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[KingViper]

Hmm.

MS is taking approx. $300 loss on each premium console sold.

If the PS3 really costs around $850 to produce, and they sell it at $400, they'll be losing $450 per console.  Sony may have deep pockets, but they do not have as deep of pockets as M$.  That means they are either going to drop hardware, or sell it for more, OR like we see with the 360, do what The Bat said, and sell all the accessories for an absurd amount.  M$ makes like $35 per wireless controller, so if Sony sells wireless controllers, and a blu-ray adapter, and a harddrive, and software for online play, and Highdef cables for both of your outputs etc. etc. etc.

So, if they sell it at a higher cost, lets say...$450, plus if you want Blu-Ray playback you've gotta drop another $40, and you need another controller at least another $50, and you need a harddrive at $100, and what good would the console be without a $60 game, plus some highdef cables to even get HD (will they include them?) $30, we're lookin at like around $700+ just to get the damn thing up to par with 1 game.

Lets not forget sales tax on a $700 item.  So, I've got the $400 Xbox 360 (maybe a price drop by then) with a plethora of games, media capabilities, online everything....why in the hell would I want a PS3, I dont care if they do come out with some nice games, I wont be buying it till its been dubbed the PSThree and has fixed any initial problems with blu-ray (because we would essentially be beta testing 1st generation blu-ray), officially dropped harddrive support for the second time, and changed the controllers from looking so gay.

Good job sony.

[LVmOddER]

I have a family member that is on the PS3 development team and he said that we should expect a launch around the end of this year or begining of 07. The best thing about this is that I don't have to wait in the cold to get my hands on one.  

[Owtlaw333]

QUOTE(LVmOddER @ Feb 25 2006, 11:13 PM)

I have a family member that is on the PS3 development team and he said that we should expect a launch around the end of this year or begining of 07. The best thing about this is that I don't have to wait in the cold to get my hands on one.  

Don't get ur hopes up... M$'s dev team had ta wait longer than the public to get one for themselves.

[BadNinja3]

imho: sony should sell the ps3 with a bluray drive. and have blueray games and blueray movies locked. then sony would sell an encrypted(so it cant be coppied) code to unlock each option for like $50 each. the code would be locked to each memory card or in an onboard memory bank.  then the ps3 would launch with games that only use dual layer dvd's and ps2 architecture(b/c the ps3 is backward compatable).  that would give sony(and friends) time to work on bluray and time to teach the cell processor architecture to the game creators.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(The Bat @ Feb 27 2006, 02:30 PM)

Too many ifs for now.  How well the new forms of DVD are accepted, in what ratio over the next six months, as well as MS's promotion and pricing for their 360 HD-DVD drive, may do more to affect when the PS3 is released than anything else discussed so far.  Since I'm not being paid to worry about it, I won't.  

thats a good point. as far as sony is concerned, if they launch with blu-ray, and the movie market goes HD_DVD, then they are in a very bad posistion both socially and finically.

there are just so many ifs and buts, i wouldnt be supraised if sony have 5 or 6 different possible configurations of hardware that they can use

[CASANOVAx7]

I agree with most of the things said, especially by The Bat.  I don't like to speculate much on specfic hardware costs or pretend to know exactly what kinds of dealings with developers that Sony might have, but there are certain things that are very obvious.  Firstly, last year at E3, Sony had a demo "PS3" with hardware capabilities they were all to happy to gloat about; only we now know most of the best features will be cut for cost.  So, to me, them not releasing specs seems more of an issue of them not having finalized anything; especially because the 360 is already out, so there is no reason to not release hardware details unless you know you have a hardly superior/inferior product.  With that said, I question the amount of development in progress for any PS3 software, with exception for in-house Sony software engineers; and thus it would seem, in my opinion only maybe, a release date anytime in 2006 for anywhere is going to be stretching limits and/or games will simple suck.  

