The rumours continue:http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/03/italian_website_names_ps3_price/ Also apparently there is talk of a Bestbuy stock system screenshot with a similar price called "PS3 40GB Spider", which may or may not come with Spiderman 3 on Blu-ray.
seems like backward compatibility might have been left out from this model. in that case, I say "No Thanks". Crippled consoles don't belong in my household.
So you don't own a GB Micro by chance? :lol: Either way it seems to be a cheap ps3 akin to the 20GB ps3 but minus all ps2 hw (80gb still have some ps2 hw). It's not really so much crippled unless you were going to play ps2 games on the ps3. In that case you should have bough a 20GB or 60GB while you could (since they are the only ones with perfect emulation). Either way, the system will still run downloaded ps1 games since they run off pure emulation anyways. This system could be helpful for sony this xmas for gamers who probably did not care much about ps2/ps1 compatibility anyways.
I do not own a GB micro for exactly those reasons actually. If it were up to me (and my budget really) I'd have gone for a 20GB/60GB model a long time ago (With real PS2 pieces of fruit in it!). I m afraid that many gamers will buy the new PS3, try to put a PS2 game in it and suddenly get shocked by the fact that their game wont play (whereas it did on their friend's PS3) Sony criticized microsoft's multiple SKU approach, saying that it confused buyers, but what they're doing now is much worse. There's like 4-5 different configurations of the PS3 so far, what a mess.
Why wouldn't it run PS2 and PS1 games? They have emulation (software) now anyway. Doesn't cost them anything to give you it.
PS2 emulation is shit, because the hardware is so needlessly complex. Even Sony can't do it perfectly.
I think thats a little extreme, there are a fair number of games that it works well for and games it works less well for & some it doesn't work at all for. I hear it's better than the xbox backward compatibility for the 360. Sony did seem to go from quite simple hardware to quite complex hardware in the PS1 to PS2 transition, which is ironic as the PS1 beat the saturn because it was simple to code for. The major problem you have with backward compatibility nowadays is that unless you can find a use for the old chips then it's a high cost to add. The megadrive used a backward compatible graphics chip and sound chip and used the sound cpu to run master system games. Nintendo tried to do something similar for nes to snes compatibility but gave up in the end. PS1 compatibility in the PS2 was similar in that they had the main CPU for the PS1 run the I/O on the PS2. I believe the I/O on the PS3 in PS2 hardware emulation mode is actually software though. I would guess that they HLE the known IOP modules that they need to replace, no idea what they can do if there is an unknown one. None of the european PS3's have ever had hardware emulation mode. Which is why I didn't rush out to buy one. I would imagine that one day someone will write a PS2 emulator for PS3 other os mode, sony have a hard job to justify spending the rest of time trying to get every game to work perfectly. smf
They might as well just cut-off PS3 compatibility for all I care. They should just offer it as a blu-ray player since it doesn't have any games anyway
hmmm i take it that the Jap 20GB will run PS2 games okay though? (well HTSC-J versions anyhow?) Also, how long till someone brings out a chip or something to de-region the PS3?
Yeah, the Japanese PS3 has the best ratio of PS2 title compatibility (so long as you have a pile of Japanese PS2 titles, otherwise it is region locked). That's the main reason I bought it as it means that the hardware on the motherboard actually contains (as Barc0de put it) "pieces of <real> PS2 fruit". Frankly, I am in agreement with Barc0de on this one. Backwards compatibility was important to me, but I DO see the arguement. Perhaps Sony (having criticised Microsoft) should have adopted a more "Nintendo" attitude and released the "Sony PS3 lite" which dropped all PS1 / PS2 compatibility and came with a smaller HDD for the cheap ass Christmas market, but made it clear that this was what they were doing! At the moment the PS3 brand is confusing and you don't really know what you are getting under the lid unless you are really, really looking into it. Let's face it most buyers don't! Going on previous experience most PS buyers will assume the PS3 will still play their beloved PS2 titles (I don't think PS1 is such an issue to be honest), what's worse is that when they finally realise it doesn't they'll discover that some do, some don't. Sony should have adopted an "across the board" policy on this one. The next issue being the cost compared to the alternative (360 / Wii) and the major factor that no software is currently drawing the buyer towards the PS3 - Halo3 might not be your thing, but just think how many extra 360's have been purchased with this one solitary title? Sony need to release something between now and Christmas that rivals Halo3 in the publics mind, make a big price splash (to get the idea out of the publics head that their unit is not worth the money) and make more of the Bluray aspect. It remains the cheapest Bluray unit on the market and that surely should attract a few film buffs. Has anyone seen any PS3 adverts recently? I think their marketing people should be rounded up and turned into dog meat! It's right now that they should be churning out the best, funkiest and sexiest marketing tools, but nope!
Parris - nail on teh head with what you have said about the Sony marketing peeps.. I have my PS3, i want H3 but donthave a 360... i know that if i buckle now, i will regret it in the long run... plus i can pick up a cheapish 360 anytime... cheap PS3's still arnt to common.. (well aside from my one!)
