Latest Sony PS3 News

Gamespot reports that the newest version of the PlayStation 3, complete with 80 GB hard drive, has arrived in the US. Along with 20 more gigs of memory, the unit comes bundled with the racer MotorStorm. This comes after last month's announcement of a price drop, and the subsequent revelation that the cheaper unit is being phased out in favour of this 80 gig model.

"But while the 60GB console's days are numbered, its supply is holding up despite a massive increase in demand. According to Sony, sales of the console have increased 113 percent at its top five retail partners--Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, and GameStop--when compared to average sales during the month before drop. Sony did not supply specific sales figures for the PS3, which sold 98,500 units in the US in June, according to the NPD group. So when will stocks of the $499 60GB PS3 run out? Sony predicts that, at current demand levels, the console will remain in the North American retail channel until fall."

Sony's $100 price cut to its PlayStation 3 video game console seems to be paying off.

Although the device continues to be outsold by Nintendo's Wii, sales of the PS3 are picking up in the U.S., according to data from research firm NPD.

PS3 sales in June were up 21% from May to 98,469 devices sold, NPD said.

And since the new $499 price for the PS3 was announced two weeks ago, sales have increased more than 135% at the company's top five retailers, said Sony.

Total PlayStation hardware sales increased 161%, software sales increased 15% and peripherals sales grew 60% in the two-week period since the price drop was announced on July 9, said Sony.

Still, Nintendo has little to fear. The company sold 381,800 Wiis last month and also dominated the software charts with six of the top 10 games belonging to one of Nintendo's devices.

Effective immediately (July 12), the North American version of the less-than-one-year-old console is dropping $100 to $499 ($549 CDN).

Here's a company where you can start your own online store and sell products including the PS3 without actually carrying any inventory. You set the price of your sales and pay only for the wholesale cost of the product once you have sold it. They also take care of all the shipping for you and have a full service customer support team who you can talk to directly. Choose from over 700,000 products to sell in your own store. Check them out at www.shopster.com for more information.

A rumor is circulating about saying that Sony has visions of a more expensive 80GB version of the PS3 in mind. Gizmodo has a FCC document posted on their site supposedly showing that Sony has asked to add an 80GB version to the existing 60GB.

The document doesn't mention the 20GB PS3 which may or may not shed light on the validity of the document. I'm no FCC expert but you would think with original models they would list the 20GB PS3 which was rumored to be discontinued and then Sony itself said it was still available, retailers just didn't ask for it much.

If you are in the market for a 60GB Sony PS3 you can just head over to Amazon.com and buy one right now for $599.99.

If you still do not have a Nintendo Wii, things are still not that easy, at least online. It is sold out everywhere I looked. Gamestop offers new Wii bundles that ship in April. Nintendo is set to ship 6 million Wii consoles by end of the month.

The days of the 20GB Sony PS3 might be soon over. Sony did not bring the lower-priced 20GB on the start in Europe and other PAL regions. Evidence that the 20GB model might disappear all together appeared over the weekend.

Joystiq obtained a printout from a Best Buy employee showing the 20GB Sony PS3 as discontinued.

Demand for the 20GB model was way outdone by the premium 60GB Sony PS3 with Wi-Fi.

Sony has announced PS3 Home which is a Second Life sort of offering exclusive to the PS3 console. The idea behind PS3 Home is that PS3 users can meet in a virtual environment to chat and have fun.

Since PS3 Home is tied into the console once users meet to chat and find mutual PS3 multiplayer interests they can leave directly from PS3 home and join each other in online games. If you have personal video, photos and files stored on your PS3 you can also share them with online friends who use PS3 Home.

This week Sony announced that the Sony PS3 in Europe has less support for PS2 games. This is the complete oposite direction Nintendo is marching on with their apparently successful retro games running on the Wii virtual console.

Almost every week new retro game appear on the Wii virtual console bringing back titles from console classics like the Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, NES, SNES and N64. I could not find hard numbers on how well the classic games sell, but the community and blogs are gobbling up every virtual console release.
This week the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time raised lots of attention and also Sega made some waves releasing new Genesis titles like Vectorman and Sonic Spinball.

I do not understand why Sony is not even supporting PS2 games on the Sony PS3, so people can at least get rid of one box in the living room.

Jack Trenton from Sony did an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly early in January where he says he will give anyone who can find a PS3 on store shelves that has been there more than five minutes $1200.