Secondly, for those who might doubt Sony's capability, I'd like to point out that they are one of the top electronics companies in the world.  So if it's possible, their designers and engineers will find a way to keep as many of the best features we know about, as well as cutting costs.  I just wanted to note that point so it is obvious the amount of respect I have for their work.  However, as mentioned by someone earlier, MS has designed their products to be friendly with developers; and Sony has a very developer-unfriendly Cell processor.  In bringing this up I mean to bring to light the fact that Sony will want to have, at least when entering the US market, a very strong showing of games in their intial release of the console.  The lack of a developer-friendly environment is an impediment to this; and the Sony software engineers may be good, but MS is #1 in software in the world because they have the best in the world (not to mention they have had brilliant business strategies) - nobody will make it easier to make games for a console than MS has.

I'd like to end saying that if Sony does not release any details before, this year's E3 will be the real indicator of their progress; and as someone who doubts Sony because of their lack of real substance in what I witnessed at E3 last year, I expect most to be disappointed.

[The Bat]

QUOTE(ferrari_rulz_02 @ Feb 27 2006, 01:48 AM)

thats a good point. as far as sony is concerned, if they launch with blu-ray, and the movie market goes HD_DVD, then they are in a very bad posistion both socially and finically.

there are just so many ifs and buts, i wouldnt be supraised if sony have 5 or 6 different possible configurations of hardware that they can use

Actually, I don't think there's any "if" to the inclusion of a blu-ray drive.  The PS3 will be Sony's absolute best shot at getting their DVD format into a large number of homes, which will determine whether Sony gets a large chunk of the home video pie, or just loses billions in marketting and development of the HD-DVD alternative.  Although any games console manufacturer would usually prefer to be able to delay their launch, so they can have some strong and impressive titles at launch and through its first year, what we see with the PS3 launch may make the initial PS2 lineup seem strong by comparison.

In short, if Blu-Ray does much better in the summer and fall of this year than HD-DVD despite MS's efforts, don't expect to see the PS3 anywhere any time before 2007.  And if HD-DVD does at least as well or better, a launch ranging from September 2006 (Japan) through March 2007 (Europe) might be what we get instead.

[Odb718]

QUOTE

And if Nintendo's gamble on their new styled controller and their retro library doesn't pan out, they'll be the next TurboGrafx

Nintendo will never be out of it. Nintendo's stratagy is perfect in this upcoming battle. Release something inexpensive, but as you can see with the GC the graffix will not be horrible. Nintendo knows that to sell consols the games have to be fun. Good contolls are another huge selling point. If you think about it, if Nintendo comes out with a consol for $200 they'd slaughter. They wont be number 1 but having a $400 360 and $? PS3 will be the perfect competition to go against. I know a lot of parrents that buy GCs for their kids because they know it's children friendly. But if Nintendo wants to increase their marketshare they have to let the games grow with their market base and still hold the majority of children's gaming.

Personal I think Playstation fanboys are the worste. Sure the PS2 has more games, but they suck. All of the cross platform games are either better on the xbox or the best on GC. Now Im expecting a couple people to point out the good games on the PS2, and DMC and a few others are very good games, but on the whole the PS2 pumps out a TON of shitty games. Every system has it's positive side and personaly the only positive side I see for the PS2 is it's massive collection of crappy games.

QUOTE(games.net @ Five Ways to Save the Xbox 360)

Early 2007 should prove to be the perfect time frame, especially since a PS3 delay is looking more and more likely.

QUOTE(Odb718 @ Feb 23 2006, 01:10 AM)

feb 2007

As I've said before there's no way Sony can hand the world a PS3 for christmas. They haven't been bragging enough for me to believe that they can get it done. And thats all they have going for them at this point. Revolution has it's controller and the 360 is out. Everyone paying attention knows the time frame for Sony to start producing actual hardware for the public is getting extreamly tight if they want to get it out for the holidays. Personally, I dont see them getting it done. They got just over 2 months to get their stuff together for E3 and if they don't have something hard to show for themselves they've got nothing. Unless they've got the bananna/boomarange controller in the hands of fanboys at E3, chalk 2006 up to MS.

