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SONY playstation3
Sony’s unveiling of the PlayStation 3 console at an E3 press conference marked the first official acknowledgement of a system whose details have been kept highly secret for the last year. More than 2,000 industry professionals packed the venue, with one question firmly on their minds: how would Sony’s PS3 compare to arch-nemesis But then again, Sony is the number one console gaming company for a reason, and by the looks of it, the tremendously powerful PlayStation 3 has the potential to turn the impending next-generation console war on its head.
Upside
The PlayStation 3 is all about power and with a little help from NVIDIA, IBM and Toshiba, Sony is claiming to have created the most powerful graphics system ever built on any platform. The demos of upcoming PlayStation 3 games are truly impressive, showing off nearly photo-realistic graphics at high-definition 720p resolutions. According to Sony, the console is capable of output at up to 1080p. What’s more, the PS3 will be backward-compatible with previous-generation PlayStation games, a boon to anyone dreaming of tearing through Grand Theft Auto on an even more powerful machine.
The PS3 supports multiple wireless controllers, though it can handle up to seven simultaneous players via Bluetooth. Sony hinted at powerful media capabilities for its next-generation system, trumpeting its onboard Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash media slots as well as a bay for an optional hard drive. Sony’s console will support high-capacity Blu-ray discs. What’s more, the PlayStation 3 will sync wirelessly with Sony’s PSP.
Downside
It’s still unclear how much the PS3 will cost when it will be released in Spring 2006, but it will be in excess of £300 and probably closer to £350. More importantly, in order to enjoy the full power of the platform, one will have to upgrade to a high-definition TV (preferably a large one that can handle the 1080p output) and tap into a surround-sound system. Also, fancy graphics are welcome, but building those textures will increase development cycles, and as development costs increase, so do the costs of games; we it wouldn’t be surprising to see PS3 games exceeding £40 in some cases.
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