Read full article here.

Sony is claiming that of 100,000 US-based PS3 owners it surveyed, 90% have watched a Blu-ray movie on their console; 80% of those surveyed say they will buy Blu-Ray movies in the future, while 72% said they will rent one soon.

It has produced these figures in the same week that market researchers, Nielsen VideoScan, announced that Blu-ray is already surpassing HD-DVD in the next-gen DVD-media war. Blu-ray movies are apparently outselling HD-DVD sales by more than two to one.

Only a couple months in and Sony's announced that there is yet another PS3 firmware update (ver. 1.50, which I believe makes it the third update). The latest firmware adds the option of auto or manual sign-in to the Playstation Network and lets gamers select an image on their hard drive to use as a User Icon on the XrossMediaBar, They also added a Key Tone feature, the ability to delete backup data on the internal hard drive or external devices and the ability to enter Korean text the on-screen keyboard.

It is rumored that Sony will be releasing another version of the PlayStation that does not include the Blu-Ray drive so that they can recapture the market and offer a lower priced console. This move is "aimed at family pricing".

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. president and COO Kai Hirai admitted this week in a print supplement titled "Blu-ray Today" that Blu-ray disc technology ultimately delayed the launch of the Playstation 3.

Hirai points to the blue laser diode, a Blu-ray disc component for the PS3, as the culprit for the system's delay to Nov. 2006. The system was previously scheduled to be released in spring 2006.

"I don't think anyone could have foreseen the difficulties we encountered in the production of the blue laser diode for the Playstation 3, which ultimately delayed the launch of Playstation 3."

Sony continued to encounter production delays until launch. As a result, an estimated 200,000 units were delivered to the U.S. compared to a launch forecast of 500,000 units. In Japan, launch quantities were reduced by 20% to 80,000 units.

The production delays cost Sony in the key holiday period, which saw rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. overtake the PS3 in Dec. 2006 and early Jan. 2007.

Nintendo sold 1.1 million Wii from launch through till the end of the year. Sony came in a distant second selling 687,300 Playstation 3s. Comparably, Microsoft sold 607, 343 from their launch date in Nov. 2005 through the end of that year. (Microsoft has sold a total of 4.5 million Xbox 360's since their launch in 2005) So, apples-to-apples, Nintendo came in first, Sony second and Microsoft third, with Nintendo nearly tying the second and third place combined.

With 103 million units sold by March 2006, the incredible success of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console is expected to continue to leave the PlayStation 3 (PS3) behind right in to 2008. Even Sony itself has commented that the lifespan of a console is around 10 years. "The PS2 will have legs well into 2008," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

This trend is expected to be visible into early 2008 too. Rating agency Standard & Poor predicts by then that Sony will have shipped another 11 million PS2 units, but that the PS3 will only manage about 7 million. Of course, all of this is not surprising considering you can pick up a brand new PS2 for $130 and the console has a huge catalog of cheaper software to choose from.

PS3 owners rejoice! At long last, Sony has officially made the PlayStation 3 Blu-ray remote available to the public. Sure, a few had popped up in places like the Wal-Mart Superstore in Las Vegas, NV, but Punch Jump is reporting that the remote is now widely available.

There are many who feel that Sony should have included the accessory with at least the 60GB PS3 model, since the Premium Xbox 360 comes with one included. Instead, the company decided to include Talladega Nights: The Story of Ricky Bobby in the first million PlayStation 3 models sold in the USA. Go figure.

The remote retails for $24.99 and comes with two Sony branded AA batteries. We thank Sony for making this available; the PS3 controller was a somewhat hideous substitute for the real thing.

ABC News reports this morning that supply of PlayStation 3 might be catching up with demand quicker than anticipated. Does that mean that supply is vast or that demand has slowed? Or both?

People moan and bitch about how the PS3 costs $600 and so on. Well if you were considering buying a Blu-Ray drive for your home theater, a PS3 may be your cheapest bet. As I strolled through a Best Buy today, I noticed it was selling internal Blu-Ray drives for a whopping $749 a pop. That's some serious moola, even they let you burn to still-expensive Blu-Ray discs. So if you don't care about games and want a Blu-Ray drive just for playing a movie, I'd say go with a Playstation 3 for now.

Despite the PS3 costing more than the Wii-and having less units available-it seems Sony's console is easier to find than the Wii. So much so that people are swapping PS3s for Wii straight up. And the scalpers who can't trade for a Wii or flip their PS3s for more than a 10% or 20% profit? They're returning the consoles to the stores they bought them from.

