PlayStation 3 to launch worldwide in November News
PlayStation 3 News by Tom Bramwell
Sony boss Ken Kutaragi has confirmed plans for a worldwide release of PlayStation 3 in "early November" at a press conference in Tokyo, which has now concluded. And by worldwide he means Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.
PlayStation 3 will also be fully backwards compatible with PS2 and PSone games, Kutaragi said, and all of them will be playable in "high-definition" resolutions.
All PlayStation 3 releases will be on Blu-ray, he added, while the system will support the latest HDMI inputs.
Contrary to earlier reports, the Sony boss also said that PS3 would require a hard disk. The basic model will be a 2.5" 60GB, upgradeable hard disk, featuring a Linux OS (unexplained), and - more interestingly - will apparently act as a home server, allowing users to store media on it and access them from elsewhere. This is effectively the opposite of what Xbox 360 does.
Kutaragi also spoke about the PS3's online service. Although he doesn't appear to have been jumping up and down shouting "Live killer", it sounds comparable from the outline reported by journalists at the conference, with a "basic" service available free of charge, community tools including lobby matchmaking and voice chat, and premium downloadable services that include game software you can run from the hard drive.
Sony's aiming to ship six million units this financial year (earlier direct reports used the phrase "by the end of 2006", but we now understand Kutaragi referenced Sony's financial year, which ends in March 2007), at the rate of one million units per month from release onward (which still doesn't quite make sense unless they kick off with two million, but then pinches of salt ought to be handed out at the door when it comes to "Sony" and "dates").
Final development kits will apparently ship to developers in June, which could imply that manufacturing will begin at around that time too - Sony will certainly be wanting to ramp up early after witnessing the response to Microsoft's Xbox 360 stock problems last Christmas.
There was no discussion of PS3 game software, or hardware pricing, at Wednesday's press conference, so it now looks certain that we'll learn about what we can expect to pay and play this November when Sony gathers us all together again at its pre-E3 press conference in just under a couple of months.
Sources - IGN, Reuters
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Psychopompus
15/03/06 @ 07:30
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Six million units this year which will be divided as follows:
5 million for Japan 999.990 for USA 10 for Europe I predict a press release around september which will state that the worldwide release will be recalled for various reasons, the people who have preordered have to wait and problaby will not buy a 360 in the hope that the European release will follow soon. Sony spindoctor's are earning their wage. |
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"Sony just announced that the PS3 will require a 60gb HDD. In addition, they will be offering larger Hard Drives that users can upgrade to.
The Hard Drives will come pre-loaded with a version of the LinuxOS. It is unclear if it is a custom version or existing distrobution." 60GB harddrive sounds ok, not sure what they want us to do whith that Linux-distro. PVR? |
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Kingsadist
15/03/06 @ 07:48
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"Sony's aiming to ship six million units this year, with one million units per month to follow after release."
Even more ludicrous than Microsofts pre-release aims for the X360... Oh well, sod this graphic-showcase, give me the Revo! ...j/k |
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insane_cobra
15/03/06 @ 07:54
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What graphic-showcase?
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most recently on 15/03/06 @ 07:54
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useyourloaf
15/03/06 @ 07:56
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That's 6 million this Sony 'Financial' Year. 1 mill for launch, plus 1 mill in nov/dec/jan/feb/mar.
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I forsee only being able to buy it in horrifically overpriced bundles a la 360 and an even bigger furore next xmas. Still remember when the PS2 released some peeps were sposed to have paid 2 grand for one (not from shops obvioulsy that would be taking the whole bundle thing a bit TOO far :p). And then probably cried when they realised how shit the release titles were. At least that is what my mate felt like doing after he imported one from Japan (and he spent a lot less than 2 grand).
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too_cool_craig
15/03/06 @ 08:10
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omg, what thieving retards, first off copy xbox 360 with a worldwide launch and with a free basic online service, fuck me sony cant you think of your own ideas,
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It's about time I can put away my highly overrated NoiseBox 360. I haven't played a single game without serious bugs and frustrations on that damned thing, GRAW being the champion of bugs this season. It's godawful. Microsoft Quality Control on games seems to be about as bad as on their Windows versions. Non-existent, really. November then, heh? Can't wait. Count me in!
