Hail_to_Kessel Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 GDC 2006: Sony Conference Report Harrison puts PS3 and PSP on stage. by Garnett Lee, 03/22/2006 Link: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3148951 Speaking at the 2006 GDC in San Jose this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment President, Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison is delivering one of the most anticipated keynote addresses in recent memory. 1UP reporters are on hand providing live updates as they happen. 10:40 a.m. PST Harrison opened his talk by reviewing the powerful presence of Playstation in the global gaming community. This report card included the fact that more than 100 million PS2s have been sold worldwide to date. He went on to add, ""we are still selling Playstation 1 software in many markets around the world." Joining him on stage then was God of War creator David Jaffe, for a sneak peek at God of War 2. Before showing it off Jaffe noted of the PS3 that, "it seems to be incapable of rendering 3-way sex scenes in real time." That disappointment aside the demo showed Kratos in full swing again, ripping heads off a three-headed monster one at a time and ended with a scene on the back of a God-like tremendous bird in the air. 10:50 a.m. PST From there Harrison moved on to talk about some intriguing new hardware accessories. First up was a video/still camera add-on for the PSP. He stated that this should arrive in September of this year. Next came the announcement of a GPS unit for PSP coming right after, due to be on shelves in October. In keeping with the PSP theme he then showed a demo of Loco Roco. 10:50 a.m. PST From there Harrison moved on to talk about some intriguing new hardware accessories. First up was a video/still camera add-on for the PSP. He stated that this should arrive in September of this year. Next came the announcement of a GPS unit for PSP coming right after, due to be on shelves in October. In keeping with the PSP theme he then showed a demo of Loco Roco. And finally, PS3 took center stage. It began with a reprise of the rubber ducky tech demo used in demonstrating the PS2 years ago. This time, though, the camera pulled back dramatically from the bathtub full of ducks to reveal that they were at the bottom of a living, fully realized ocean. Harrison quipped that a little practical joke was played on him where he had been unexpectedly showered in real rubber duckies while watching the demo recently. Harrison then confirmed what everyone most wanted to hear: that the worldwide launch was coming in "early" November. He reiterated the other details that had been passed along last week in Japan including that production would be running at 1 million units per month and that studios would have final development kits in June. 11:00 a.m. PST With the housekeeping out of the way, the demos got underway in earnest. Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword was used to showoff what can be done with the Havok physics engine. Groups of enemies blew up, flying everywhere fluidly, and then the scene zoomed way out to show the same event with literally hundreds of enemies. Demo2 started with a car in the desert from an unannounced forthcoming game. Bullets striking the car slowly dismantled it, bit by bit. And then the much talked about Warhawk went up for a real-time demonstration. Lighting effects were fantastic in the sunset scene allowing for what the developers are terming "ambient warfare". The most impressive part of the display was the real, volumetric clouds. You fly through them and they exist in 3D. And even better, we'll be able to bring you hands-on impressions of the game from this year's E3! 11:10 a.m. PST With the visual demonstrations complete, the subject of the PS3's online gaming service came next. The PlayStation Network Platform is simply the company's internal name and shouldn't be thought of as what to call it. The driving principles behind the service are content, communication, community and commerce, and all of it from a "basic service free of charge," Harrison added. The service, co-developed with SOE has infrastructure by Sony, but allows third=party servers to be connected independently. This they see as "key." All of big features should be in there, including: video chat, voice chat, friends lists, stores to sell content online, micropayments, transactions, subscriptions, etc.... Video Chat windows will be able to overlay in-game while you're playing, and you'll also be able to send email and requests from in the game. Developers will be receiving the first roll-out of the system next week. 11:20 a.m. PST Examples of network play began with a demo of Formula 1 racing. Following that Motorstorm was used to demonstrate how you can buy stuff in the game. In action the HDR lighting looked sharp, but the poor framerate made it clear this was still an early build. While the texturing looked nice, it was a significant step down from the jaw-dropping pre-rendered demo shown at last year's E3. We'll also have more for you on Motorstorm from E3 in May. Ted Price took the stage next to show, "an internal demo finished a few months ago." He called it Resistance: Fall of Man. It had the look of a cross between Call of Duty and Half-Life, complete with the real world physics modeling. Ratchet followed next in a non-interactive first look at its PS3 debut. The camera panned out from a corridor to outside and then started to explore a massive futuristic city that looked very much like the early stuff shown for Final Fantasy XII. And nowhere was there anything to say it was Ratchet, except for a logo on an airship at the end and the style. 11:30 a.m. PST The final piece of the puzzle is the PS3 general business model, and it's a doozie with packaged media, network sales, episodic contents, in-game ads, subscriptions, mobile gaming, game object auctions and finally merchandising. And it includes an e-Distribution initiative that will have some games only available by download. Small game developers can contact Sony about these types of games at www.playstation.com/beyond. Along with the social networking, multimedia figures into the PS3's plans. There's the potential for going beyond the game with downloadable songs or videos from the games This is GREAT news! I can't wait for E3 this year...SONY will blow the roof off! 