According to the Hamilton Spectator, these scalpers are having a tough time selling the PS3s for their asking price of $1,000 to $2,000, even during Christmas. Thus, they can either open the boxes up and enjoy it themselves, or return it to stores before their return period expires. Most are choosing the latter.

They keep coming and coming, the updates for the Playstation 3. Today it's version 1.32's turn and it will be downloaded automatically when you go online. This update is a 0.01 increase over the last version which means it's pretty minor and doesn't do that much.

"Network performance of the main functional system software which is renewed with system software version 1.32 was strengthened"

There's a good chance that you are still able to put a Playstation 3 console under your Christmas tree, if you weren't willing to wait in line for three days or more at launch or pay outrageous premiums for the console on Ebay. Supply is improving and you can get the console below suggested retail price.

I was just checking the prices of the PS3 on eBay and noticed the prices have drop substantially. Prices are only going a little over the MSRP. There was even a couple auctions that sold for below MSRP on eBay! After eBay fees and etc, these resellers hoping to cash in are probably going to get a negative net return on their investment. If you've been thinking about buying a PS3 off eBay, this is the perfect time to do it!

As we reported this weekend, there were rumors flying to and fro about Konami bringing Metal Gear Solid to the Xbox 360. For now, Konami is crushing the rumor, and some gamers' hopes. Solid Snake's adventures have long been a staple for Sony consoles.

Konami eased Sony's feelings and disappointed Microsoft fanboys with the following statement, shared with CVG: ""Konami has no plans to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Xbox 360 at this time." When a gaming company denies something they are either telling the truth or lying. So, the "MGS on the 360" rumor is dead, but we'll keep our eyes open for a resurrection.

Noooz.com claim to have exclusive news on Metal Gear Solid 4. The stealth based game is apparently being developed for Xbox 360 and will no longer be a PS3 exclusive.

The reporter claims that a developer source has leaked the information and that Metal Gear Solid 4 will appear on Microsoft's console a few months after the PS3 incarnation.

Vice President of Technology for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Paul Holman confirmed that there will be a PlayStation 4, and that it would be released sometime after 2010 in an interview with SmartHouse.

"To say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched" he said.

Until the release of the PlayStation 4, there will be several upgrades for the PS3.

Gran Turismo HD Concept will be available to download via the PlayStation Store on December 24th. The download will be available for Japan only for a limited time. It will feature a choice of ten cars and two layouts on a race track, with two modes: Time Attack and Drift Trial mode.

Gran Turismo 5 is due in 2008 for the PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo HD is a sim racing game from Polyphony Digital. The game offers a variety of vehicles and environments in high-definition (1080p) format.

An Electronic Arts exec estimated recently that the company's Playstation 3 games are only using about 20 percent of the console's power.

"The whole industry knows it's been a challenge; the PS3's a very complex piece of equipment. On one hand it's a challenge, on the other hand there's tremendous potential in that box. I think it's going to take developers a little while to figure out how to unlock that power.
We've got games coming out now where we feel we've hit maybe 20 per cent of the potential of PlayStation 3. We know the power's there, but like any new platform it's going to take us a little bit of time to unleash it.

Was it more complex than we were expecting? Yes, probably; there were some challenges that we didn't expect. We've got tremendous confidence long-term that it's going to be a phenomenal games machine."

Original thinking said that PS3 would be the hardest thing to find this year, but it turns out that the title belongs to the elusive Wii. While PS3s are not even close to readily available, it seems that finding a PS3 for sale is an easier task than locating a Wii - something that is completely contrary to what most gamers were figuring before either console's launch. Read the full article here: Daily Tech

The list of the top selling games for the PlayStation 3 in November has been released by NPD Group.

1. Resistance: Fall of Man
2. Madden NFL 07
3. Call of Duty 3
4. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
5. Ridge Racer 7
6. Need for Speed: Carbon
7. Tony Hawk's Project 8
8. NBA 2K7
9. NBA 07
10. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

The November sales number have been released and the Nintendo Wii is outselling the Sony PS3 by a 2-1 ratio. Below is a list of the number of units sold in November 20006:

Playstation 3: 195,000
Wii: 476,000
Xbox 360: 511,000
Playstation 2: 663,000
PSP: 413,000
And surprisingly...
Nintendo DS: 920,000
Game Boy Advance: 639,000

Wasn't the Game Boy Advanced released like 5-10 years ago? Click here to read the full article: CNNMoney.com

Sony released today new firmware for the Sony PS3 and the Sony PSP.

The new Sony PS3 firmware 1.30 features a Bluetooth update to support the BD remote, HDMI output options for movie playback, a new backup utility and you can choose which output resolutions your TV supports. I am if this option fixes the issue the PS3 has with old HDTVs.

The new Sony PSP firmware 3.02 is only a security fix for the PaRappaTheRapper game. The firmware updates are still only documented online in Japanese: PS3 firmware 1.30 info and Sony PSP firmware 3.02 info.

While the Sony PS3 consoles change hands through eBay, others like game publishers get antsy as not more Sony PS3 are getting into gamers hands.

According to a story on Bloomberg, Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. the maker of Ridge Racer 7 and other Sony PS3 games says that they need to ship 500,000 games to break-even on the title. Apparently the high-definition graphics cost double that of a Nintendo Wii game with $8.6 million.

There is still no confirmation, but most analyst guesses are that Sony shipped way less than 400,000 PS3 consoles in the US. There is also still now sign of the second wave of the Sony console. What is the hold up?

In a new Reuters report about web sales of Black Friday some interesting numbers from eBay are mentioned regarding Wii and PS3 auctions.

For starters eBay had the most traffic last Friday of all online retailers (7.5 million unique visitors).
From November 17th to November 24th 14,675 Sony PS3 consoles have changed hands for an average price of $1,186.63.
In comparison the Nintendo Wii sold 26,708 times from 19th-24th of November on eBay. The average price for the Wii was $412.

eBay is clearly benefiting big time from the limited supply of the new video game consoles.

Let me just start off by saying, WTF! Why oh why dear god would someone drop $9100 on a pre-order PS3 60GB system!? $9100!! You can build a gaming PC that will run circles around that PS3 for a fraction of the $9100 this person spent.

Nonetheless, some person did in fact drop $9100 on one in an eBay auction (update: item has been removed, see other PS3 auctions) that ended a few days back. I can't help but wonder if the winning bidder actually paid.

Introduction

Lagging a full year behind the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and lacking the immediately attention-grabbing hook of Nintendo's 360-degree motion-sensing Wii, Sony's long-awaited PlayStation 3 has recently been the subject of much heated debate. Despite its obvious appeal to diehard gamers and fans of the world's most popular console brand - not to mention home theater enthusiasts, what with 1080p HDMI output and extensive online music/video download capabilities - questions have been plentiful.

For example: Is the system, available in 20GB ($499, sans WiFi and a built-in combination Memory Stick product lineup, Compact Flash and SD/MMC card reader) or $599 chrome-trimmed wireless-ready 60GB hard drive models, worth the hefty asking price, the highest since early-'90s systems like CDi and 3DO? Can Sony, who's recently cut back North American November 17th launch date ship projections to just 400,000 units (with some analysts predicting actual distribution of half this number or fewer machines), manage to avoid aggravating a soon-to-be-device-deprived buying public while still keeping up with the competition? And, of course, with so much power and hardware combined in a single unit catered to the highest-end luxury users, is there even a point to upgrading?

The short answer to all: Yes, depending which of school of thought you fall into, your game playing habits and how much disposable income you've got to burn. However, let's get one thing out of the way up-front, before you freeze your poor behind off spending all night camped out in front of the local electronics retailer hoping to score one of the severely under-stocked devices. For a host of reasons ranging from technical niggles to launch lineup shortfalls to pure common sense, it's perfectly fine - and in most cases, even advisable - to skip buying one this holiday season and wait until the dust settles sometime early in 2007.

Right from the get-go, it's important to consider the following fact: You're not actually buying a videogame console here (although surely, that's the machine's strength and the chief function most prospective buyers intend to employ it towards) so much as a full-fledged digital media hub.

Highs:
Amazing audiovisual performance; Blu-ray drive; future-proof hardware; backwards compatible

Lows:
Price; no force-feedback; weak launch lineup; smudge-prone exterior; a few technical glitches

Here are the official technical specifications for the PS3, taken directly from Sony:

CPU
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

GPU
RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)
Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

System Floating Point Performance
2 TFLOPS

Storage
Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1

I/O
USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1

Communication
Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Controller
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)

AV Output
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

Disc Media
CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE