News From
Lik Sang
Recently Japan's Famitsu magazine asked their readers which console they hope to buy this year, and at number one with 47.8% was the PS3. Second with 24.5% was the Revolution, and third with 15.5% the Xbox 360. At last year's Tokyo Game Show however, surveys were taken at the exits, and an astounding 72% of all visitors said they planned to buy a PS3 soon.
Either way you look at it, with between half and three quarters of all gamers polled wanting a PS3 within its first half year or so of release, we learn again never to underestimate the power of PlayStation. It comes as no surprise then that the entire gaming world is eagerly awaiting new information on the next gen dream machine. Hence here we kick off the new year with everything we know so far about the PS3...
Release Date and Price Point
The release date is still unknown. Where in the past Sony bigwigs claimed a Spring release was in order for Japan, in order to keep a share of your mind rather than leaving it all empty for the 360, now the only comment to be had is "later this year". Last weekend however Sony did announce 4,000 development kits have been shipped, which is a promising step forward. Sony avoided however talking about the PlayStation at last weekend’s big CES electronics and gadgets expo, and only the console along with the controller, now with a large "Conceptual Design" sign next to everyone's favorite boomerang, was shown [Editor: to me, it looks more like a PC Saitek controller from 1998]. Apparently however, Sony does have plans for a special event this month or next, which is likely the place where more details will come forward. Meanwhile others think the Game developers conference on March 20th to 24th will be Sony's stage.
The price is another subject of hot speculation, and in an interview last year with Japan's Weekly Famitsu magazine, Masatsuka Saeki, Sony Computer Entertainment Corporate Executive said how internally, Sony will be arguing over the price until the last possible minute. Meanwhile Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, has gone on record to say several times that PS3 will be expensive, stating "our goal for PlayStation 3 is for consumers to think to themselves, "I will work more hours to buy one". Ken didn't add though, if he wanted jobless people and students to think "I should set up a gamestore-jacking with my mates"
Gamers aren't the only ones worried about the price tag. Keiko Erikawa, CEO of Koei, a major PS3 supporter, said she'd consider swapping to another platform if development costs for the PS3 prove too expensive. Developers will receive many additional development tools from Sony this month to help though, including Epic's Unreal 3 engine, also licensed for the Xbox 360. Already Gearbox announced they will be using the engine to develop the upcoming Brothers in Arms.
The Games, Region Locking and Game to Console Locking
In a quote that is of particular interest to gamers who travel, Sony of Australia's managing director, Michael Ephraimn said "If you look at the fact that [the PS3] will support high-definition TV, which will be a global standard, there's a good likelihood that it will be global region, as for example we've done with the PSP." We really must stress though, this should be taken with nothing more than a grain of salt at this stage, and as much as we'd love to see PS3 region free, even we think this is much more likely a bogus rumor or absurd miss-interpretation on behalf of Mr Ephraimn. Instead of compatibility issues between NTSC and PAL, Sony's reason for region locking has much more to do with restricting markets from one another, as pleases giant media publishers such as Sony's themselves and also their key partners. Either way, region free or not though, as with UMD movies, Blu-Ray films will certainly be region locked, but unlike UMD and DVD, both the US and Japan will share Region 1, while Europe will be Region 2.
Like the Xbox 360 and Revolution, the PS3 will feature password protected parental controls. When booting a game, it'll check the content rating encoded onto the disc, and if it's above what parents set the console as, there'll be no blood bath that night for little Billy. While the consoles release is of course too far away to talk about the launch line-up with any confirmation, in the latest issue of PlayStation Magazine (PSM), Jack Tretton, COO of SCEA was quoted saying how Factor 5's Lair and Sony's WarHawk are two of planned titles to be out on day one. Beyond those, there's already over 150 titles confirmed to be in development. The most recognizable of which includes:
• Alone in the Dark Sequel
• Stuntman Sequel
• King Of Fighters Maximum Impact 3
• Fight Night
• Devil May Cry 4
• Biohazard 5
• Gradius
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Final Fantasy
• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Gran Turismo Vision (in 2007)
• Minna no Golf 5
• Mobile Suit Gundam
• Brothers in Arms 3
• Armored Core 4
• Genji 2
• The Getaway
• Castlevania
• Unreal Tournament 2007
• Tekken
• Def Jam 3
• Killzone
• Formula One
• Indiana Jones
• Spider-Man 3
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• Fatal Frame
• Half Life 2
• Soul Calibur
...
Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita