Playstation Update

IGN has just posted their top 10 reasons why you should wait for the PS3. The gist is that while the XBox 360 is an impressive device, the Playstation 3 will simply blow it away in terms of features. Even considering the fact that the PS3 will likely sell for even more than the 360, it will deliver more bang for your buck.

Here are the Top 10 from IGN:

10. Xbox 360 Doesn’t Have a Killer App
9. Dual-Screen and 1080p Support
8. Dual-Screen and 1080p Support
7. You Can Still Pre-Order
6. Seven-Player Wireless Support
5. The HD IP Camera
4. Full Backwards Compatibility
3. Stronger Japanese Developer Support
2. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
1. The Blu-ray Player

You may wonder why the Blu-ray device is their #1 reason. Well the answer is capacity. A Blu-ray disc can hold 45GB. That is just an immense amount of data. That’s enough to fill 4 DVD-ROM’s. Transfer rate should also greater than anything you’ve seen yet, which translates to shorter and fewer loading screens.

In case you can’t wait…

Technorati Tags: XBox, XBox 360, Playstation 3, PS3, gaming, microsoft, sony, blu-ray

In case you truly haven’t been paying any attention at all, tomorrow is the day the XBox 360 goes on sale. Stores have been taking preorders for quite some time now, but if you shop around a bit you may be able to find one. Of course, some stores did not take preorders, so there’s always the “pitch a tent and wait all night in the freezing cold” tactic. Actually at some 4500 retailers across the country, you only have to wait until 12:01AM, so maybe some of the early morning chill can be avoided.

Anyhow, just thought I’d remind you, just in case you can’t wait until the PS3 comes out.

According to XBox Today, the Playstation 3 may end up costing twice as much as the XBox 360. This speculation comes from an analyst report from Merrill Lynch, which cites higher production costs as the main reason.

The total cost of the PS3 (to the manufacturer) is estimated at $495, while the XBox comes in at a mere $340. A major source of the difference is the Blu-Ray drive, which will cost a whopping $100. Compare that to $25 for a DVD-ROM drive, and you wonder what exactly Sony is thinking. The other major discrepancy in pricing is the processor, with the PS3’s cell processor gizmo costing $160, $60 more than the IBM PPC processor used by the XBox.

Despite the cost difference, I can’t imagine Sony would sell a PS3 for $600 (assuming they mean twice the cost of the base XBox model). That’s just too much for a gaming console. For most people, that has moved from the realm of “cool Christmas gift” to “major investment”. Sony and Microsoft both make more money on games than the hardware anyhow, so I’m thinking Sony will just end up taking a bigger hit up front in hopes that people will buy plenty of games.

My personal prediction is $400. If I’m right, maybe I should apply for a job as a Merrill Lynch analyst. Ya think?

Technorati Tags: PS3, Playstation 3, Playstation, XBox, XBox 360, Blu-Ray

Can I really buy an Xbox 360 at Circuit City this Friday?? And the answer is… no. Circuit City seems to have launched a misguided (if amusing) campaign to make people think they might be able to get their hands on an Xbox 360 four days before they go on sale in the rest of the country. Do they have that much clout with Microsoft? Are they going to give it to the man, and open up the boxes early?

Well, it turns out that what they really meant when they said you can purchase your XBox 360 on Friday, was that you could go into the store, plunk down your money, and then come back and get it on Tuesday like the rest of us. I could have gone to EBGames or Gamestop a month ago and given them my money. In fact, maybe I’ll just start taking money for the PS3 now, and tell people it’s “on sale now”. Yeah, that’s a good idea.

Nice work Circuit City. “Just What I Needed.”

From Engadget

Technorati Tags: xbox 360, news

If you’re one of the masses of unhappy PS2 owners whose systems fell victim to the infamous “disc read error” bug, you may get something back from Sony. A class action lawsuit was filed against SCEA, Sony of Canada, and Toys R Us of Canada. The parties reached a settlement in the matter recently.

The settlement is still pending approval by the courts in both the US and Canada. If it’s approved, anyone who has recently repaired or lost use of an affected PS2 will be eligible to receive a check for $25, a free PS2 game (from a specified list), or a free or “reduced cost” repair or replacement. What you get depends on what “subclass” you’re in.

Sony, of course, is not actually admitting that anything was wrong with the machines, but states that a settlement was reached to “avoid the costs and risks of a trial”. Anyway…

If you think you might be eligible, the settlement website has more information.

From Gamespot

Technorati Tags: ps2, playstation, playstation 2, sony, news

According to Games Digest, PS3Blog.net, and other sources, there is a rumor flying around that the PS3 may not play second hand games. The idea is that when you fire up a disc for the first time, it gets marked to play only in this particular console. The main purpose supposedly would be to help stamp out piracy, but it would also mean you can’t resell used games. Furthermore, you couldn’t take your game over to a friend’s house, or borrow his games.

I’ve never tried to pirate PS2 games, but don’t you have to have a hacked system to play pirated games even now? I’m pretty sure you can’t just make a copy of a PS2 dvd and have it work. Should this new rumor to turn out to be true, someone will have hacked the PS3 within about 5 minutes of its release anyhow.

Personally I just can’t imagine this could be true. I do see how game makers (and thus Sony) could make more money by stamping out the market for used games, but it just seems too suicidal. This would be a fatal blow to all but the most diehard Playstation fans, likely sending a great number of them to the competition.

Also, what happens if your PS3 dies and you have to buy another one? None of your games would work on the new console. Do you have to ship them all off to Sony so they can re-stamp them for your new box?

Someone point me to some evidence. I’m calling BS.

Technorati Tags: ps3, playstation, playstation 3, news

Ars Technica reports that according to a recent interview with Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, PS3 won’t be released until a year from now. The Hollywood Reporter conducted the interview. They say:

“[Sony] soon will unveil a line of compact, portable video devices to fill the time gap before PlayStation 3 launches in Japan in March and in the U.S. a year from now.”

Seem clear enough. Japan gets it in March, we wait until next holiday season. Up until recently most were speculating that the PS3 would be released simultaneously (or close to it) in Japan and the US. Sigh.

So the question is, if it’s going to be ready in March in Japan, and Microsoft is introducing the XBox 360 in less than two weeks, why on earth is Sony going to sit around and wait to release it here for a whole year?

Steve Thinks speculates that it may have been planned all along. Since Sony can’t beat Microsoft out the door, they might as well wait until next Christmas to launch. Obviously the first reason is just that Christmas is a good time to launch, but by waiting an entire year, they can more convincingly tout the PS3 as a next generation console, superior to that old XBox 360 that came out waaay back in 2005.

I guess we’ll see how it pans out. Microsoft clearly thinks that the reason they’re losing to Sony right now is that the PS2 beat the first XBox out the door, creating a gap in market share too big to overcome. However they’d do well to note that being first doesn’t always mean winning. Witness the permature demise of Sega’s Saturn and Dreamcast systems. Unlike Sega, however, Microsoft has something like $50 billion sitting in the bank. They can quite literally just keep throwing money at this thing until they win.

So what do you think? Good idea to wait until next Christmas? Or should Sony be flogging the team day and night to get the PS3 out as close on the heels of XBox 360 as possible?

Technorati Tags: ps3, playstation, playstation 3, sony, gaming

Ok now this is pretty cool. If you update your PSP to the new firmware release 2.50, you can now stream video over your wireless home network, or even over the internet at a hotspot if you have a fast enough connection. This is an expansion of Sony’s LocationFree program, which up until now has been supported on certain Sony TVs/Monitors, and on their Vaio notebooks.

The catch is you have to pony up $350 for Sony’s LocationFree wireless base station and software. Attach this thing to your home entertainment center, and you can stream live tv, dvds, or pretty much anything else over the internet to your PSP or PC. With an onscreen “universal remote”, you can control most major brands of a/v devices. So basically you can log in, switch your equipment over to TV, change the channel, and start watching your show over the internet. Pretty slick. Now if they can get it set up so it can rummage around and find the DVD you want, that would be helpful. I guess this is when a massive DVD changer comes in handy.

I think this is a fantastic idea, but they should really let you do at least part of this for free. Logging in to your network and controlling your TV is cool, but most people aren’t going to shell out $350 for it. What they need is an idiot proof server that you can run on your PC, that will let you at least stream your own digital video and music over the net. Now that I would really be interested in. Or partner with TiVo so I can stream my TiVo shows over the net. Yeah, that’ll happen.

Technorati Tags: psp, playstation, wireless, tv, video, news

As you likely know, the PS3 will employ a spiffy new “Cell Processor” to do the massive graphical weightlifting necessary to render insane models like that of Snake in MGS4 (click to enlarge him, he’s pretty impressive).

In case you want to know what a cell processor is, there’s a pretty good writeup at cell-processor.org. Basically you have a bunch of tiny processors that share common memory. These mini-processors are called Synergistic Processor Elements (gotta love synergy).

In any case, the PS3 cell processor is going to have 8 of these SPE doo-dads. Only 7 of them, however, will be active. PS3Blog.net reports that the 8th SPE may or may not be redundant. Seems the official line from Sony is that it’s just a backup, allowing the processor unit to remain functional, even if 1 of the 8 is defective from the factory. This reduces waste, and cuts cost in the end, as they don’t have to throw away an entire chip if just one SPE is a dud.

There’s now a rumor flying about, however, that the 8th SPE will be reserved for security and DRM (Digital Rights Management). Perhaps Sony really doesn’t want to see any pirated PS3 games floating around. Or maybe it’s protection for some other kind of media. Or maybe not. Who knows?

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A new budget line of PSP games, called “The Best” has been announced in Japan. The PSP has been on sale there for about a year now, so it’s time to start repackaging the old games and selling them for a bit less. Similar to the PS2 “The Best” line (that would be equivalent to our “Greatest Hits” here in the US), these will be older games that have sold well.

The first round of “The Best” in Japan will be:

• Metal Gear Acid
• Minna No Golf Portable
• Vampire Chronicle
• Mojipitan
• Ridge Racer
• Lumines
• Armoured Core Formula Front

Sony has not announced any plans for a “Greatest Hits” line for PSP in the US, but I would think within the next 6 months to a year we’ll see something similar.

Technorati Tags: psp, bargains, sony, the best, greatest hits