Is Sony going to shoot itself in the foot with the PS3?

[Stinkfinger]

Link

Hmm...let's see here...prohibitively costly hardware...check. Lack of development kits...check. Difficult to program...check. No hard drive out of the box...check.

Seems to me like they're really taking a gamble on this one. I know the PS2 is huge, but how many people are gonna shell out $500, $600, or $700 (speculation) for a console? Sounds like they're going to set themselves up for a 3DO like failure.

 

[clarkey01]

Only time will tell.

 

Originally posted by: Stinkfinger
Link

Hmm...let's see here...prohibitively costly hardware...check. Lack of development kits...check. Difficult to program...check. No hard drive out of the box...check.

Seems to me like they're really taking a gamble on this one. I know the PS2 is huge, but how many people are gonna shell out $500, $600, or $700 (speculation) for a console? Sounds like they're going to set themselves up for a 3DO like failure.

1) It's going to cost the same as the Xbox 360 (Sony's not that stupid).
2) The dev kits are out (did you Playstation day vids?).
3) Easy to program actually. OpenGL and OO libs for everything. Also Unreal 3.0 engine, Havok, and Ageia are available to devs.
4) Xbox 360 games don't need the HDD either. So any game-related advantage is moot. Yeah for storing network content it's nice, but not a deal breaker.

 

[Rickten]

no ps3 will not fail. I would bet it will do better than xbox360.

 

[skace]

Your post lacks serious content about THE GAMES which is how a console SUCCEEDS.

 

[Stumps]

nah, sony is too popular to fvck up big time

 

[Stinkfinger]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: Stinkfinger
Link

Hmm...let's see here...prohibitively costly hardware...check. Lack of development kits...check. Difficult to program...check. No hard drive out of the box...check.

Seems to me like they're really taking a gamble on this one. I know the PS2 is huge, but how many people are gonna shell out $500, $600, or $700 (speculation) for a console? Sounds like they're going to set themselves up for a 3DO like failure.

1) It's going to cost the same as the Xbox 360 (Sony's not that stupid).
Quote: Then Kutaragi issued a somewhat ominous warning. "I'm not going to reveal its price today. I'm going to only say that it'll be expensive,"

2) The dev kits are out (did you Playstation day vids?).
Quote: Kutaragi surprised the crowd by revealing that, to date, only 450 PS3 dev kits have been shipped worldwide. Sony plans to release an additional 200 units in August and 300 more in September, but most developers probably will have to wait until October, when the company will ramp up its production to 3,000 units per month.

3) Easy to program actually. OpenGL and OO libs for everything. Also Unreal 3.0 engine, Havok, and Ageia are available to devs.
Quote: Ever since the PS3's debut at E3, the biggest concern amongst publishers has been a rise in development costs due to the complexity of making games for the console. Currently, developers lack familiarity with the console's technology, such as how to use the seven synergistic processing elements (SPEs) of the PS3's Cell CPU. Those fears returned during the meeting, as Kutaragi showed the "duck in the bathtub" demo from E3 and explained it uses a total of 16 programs, including eight physics simulations and eight programmable shaders.

4) Xbox 360 games don't need the HDD either. So any game-related advantage is moot. Yeah for storing network content it's nice, but not a deal breaker.
True, but it still makes for one hell of a nice option.

 

1) Sony is infamous for hyping a product up for more than it's worth. This is just a tatic to get n00bs thinking they got a $599 console for $299.

2) The console launch is a year away. Microsoft devs just got their beta kits and the 360 launch is in four months. The big devs have been taken care of.

3) The Xbox 360 CPU is just as hard to program. For the first couple of years no dev is going to know how to take full advantage of the Cell or Xenon chip. The mind-numbingly hard PS2 programming is gone. The PS3 is much more dev friendly. All a dev has to do is license UE 3.0 and pop in Ageia and they are 50% there.

4) Yeah.

 

[40Hands]

I dont really care for Sony anyways.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: dwell
1) Sony is infamous for hyping a product up for more than it's worth. This is just a tatic to get n00bs thinking they got a $599 console for $299.

2) The console launch is a year away. Microsoft devs just got their beta kits and the 360 launch is in four months. The big devs have been taken care of.

3) The Xbox 360 CPU is just as hard to program. For the first couple of years no dev is going to know how to take full advantage of the Cell or Xenon chip. The mind-numbingly hard PS2 programming is gone. The PS3 is much more dev friendly. All a dev has to do is license UE 3.0 and pop in Ageia and they are 50% there.