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jpillian Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Can you reserve one of these puppies yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSW Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Old news. And you should be able to reserve one in a few weeks at most places. Should be an e-bay sellers dream again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hail_to_Kessel Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 Old news. And you should be able to reserve one in a few weeksat most places. Should be an e-bay sellers dream again. lol..this isn't old news, the event happened today! lol here's the link: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3148951 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadkill Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 waaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hail_to_Kessel Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 waaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive Oh? you know the price of the PS3? You work for SONY? cause last i heard the pricing won't be revealed until June. If you believe any of the 'expert' reports about PS3 being too expensive i would take it with a grain of salt. Here's why: Blu-Ray is sold at a high rate because limited units are being manufactured and the drive is not bare. A bare BDROM drive with a price = cost and a million units manufactured will have a much lower cost. Bluetooth? give me a break. There are low cost cellphones with bluetooh even in Canada. The cost will be at minimum. ***Note that I assumed that the price will equal the cost, but usually large enterprises tend to sell a unit below the cost. They expect the additional unit to make up for the cost. In other words by reducing the price, the quantity demanded will increase. The PS3 will have a price akin to the PS2, because both had extremely expensive technologies. In fact the PS2 had extremely exotic and expensive GS and EE. Even though the Cell has an exotic design, the number being produced is really high (Nagasaki, Oita, Fishkill). The RSX has a much lower R&D cost than the GS since it already used many proven technologies from Nvidia. Also keep in mind that Sony never had the large manufacturing capabilities at 2000 like today in the semiconductor area. At first, Nagasaki was only manufacturing the GS while Toshiba took care of the EE. That cost could not be reduced to bare levels. Sony did not have the high level expertise like today nor did they receive much technology transfers to increase manufacturing efficiently like currently. Sony today will be able to really control the manufacturing of the PS3 and unlike with the PS2, the chances of manufacturing hiccups are much lower. Slows down can also lead to a spike in costs. Therefore the so called experts who think PS3 will be over 500 dollars make me laugh. SONY didn't become the leader in gaming overnight....they know what they are doing and will sell the PS3 at a very competive price. If not the same as the 360 premium price tag of $399.99 or a tad bit higher. Considering the PS3 will have more bang for your buck then the 360, i think it's worth the price tag. but that's just my :2cents: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 Can you reserve one of these puppies yet? at my local ebgames they started reserving them about 4 months ago. i got my reserved. $50 down. i should be one of the first to get it. im gonna sell that baby on ebay so fast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Weirdo Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 at my local ebgames they started reserving them about 4 months ago. i got my reserved. $50 down. i should be one of the first to get it. im gonna sell that baby on ebay so fast! Ding ding ding. Me too. I put $200 down on mine. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hooper Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I have a good friend who does graphics for various games like Call of Duty 2. He has a PS3 in his office -- a working version so he can develop games. He says there's pretty much no real difference between it and the 360 -- the specs are better, but it doesn't matter because developers are years away from coming up with games that would even fully harnass the 360's power. Thought that was interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I have a good friend who does graphics for various games like Call of Duty 2. He has a PS3 in his office -- a working version so he can develop games. He says there's pretty much no real difference between it and the 360 -- the specs are better, but it doesn't matter because developers are years away from coming up with games that would even fully harnass the 360's power. Thought that was interesting. yeah thats what everyone has been saying. if you have a really good graphics card on your computer, its pretty much the same quaility as the current 360 games. i wonder what game so far takes the most advantage of the 360's power? im gonna say COD2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hooper Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 Yeah. That or the new ghost recon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Guy. Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 i just got that...havent played it yet. im gonna check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNSTONE Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 You can try to reason why the price will be 400$ all you want. But Sony came out from the beginning and said the machine wasn't going to be cheap in price, because they said that Sony fans will buy it either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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