The Sony Playstation 3 launch may be delayed until 2007 if market conditions are suitable. What would be a suitable condition to decide that a delay of a console release is in order? Well, say if the Xbox 360 launch bombs out, for one. It is not so much about whether or not the PS3 will sell well, but rather if there will be enough supporting titles. A console without games isn’t much more useful than a circuit filled paperweight.

Sony’s also probably planning their own strike at the Xbox 360 launch. There is speculation that they may slash the price on the PS2 to $99 to coincide with the $299 release of Microsoft’s new next-generation console. Microsoft is not likely to lower the price on their own Xbox, because they’re already loosing money on each unit sold at $149. The Playstation 2, on the other hand, can bring Sony profits even with the console dropping to the two-digit price range, which means that Sony can sit back and relax while still making money.

This will also give their developers some extra time to overcome the difficulties of working with the CELL processor,so they can hope to see a higher quality of game when their console does come out. Either way, Sony has stated that the earliest we will see the Playstation 3 is probably mid-2006, so there is a good long wait ahead which ever way you look at it.

Microsoft has made mention that the Xbox 360 controller will be fully compatible with the Windows operating system and its games.

“Joining the Game Precision Series later this year will be the new Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, a wired gaming controller that works with Windows XP-based PCs and the new Xbox 360 system to deliver a consistent gaming entertainment experience across Microsoft’s gaming platforms,” the Redmond firm said in press release.

Windows gamers will no doubt be pleased to have access to a decent gaming pad, especially from Microsoft and especially if it can go from the PC to the Xbox 360.

The price of the pad will be $44.99 in the US.

No word yet on if the wired controller that comes with the basic box will work on Windows based PC’s, but I would not be surprised if it does. Also, this would make me want the wired controllers more than the wireless as I am never all that far from my computer or console anyways.

It is still unknown if this is 100% true, because The Inquirer does not provide any references.

Their claim is that the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 will cost upwards of $100 for each unit at launch. Assuming this is correct, it’s quite a steep price for a single PS3 component. With this they also still have to stick in 512MB of high-speed RAM and the much talked about Cell processor, and thousands of other components to make everything work together. In the end, the launch price could be a little higher than originally expected, as I doubt they will take a loss on each unit to get their release numbers up.

Read The Inquirer’s post.

It is hard to make games for a console when you don’t know what is going to be in it. Well, developers will be happy to note that the final Xbox 360 development kits are now arriving and this will allow everyone to push the system to is maximum. Developers will continue to receive software updates but atleast they are now working with final hardware, which means they can obtain final benchmarks to fully optimize their code and take advantage of the Xbox 360’s three symmetrical cores (each running at 3.2 GHz) and custom ATI graphics chip.

We also hope to see Xbox 360 games running on final hardware soon, probably at the Tokyo Game Show and definitely at the X05 show in early October, and with the latest and final hardware, the demos will probably be excellent.

To draw a crowd and create buzz, Microsoft has been releasing almost every little detail about their upcoming Xbox 360, and Sony is not too far behind in letting everyone know what is up their sleeve.

Although the release date of the PlayStation 3 remains a closely guarded secret, Sony has been less tight lipped about details on their PS3 to gain developer support at the Game Developer Conference Europe event in London.

George Bain, the Developer Support Manager at SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) Technology Group discussed the new controllers in more detail. He reiterated that the new boomerang designs were concepts only and were not necessarily representative of the final retail models. Don’t get me wrong, I think the controller looks pretty slick, but I honestly do not see the need to change the controller from the PS2 design, as it fits well and works well, especially for the number of buttons it has.

He also explained the reason behind the odd numbered limit of seven controllers were a product of the way in which Bluetooth 2.0 operates, where the console itself is considered to be the eighth device in the network.

As for the PlayStation 3’s removable hard drive, it was confirmed that Sony did consider it an important peripheral, but there has been no decision on its price, its size or most importantly whether it would be bundled with the console or available only as a stand alone extra. I really hope they learned that the hard drive is almost a key feature. If they can include a hard drive of any size with their console and still meet the $299.99 USD price mark, they will be another step above the Xbox 360 in features.

With the launch of Microsoft’s next console only a few short months away, the firm’s developer group boss Chris Satchell has revealed a host of new hardware and functionality information about the system. Game Industry.biz with the details. (I only picked the items that interested me. For a full list click on the Game Industry.biz link.)

Interface/Functionality

• The console can be switched on and off wirelessly using the Media Remote control or the wireless game controller.
• You will definitely need a hard disk to play Xbox 1 games.
• The System blade allows greater control over family settings. Microsoft thinks this is very important, Satchell said, and will therefore allow all manner of controls at a system or individual profile level. You can choose to allow specific people or the whole system access to certain games, DVDs (based on ratings – apparently “99 per cent” of DVDs now supply that information direct to the console), and areas of Live. Online, you can opt to ban certain friends, voice messaging, video messaging (if the camera is available), downloadables or just control online play.
• If you yank the hard disk off the top of the Xbox 360 when it’s in the middle of doing something, it will not corrupt it beyond repair or damage the File Allocation Table or anything like that – the hard disk uses a “transaction model” so that if you interrupt a transfer the data simply isn’t present and the space is presumably reallocated when you next save data to it.
• The “ring of light” around the power button highlights which wireless controller is being used, highlighting player one’s activity in the top-left quadrant. When the console is laid on its side, it senses this and starts using the top-left quadrant as you see it with the console laid flat. What’s more, the ring of light motif is spread throughout the Xbox 360 interface, so you can see which player pulled up the “Guide” page as you’re watching a film or playing a game and, in the words of Satchell, “slap him”.
• Cross-platform development between Windows and Xbox is being actively pursued – in the future, Microsoft hopes that people will be able to play games against each other using either platform.

Xbox Live

• Transferring your Xbox Live account to Xbox 360 will be part of the initial set-up procedure when you first plug in your console, and existing users have “Gold” membership.
• Your “reputation” stat is based on your activities online. Rather like an eBay rating, people who have encountered you can rate you positively or negatively, and this is reflected in your reputation.
• Xbox Live will allow you to play in various Zones – there will be causal, pro, family, and underground (where “anything goes”) and perhaps more – and these will allow you to go for whatever kind of experience you like.
• Marketplace is also accessible through the Live blade. As you know, this is where you can download premium content and, in the future, content created by users and sold to other users via a micro-payment system. Marketplace does not require you to insert individual game discs to see content available for those games.

Multimedia

• DVDs can be played even if you don’t have the remote control, unlike Xbox 1.
• DVDs will play back in progressive-scan, with the Xbox 360 up-sampling to prog-scan in the case of DVDs that don’t support it.
• When ripping music to the hard drive, album information is now stored on the HDD, with a huge amount there by default and more available from an online source – presumably something like CDDB, which will be familiar to people who rip their own CDs already.
• The Jeff Minter-created visualisation tool for music accepts input from all control pads and the video camera, allowing you to create various effects on-screen.
• iPods are detected by default, as are PSPs, and by our watch it took about 2 or 3 seconds for the Xbox 360 to notice they were there. With an iPod plugged in you can play music direct through the Dashboard software, with visualisations, or you can play a slideshow of photographs.
• For now, you can play music and access photographs on the PSP, but you can’t do video yet. That may happen, but Satchell joked that Sony wasn’t exactly giving them a helping hand there.
• Interestingly, you can actually have that slideshow draw photographs from another external device, so – as in our demo – you could play music from an iPod while using a slideshow of photos from a PlayStation Portable simultaneously.
• All of these devices will be supported by default, and any firmware updates that are necessary – Microsoft is hoping for very few – can be made available via Live.
• You can also plug in a laptop or PC (or not plug it in – if you’re using wireless networking) and play content direct from that. This is through Windows Media Player Extender, the software for which is pre-installed on the Xbox 360. In our example, Satchell first streamed a high-definition Project Gotham Racing 3 trailer, and then drew upon a high-definition recording of Star Wars: Episode II apparently captured on his home TV.