Most PS3 titles are region free, but the blurb states "check before purchase". I have a Japanese unit and thus far I've only played 3 or 4 titles, but without any issue.
I remember you craving a PS3 and now you are uncertain whether to stick or fold. That is my experience of the PS3. I obtained it because I knew the PS2 compatibility was looking more & more unlikely in future units. I think the current editions (japanese in particular) may very well prove to be the better units in terms of the genuine (fruit lol) hardware on the motherboards. So, I am keeping mine for that reason alone. Personally, I feel that Sony are making a complete hash of their own product. Had Microsoft been left in charge of the PS3's marketing they couldn't have undermined it much better than Sony have managed on their own! It's a fantastic piece of hardware. Remove the 360 from the equasion and we'd all be tripping over ourselves to obtain one. Inspite of ALL (many) hardware problems, the 360 has caught the market and is leading from a pretty massive head start. As a PS3 owner, I just don't know what to say. Several months ago I had had enough of the 360 and my miserable time with their hardware, but by god I've enjoyed the gaming side. Reverse this and you have the PS3! I have admiration for the hardware, the OS and the GUI, but my god I am really unimpressed thus far with the gaming side. It's rather shameful of Sony who had such an incredible market lead on Microsoft & Nintendo (who looked like they would bite the console bullet) to have thrown it away.
I always find it oddly perculiar about the whole marketing of the PS3 over it's lifespan. It's almost like they WANT it to fail, just so that they can laugh in the hardware developers faces. ...but then again, it's common for the 3rd popular console to be a failure, isn't it? Maybe that's what Sony is expecting, so they're feeling like it's going to be the 3rd place (heh) so why bother? ...but then AGAIN, maybe Sony just believed from the start that people would trip over themselves to get a PS3 for the name and not because of the sheer number of games that came out for the PS2, the amount of support given, the quality and reasonable simplicity of the development software, etc. Oh, I don't know.
I think it was the brand name "Playstation" that Sony assumed could not be dented. They probably felt that having created such a huge fanbase, wiped other competition off the board and established themselves as market leaders that frankly it was a done deal. The Playstation 3 cost Sony so much that they couldn't afford for it to fail, so I doubt whether it was a case of "let it fail", but neither do I get the impression that they care for or respect the PS3. In fact I have wondered whether internally the various divisions of Sony have been rather scathing of management to lay so much on the line for one particular product? They seemed to cut back everywhere else, but throw money at the PS3 in development. That's got to piss you off if you are responsible for the development of other products. As you said Sony "believed" their own hype. I also don't think Sony realised the damage that their own good name had sustained. They are not the luxury brand everyone aspires to anymore, or atleast the public are very careful about what they purchase from Sony as previous "new" Sony technology has proven obsolete pretty swiftly inspite of price tag! When I think of the Playstation 3 I think, when it is going to happen, when will Sony pull out all the stops, what in god's name are they waiting for? Perhaps a "LITE" version is what the market needs to kick start sales.
... but only if a game comes out that people will want. The biggest issue I forsee is that FFXIII, MGS4, Little Big Planet... every hyped-up PS3 exclusive is not going to be out for Christmas, and neither is DualShock3. And surely Sony realise after over 10 years in the business that Christmas is the time when the consoles sell best. A reduced cost PS3 may work, but only if it can get below the cost of a 360 Core (an impossible feat) with a GAME (not a MOVIE) that'll pull people onto their console.
I agree with the game side, but the hardware only needs to compete with the full spec 360 rather than a core edition. People are funny things, especially around Christmas. The generosity (and cheque book) come out in spades and although parents want to buy their sons & daughters a console, they'll look at the Wii, the 360 & PS3 and think "what's between them?" The 360 core is a budget system. You need to add the HDD or atleast a memory card, so parents will probably be easily swayed by a good sales person to consider the Premium, which comes with everything you need. Now given this fact, the decision between PS3 at around the same price as the Premium comes into play. It isn't hard to sell up, but it would be really difficult to make that leap from Premium to current price of the PS3, plus at the moment there really is no need as the cheaper machine is actually the better buy! I think (unless Sony commit price suicide) that it will be a pretty head on tussle between the Wii and 360 this Christmas, so Sony are probably going to be stuffed again and surely they realise that and have something up their sleeves lol.
Woulnt it be possible to just emulate the IOP (being that it has to be done for PS1 games anyway). Or would emulating the IOP, EE and Graphics hardware be too much for a PS3 to handle?
Apparently, this just in: http://www.pspsps.tv/2007/10/first_40gb_ps3_bundle_spotted.html European price point: €449-489 (about £299). So this is in the price point of the Xbox Elite.... (I'm actually laughing about this - how on earth do Sony think people will buy a budget PS3 over the top of the line X360??? This is truly, TRULY rediculous!)