4) Yeah.

I still don't follow your #3 point. Clearly, from this article and previous articles, the PS3 is a pain to program for, just as the PS2 is. And no, the XBox 360 is not as hard to develop for.

Did you not read any of the articles or watch any interviews about developers for the 360? They are prasing how EASY the 360 is to develop for. As for ps3, you only hear about how difficult it is to develop for.

And for your 1st point, you got one thing right ... sony hypes and doesn't deliver. Look at PS2 ... "Toy Story Graphics in real time!" ... yea, the PS2 wasn't even CLOSE ,even at the end of its life its not NEARLY that close. They even showed the infamous "old man's face" demo that was running in real time on PS2 hardware.

How about the multimedia network that PS2 promised, where you could download MP3's and AVI files to your PS2 hard drive? Or how about plugging in your digital camera via USB to your PS2 and having a media center on your PS2? where is all that stuff?

I used to be a PS2 fanboy, but after getting xbox live i haven't even played my ps2. however i have played God of War at a friends house, and I will admit, that is one of the best platformers I have ever played.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Stop pissing and moaning about the next gen consoles until they are actually out.

FFS! :|

 

[SALvation]

Sony could slap the Playstation name on a toaster and it would sell like hotcakes. Name recognition alone will guarantee that the PS3 will sell and be successful.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: SALvation
Sony could slap the Playstation name on a toaster and it would sell like hotcakes. Name recognition alone will guarantee that the PS3 will sell and be successful.

Introducing the new PS3! Toast your bread at 60 frames per second in high definition!

 

[733SHiFTY]

PC games own them both.

 

[PawNtheSandman]

Who cares, when do we get Madden 07?

 

[Alex]

i read somewhere that the PS3 will cost like $xxx to make and will be retailing for $xxx/2 or something (half the price) and that Sony would actually lose millions of dollars because of it...

frankly, i think the only reason why Xbox360 might fail was backwards compatiblity with Xbox games and i read today that all bestselling games and a handful of others will be make compatible so thats a non-issue... therefore, the Xbox 360 with its early launch, massive marketing and cool online features out of the box will be a major hit and will be on every kids xmas lists...

this time i think MS will own Sony and Nintendo...

 

[bootymac]

Originally posted by: 733SHiFTY
PC games own them both.

'nuff said

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: skace
Your post lacks serious content about THE GAMES which is how a console SUCCEEDS.

Agreed. Although hardware wise I do think the 360 is a more intelligent design.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
I used to be a PS2 fanboy, but after getting xbox live i haven't even played my ps2. however i have played God of War at a friends house, and I will admit, that is one of the best platformers I have ever played.

If you left PS2 because of Xbox Live then you bought the PS2 for the wrong reasons. The PS2 is not about online content at all. Infact, if you were looking for online content, PC games own the freaking hell out of Xbox Live in every way, shape and form. I'm playing BF2, CSS, WoW, EQ2, Auto Assault Beta, and Enemy Territory Fortress (ETF). Xbox Live simply cannot compete with that. Even when I get bored of those games, I can aim towards the little things like Tetrinet, Gunbound, mIRC Tanks, etc.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I think there's at least a chance Microsoft will win this round. Getting the console to market first is a huge deal. Sony is gambling with blu-ray (though presumably they know a lot of things we don't), as well as the PS3's various other costly features. MS will apparently have an 8-month jump on Sony, so Sony will really have to bring something special to catch up.

 

[imported_ArtVandalay]

Sorry if it's a silly question, but I haven't really been following all the hubbub - is the new xbox going to ship with a hard drive for $300?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: ArtVandalay
Sorry if it's a silly question, but I haven't really been following all the hubbub - is the new xbox going to ship with a hard drive for $300?

That's the word on the streets.

 

[brigden]

Originally posted by: DonVito
I think there's at least a chance Microsoft will win this round. Getting the console to market first is a huge deal. Sony is gambling with blu-ray (though presumably they know a lot of things we don't), as well as the PS3's various other costly features. MS will apparently have an 8-month jump on Sony, so Sony will really have to bring something special to catch up.

It never worked for Sega.

 

[tlam617]

only the cool rich kids will be able to afford this. I thinking that maybe around 95% of the the gains will net from them which is significant since the costs are going to be higher.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: brigden

It never worked for Sega.

Good point. Still, unlike Sega, MS has bottomless pots of cash to spend on promotion and exclusive developer licensing. I guess we'll see . . .