For a console that’s coming out quite soon, we don’t know all that much about what the Sony PS3 is capable of. However, here’s what we do know so far:
1) There’s no rumble on the joypad
2) The controller is almost the same as the ‘Dual-Shock’, barring six axis motion sensitivity
3) The online component is free
4) The PS3 uses blu-ray discs for games and of course movies
5) Hmmm – it has backwards compatibility
So, what of the rumours of the PS3? Well plenty of people thought the Wii stole this years’ E3 – not neccessarily true as PC World points out – it was Microsoft’s rather good 360 line-up that did it Regardless, the PS3 just didn’t seem to be that impressive on the day.
The PS3 is coming out in November, or March for the UK and other territories. A number of people have stated that it is damn expensive for a console, and that is true. However, Sony is still going to be losing money on each one. This is, I guess, the price of having state of the art optical drives and top class processing in the unit as standard.
Certainly one reason to be cheerful about the PS3 is that with all the power, games should look better, run smoothly and have better AI. Then again, have we seen something running so far that the 360 – or even maybe the Wii – couldn’t do? Not yet – but I’m sure we will. HD of course is at least part of the new visual benchmark, and with the top end PS3 you’re looking at 1080p. This is the highest definition currently available and will look, I’m sure, incredible.
Another reason to be cheerful about the PS3 is the expected software. Yes, there’ll be Tekken 6, Gran Turismo HD, Killzone and much more. Oh yeah, and Resident Evil 5. This brings us neatly to…
Third party support. Both the PSOne and the PS2 had a huge games catalogue – simply put the greater the market share of the home console the greater potential for sales, hence publishers go for the Playstation brand. If Sony is clever they could easily rival both the Wii and Xbox Live with their own ‘arcade’ type selection of downloadable games.
Finally, there’s the controller. The Wii possibly took the steam out of this (or maybe Sony stole the idea, there’s plenty of debate about that from the fanboys) but then you still get the same questions. How will it be used? Who’ll just opt to use standard controls? Is it worth the trade-off of not having force feedback?
Well anyway, that’s what we have on the PS3 for now. I won’t have an exclusive for you given that I’m in the UK – so I’ll just be eagerly watching other sites instead as it rolls in. However, I’ll be happily commenting on day of launch – albeit not about the purchasing experience. One thing that can be guaranteed about the PS3 above all else is that the price is not going to go down!