of the unique Cell processor.

While this won’t change the way games are played necessarily, it will, as next-generation platforms always have done, be able to astound and further immerse gamers in the virtual world developers have created, with characters and environments that are more detailed than ever before, with near life-like photo-realistic graphics finally a reality. Here’s a preview of the system (ignore the French) & some games:


Because of the high quality graphics and richer audio, the PS3 will use a brand-new disc medium known as BD-ROM (Blue Ray Disc ROM) that has a maximum dual-layered storage capacity of 54GB, which is much higher than what can fit on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 platform, which uses standard DVD’s. Although so much space isn’t necessarily needed, especially with such advanced compression technology available (Capcom for instance was able to fit the entire original Resident Evil, all FMV & speech, onto a tiny DS cart) this will still likely give the PS3 an edge when compared to its competitors. Every game will ship on a BD-ROM, in an effort to prevent piracy. PS3 games that are coded region-free will be region-free, which is great for game (not movie) importers, but sadly means almost all PS3 games will not be region-free.

So in reality, games likely won’t be much different between platforms graphics-wise, that is the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games will probably look pretty close to each other. Although there is a good chance that the PS3 version games will look the best. Just as Xbox games typically look the best now, when compared to their PS2 & GameCube counterparts. Sony also announced that the PS3 will have HDMI support.

The PS3 controller design is exactly the same as the PS2 controller, it still maintains the exact same shape and button layout. But it now Sony has gone in and added six-direction motion sensoring technology. This allows you to control the game by moving your hand like a steering wheel, unlike the Wii controller though, there is no 3D motion sensoring or pointer-style technology. That means that it doesn’t sense where you are in a room or your relation to the screen, but since this feature was added a week before E3 2006, it’s unlikely many developers will be using it (aside from Warhawk & Monkey Ball). The controllers, like on the Xbox 360 and Wii, will come wireless as standard. The PS3 will also ship with an included 60GB hard drive that will be pre-loaded with the Linux Operating System.

Gamers will be able to go online via what’s so far dubbed the “Playstation Network” (original name, yes) and Sony is shooting for the stars when it comes to it’s network directly competing with Xbox Live, even announcing that their basic online service will be free. According to some reports via official Playstation magazines and interviews with Sony execs, the company plans to push a “lifestyle” edge by allowing users to upload any type of file to their hard drive, be it videos or music, to share with others, allowing others to see your online blogs, or even possibly “vlogs” (video blogs, using the PS3’s Eyetoy camera) and even going so far as to say that you’ll be able to record gameplay footage or game “highlights” to show off to your friends, saving it directly onto the hard drive and either allowing other gamers to access what’s on your hard drive, or allowing you to send it to your friends. Games will also feature some type of an “achievement”-style system, just like every game on the Xbox 360 has, which presumably everyone will be able to see on your profile. It’s to be seen what Sony can do to differentiate itself from Microsoft, so far they seem to be trying to include everything Xbox Live offers and more, shamelessly copying in many places. Not that that’s a bad thing necessarily…

Sony is also very proud of the fact that the PS3 will be backwards compatible with most popular PS2 and PSOne games, which means all the thousands of titles available for those systems will be playable from the get-go on PS3, giving the system a huge library at the starting-line. Go to the American PS3 database or European PS3 database to see if your old games are compatible. All older PSOne & PS2 games, when played on PS3, will go through hi-res texture filtering to upscale the graphics. Hopefully Sony will be able to have most games play on PS3 without much incident.

There are reportedly over 100 games already under development for the system, and it already has some very high profile titles announced, including: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Devil May Cry 4, Heavenly Sword, Final Fantasy XIII, Virtua Fighter 5, Killzone, Gran Turismo HD and many more.

The 13 PS3 launch titles are: Call of Duty 3, Genji 2: Days of the Blade, Madden NFL 2007, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, NBA ‘07, NBA 2k7, NHL 2k7, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, Tony Hawk’s Project 8 & Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom.

Also available from day one are 2 downloadable games from the PS3’s PlayStation Store. They are: Blast Factor and Cash Guns Chaos, both priced at $7.99.