NextGen Gaming on the Horizon - Everything we know about Sony PlayStation 3

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
• Mortal Kombat
• Prince of Persia 4
• Fatal Frame 4
• Ridge Racer 6
• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Need For Speed Underground 3
• Ghouls N' Ghosts
• Grand Theft Auto 4
• Medal of Honor
• Burnout




No doubt many more will join that list as the year wraps up, and a possible addition comes from how John Carmack of id Software said last year, "One idea we've been sort of tossing around is possibly doing some kind of super edition of the Doom 3 stuff for the PS3."

One area of technology we absolutely don't want to see ending up in the PS3 however is a recent patent founded by Sony, credited to staff members including president of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi. It describes a system where when you put a game inside your console, an authentication code is read from the disc and saved to your machine. That part of the disc is then made unreadable, meaning you can only ever play that game on that one system.

Gone would be the days of renting games and buying 2nd hand titles, but while those would be major blows, life would continue. Not being able to borrow from your buddies or to take a game to a friend's for some multi-player fun however is more serious, and most worrying of all, if your console was damaged or such, your entire library of games would instantly become nothing more than shiny coasters. It's for reasons like these that we don't believe Sony will soon put this patent into practice, as quite simply the public out cry would be strongest ever felt in videogaming industry history. Another possible area Sony would like to change though, although it's unclear if anything will happen, is that Phil Harrison, VP of development for Sony Europe, suggested games feature episodic content. "Our industry should move away from putting 20 hours of content onto a 5 gigabyte disc, and shift to a model which embraces more of an episodic delivery of content, just like television", he said.

With around 5,000 PlayStation 1 and 2 titles out there, backwards compatibility is naturally fairly important, and instead of using an emulation process, Sony stated the past games for both machines will run through "on the chip" hardware, leading to the belief there will be two extra chips in the console, each containing the CPU and GPU of the PS1 and PS2! While the PS2 improved the look of your old PSOne games through emulation, using a hardware solution would make this more complex, but Sony are unlikely to let the Cell power go to waste, and an improved image on PS2 games even, is highly likely but un-confirmed.

A hurdle in the way of full backwards compatibility however, is the fact you can't use your old memory cards on the PS3. The console won't have the ports for past controllers or memory cards; instead the cards are being replaced with Memory Stick Duo, the same system used for the PSP. Comparing prices and the amount of space you get with PS2 memory cards vs. Memory Stick Duo, that's a massive saving for us consumers though, and does allow for easy backing up of data to a PC. Also, unlike on the PS2, you can use the new format of memory cards to play old games, meaning even PSOne titles will treat the Memory Stick Duo as a regular PSOne Memory Card.




The Controller

Another welcome move is the switch to wireless controllers. At the same time however, Sony dropped the Dual Shock design. While the change of controller shape led to much fear (and boomerang jokes) on the internet, again at the recent CES expo Sony has pointed out the design isn't final. In reality the controller is quite a lot smaller than you'd expect from photos though, and if you imagine it in your hands, the shape of the new pad seems like it'll fit perfectly and keep your wrists straight.

Online Functionality and Accessories

The PS3 can accept up to seven of wireless Bluetooth 2.0 controllers, but as SmartJoy FRAG users know, sometimes a controller just isn't right. With six USB ports, Sony confirmed you'll be able to plug in a keyboard and mouse, and then play titles including Unreal Tournament 2007 with them. Also, with a removable hard drive due in the future, most likely to be sold separately, Sony have announced Linux will come pre-installed.

It's too early for accessories to be announced, but in actual fact, many of us already have one sitting in our homes today. You'll be able to use your PSP to bring the PS3 out of sleep mode, manage music, videos and files stored on the console, or control movie playback. Sony have also expressed great interest in a planned USB device that would let you record TV to the optional hard drive, like TiVo, and then you could watch them on your TV or PSP.

Expanding beyond your home and going online, Sony plans to have a network running from day one. This will include the ability to track friends, send and receive messages and more. For the actual online games however, Sony will continue to leave all this to the individual developers. Executive vice president for SCEE, Phil Harrison, said how "distinct from our competitors, we are happy for publishers to make their own financial agreements directly with consumers."




Technical Specs

Also distinct from their competitors, there are no minimum requirements for the game's resolution from Sony either, although most titles will feature 720p support. The PS3 hardware however, with dual HDMI (digital video and audio) cables, can perform up to 1080p. While today that's asking more than most TV sets can deliver, if the sheer number of 1080p LCD and Plasma screens at this month's CES expo is anything to go by, it won't be long now till it's found in standard HD sets.

As for watching actual shows and movies, despite the delays and price of the Blu-Ray format, it will be used for the PS3, although exactly what speed of drive is unknown. Even if it's 1x however, that's 36 MB/s, over double that of the Xbox 360 DVD drive. New reports indicate 2x drives will be available at Blu-Ray's big launch too, which if used, would zip along at 72 MB/s, greatly reducing load times.

The drive supports a truly massive array of formats, beginning with the CD-ROM formats of PlayStation and PlayStation 2, then CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side), PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE.

Next to that, there's four front USB 2.0 ports, a slot for Memory Stick Standard/Duo/Duo Pro, another for SD standard/mini, and lastly an opening for Compact Flash (both Type I and II) memory cards. Wireless wise, the PS3 supports 802.11b and 802.11g, and as mentioned can handle up to seven wireless Bluetooth 2.0 signals at once. Round back, there's not one, but two HDMI outputs, a digital optical output for sound, AV output, three Gigabit Ethernet plugs, and the last remaining two USB 2.0 ports. Furthermore, there's space for the Detachable 2.5" Hard Drive, of which Sony would like to begin at 80 GB.

Onboard, the PS3 has 256MB XDR Main RAM and 256MB GDDR3 VRAM at 700MHz, plus the seven 3.2GHz cores in the Cell processor. Screens and videos of games at the E3 and TGS last year certainly impressed, and while the famous Killzone trailer was rendered on PS3 hardware, it was actually done at 5fps then sped up so it ran at a super smooth 60fps. Guerrilla Games however are confident they will achieve such a speed in real time on the final PS3 hardware. Now with the actual cell powered development kits shipped to developers, we wait with more than just baited breath to see what this year holds for the PS3.