[The Bat]

QUOTE(Odb718 @ Feb 27 2006, 10:19 PM)

Nintendo will never be out of it. Nintendo's stratagy is perfect in this upcoming battle. Release something inexpensive, but as you can see with the GC the graffix will not be horrible. Nintendo knows that to sell consols the games have to be fun. Good contolls are another huge selling point. If you think about it, if Nintendo comes out with a consol for $200 they'd slaughter. They wont be number 1 but having a $400 360 and $? PS3 will be the perfect competition to go against. I know a lot of parrents that buy GCs for their kids because they know it's children friendly. But if Nintendo wants to increase their marketshare they have to let the games grow with their market base and still hold the majority of children's gaming.

You're not expecting the bundles and the prices to stay the same when a competitor launches, do you?  I doubt MS would drop the 360 pricing to match that of the Revolution, but things like special games bundles ($10 more gets one title from the list, with the store getting $5 more) accompanying drops of $50-$100 would likely kick in around then for the 360.

QUOTE(Odb718 @ Feb 27 2006, 10:19 PM)

Personal I think Playstation fanboys are the worste. Sure the PS2 has more games, but they suck. All of the cross platform games are either better on the xbox or the best on GC. Now Im expecting a couple people to point out the good games on the PS2, and DMC and a few others are very good games, but on the whole the PS2 pumps out a TON of shitty games. Every system has it's positive side and personaly the only positive side I see for the PS2 is it's massive collection of crappy games.

Can't really blame Sony for that.  Shovelware titles are ported to whichever console has the most people to sucker, and the PS2 is the best selling console worldwide.

[Owtlaw333]

QUOTE(SigmaXIX @ Feb 27 2006, 02:58 PM)

Also, what DID happen with the lawsuit over Sony's controller?  The one where they are not allowed to use MS's patent in "rumble" technology...  The one where Nintendo was willing to pay, and Sony was not.  I'm looking forward to an absolutely awful controller by Sony with another patent infrigement issue.  It's a shame, too -- I really did enjoy the Sony-branded Dual Shock, but I really believe they will not go there again.

Q1 2007+.

M$ isn't the one with the patent.  A company named Immersion owns the right to the technology. M$ was also caught in that lawsuit and was willing to pay it's dues and front the royalties for the current controllers.  Sony on the other hand (last I heard) is not going to pay the royalties and go with something of their own... maybe a work-around to the lawsuit... "This isn't a rumbling controller... this is a hunting tool with massaging capabilities"

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(Mr_Metabolism @ Feb 28 2006, 07:26 PM)

I believe M$ bought the company.

now why doesnt that supraise me.

but if they did, that means M$ owns the copyright, which means sony would have to pay MS for each controller they make. what irony

[The Bat]

QUOTE(Metalb00 @ Feb 27 2006, 10:30 PM)

i dont think well see us ps3 till dec if were lucky. i do remember seeing a rumor abotu 2 sku for the ps3 both no hdd 1 no blu ray for 400 and one w blu ray for 600 it was in teh newest agame informer i think.

I thought this had already been mentioned in this thread, but I seem to have imagined it.  The print mag may have been mentioning some online store's offer of placing a pre-order for the PS3.  This online retailer provided their own list of launch titles, which consisted entirely of obvious franchises (like GT5) and already announced projects. The only exceptions I can recall to those was a mistake (Killzone 2), already released for the PS2.  And since the company behind Killzone was purchased by Sony, it also makes the game an obvious franchise.

In other words, it was an official pre-order offer based on seemingly unofficial specs.  The store seemed to be asking the public to send them money to hold on to, so they could collect the interest while discourage the pre-orderers from buying a PS3 from anyone else.  At least, that's my guess.

[thejt]

November 22  2011.  They are going to rename the unit when it is finally ready to ship Playstation 4 and claim that it is four times better than Xbox 720 which will be due to be released around the same time

[Owtlaw333]

QUOTE(Mr_Metabolism @ Feb 28 2006, 12:26 AM)

I believe M$ bought the company.

Mmmm... I don't think they did. The last I heard was they settled for X amount of money and then bought about 10% of it's shares, but I don't think they actually bought the company.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(thejt @ Mar 1 2006, 02:35 PM)

November 22  2011.  They are going to rename the unit when it is finally ready to ship Playstation 4 and claim that it is four times better than Xbox 720 which will be due to be released around the same time

why dont we worry about that in another generations time?