Official Peripherals

• You can plug in a keyboard but this is for text input only – including in massively-multiplayer games. You can’t use it to play games and that was a design choice.

I think that is pretty cool. I remember being disappointed with the original Xbox because you needed a special remote to play DVD’s. I have seen a recent video showing off some of the iPod and PSP connectivity features of the Xbox 360, and it was absolutely seamless. It was as if Microsoft had made all of the devices.

The more information that is released, the more excited I get.

Sony officially revealed many details about upcoming Playstation 3 hardware at the game developers conference, held at the Cafe Royal.

“We learned that despite having up to seven Bluetooth 2.0 compliant controllers, and six USB slots, and you will also be able to plug in a keyboard and a mouse. The company representative added that you will be able to play games such as Unreal Tournament 2007 with the keyboard and the mouse. This can mean the end of the auto aiming that you now have on Playstation 2, but I guess that developers will need to make the game fit the controller and keyboard and mouse.

Otherwise, if your game is so important, you might take a stand and make people buy a mouse and keyboard for your Playstation 3. At the same time you will be able to use your Playstation portable as a remote device for Playstation 3, but right now won’t be able to use it as a controller for games. But you will be able to do some things such as play a video or a song.”

This means that the Playstation 3 will have more or less the same accessory list as the Xbox 360. I think this is a great move for Sony as it allows for more buttons, and hopefully special first person shooter game pads like their are for the computer. Hopefully it will be more widely adopted and utilized then the keyboard-like device that came with Mario Paint or the old Nintendo Powerglove.

thanks to the inquirer for the heads up.

The rumor comes from IGN, who claim to have inside information from the retailers.

The three retail chains, all of whom independently pointed to Friday, November 25, as the hardware launch day, received email describing launch data late Monday. Launch day games have been re-assigned from early November to Monday, November 22, as potential first day ship dates. When contacted, Microsoft would not confirm or deny the information. In previous official announcements, Microsoft has said Xbox 360 will vaguely launch this fall.

It seems Microsoft was hoping to get the console out sooner but wanted to give developers a bit more time to finish up a few more titles for the launch. This means that Microsoft will be launching the Xbox 360 on the day after Thanksgiving, or already one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

(ign’s post about the release)

Microsoft has been reported to be opening atleast two Xbox 360 stores to help them meet what they hope to be an incredible demand for the consoles, games, and accessories.

Many other console makers are going to have similar “flagship” stores for their product launches, but Microsoft is looking at some very prime real estate, such as One Times Square, New York, and another in Tokyo.

In Tokyo the “ring of light”, the Xbox 360 signature has been found on a building that is being renovated, most likely for the release.

It should be interesting to see what the store is like. I hope they take some pages from Apple’s book and really make their store an experience.

I don’t know if this would be a dream job, or the job from hell, as in the description in the bottom, 14 hour days are mentioned. I think it would be great to be an editor for an online publication like IGN, but most of the duties are similar to mine here. Though I have not put in a 14 hour day yet, I have come close.

Editor, PlayStation Team

Duties: Editors are responsible for general day-to-day writing and publishing duties and are the voices of the site they work for. Daily tasks include writing and publishing daily channel-specific content including but not limited to news, features, previews, and reviews, maintaining a database of important channel-related contacts, as well as traveling and reporting on industry-related events.

Requirements:

• Must be 18 years of age or older
• Outstanding writing skills
• At least two years writing experience at a Website or journalistic publication
• Extensive knowledge of PlayStation 2 games
• Excellent verbal and social skills
• Experience with html
• Extensive knowledge of the gaming industry, including specific games, publishers and developers
• Love and acceptance of all videogame systems, including GameCube, PSP, Xbox, GBA and PCs
• Quality-oriented
• Winning attitude
• Experience with video recording, capturing or editing a plus
• Can work in the San Francisco Bay area

Many an amateur has made the mistake that working at IGN is a cakewalk, that all we do is “play games for a living.” All of these fools have been sorely mistaken after working 14-hour days, staying up all night writing about horrible games that no one wants to play, and posting 500 screenshots of Pokémon creatures.

For more information, check out this link.