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HenryMancini
15/03/06 @ 08:20
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What a laugh!! Sim-ship in three continents my ars*- I have precisely zero belief in Sony's ability to ship more than a miniscule amount of consoles into Europe before Christmas.
Do any of you singing the praises of this actually believe it's going to happen? Just like the 360 launch, there are going to be a lot of sobbing people without pre-orders. If there are any at all. Three words - 360 spoiler tactic. Sony just couldn't sit back and watch MS run away with the race, so this is what they cook up - PR bull... mark my words :) Oh, and Linux on a console? Do me a frikkin' favour - it's why I have a PC, dummies! And that runs Windows, because Linux is for boring nerds who don't actually play any decent games. |
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unless i'm mistaken, the main purpose of the PS2 Linux Kit was for Yaroze-style homebrew? if it's the same for PS3, and if - as i mentioned in another comments thread - they can combine it with the online functionality to allow people to distribute their own creations, this could be goshdarn awesome.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 15/03/06 @ 08:26
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Kazzahdrane
15/03/06 @ 08:28
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Just to clarify - yes the PS2 Development kit used a Linux OS. Sony are hardly going to use anything developed by Microsoft in their console, after all ;)
The PS2 dev kit distro is an incredibly old and not very stable version of Red Hat, hopefully the PS3 gets a newer distro. |
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BartonFink
15/03/06 @ 08:28
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Excellent news worldwide launch, harddrive, Linux distro (which one I wonder). Now lest see if they can come up with the goods on the games and the price and we may very well be rocking.
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Much, much better news than I was expecting!
Namely - HDD as standard! \o/ Good news that it'll be out everywhere this year, but I never expected any less. Despite rumours and scaremongering it was fucking obvious that it'd be out this year - how could they possibly let Microsoft get another free Christmas? I wouldn't expect that many units, though. Nice to hear about the backward compatibility too, although I really couldn't care less about the online service and/or the home server stuff. Now if only they'd deemed it necessary to stick a price on it it would have been an unusually informative announcement. So... how long before we see the phasing out of the 'Core' 360, then? |
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I will wait for the pricing because this thing is not going to be cheap, and if you think it will be bug free you have no chance.
It will be good to see what the software is actually like hands on. But I am happy to wait for the early adopters to clear the 10 units out of the European distribution chain upon release. |
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BartonFink
15/03/06 @ 08:30
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Not long I would say Blerk it was a stupid idea to begin with.
Anyhew let the hype begin. Good stuff so far. /dusts off Sony cap. Now all they have to do is sort out the console design and stupid looking controller.
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most recently on 15/03/06 @ 08:32
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I don't see why a world wide launch is so unlikely, from what I hear, most of the components can be produced now, the only one still out swimming is the BD-rom, as far as I can tell they have much longer to produce a fair amount of units than MS had, even if they don't start assembling until June/July.
As for the linux stuff, I think it's great news, Sony don't want to bother making an Xbox media center kinda thing for the PS3 (lazy bastards) but at least they are allowing others to have a go at it. This in my opinion beats MS's policy with only supporting MCE and even then, only a few filetypes. Of course none of this speaks for the games, and that is still where it really matters. I'll want to see some games running before I'll even consider whether to buy it or now. In any case I have no problem waiting 6-8 months after launch for a good portfolio of games to appear. |
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BartonFink
15/03/06 @ 08:34
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Actually come to think of it this may well be one very very expensive beastie.
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I dont undestand the negative views. We never expected a release before then in Europe anyway, 360 launched with 180k units or so for Europe. They are aiming for 6, even if they fail to get there, it'll be plenty even for all you ebay bloodsuckers.
It has a HD by default, so games will be able to use it, unlike in 360. And 60Gb, not a miserable 20. PS2 games in HD? Yes please, thanks. And we know it'll work with ALL games. With no bugs. A media server that doesn't need to be connected to a PC with MediaCenter, I'll take it too thanks. And even if their online services aren't as good as Microsoft ones, hell, at least they are commited to it. Arcade style dowloads to HD sounds good to me. And how many Gb fitted in a Blue-ray? More than 5 surely. So ... they 'copied' this thing or that one from Microsoft. I'm glad they copy the good things. You know, I have a 360 I intend to keep for long, and I'll buy a PS3 and a Revolution aswell, as many here. The only thing I don't want is a monopoly, from Sony, Microsoft, or any religion. |
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