PS3: Sony's Various Ups and Downs. But Mostly Downs.

By Xenoveritas, 8 July, 2006
Topics
PlayStation 3

Amaril

18 years 5 months ago

The silly thing is for me... that their launch titles don't even wow me the same way as Wii's launch titles do. How can they hope to compete with Mario, Zelda, and Metroid together, along with the other titles being released at launch. Seems like they don't understand what people expect the PS3 to be, and are attempting to *tell* people what they want.

And also... hi Xeno. I'm guessing you don't play FFXI anymore, but I thought I'd stop by and say hi. xD

-Amaril

This is starting to get to be ridiculous. It all started with the announcement that we could expect the "cheap" PS3 to cost $500, and has continued to spiral downhill from there. So here's my attempt at a list of everything we currently know about the PS3:

  • The "cheap" version is severely crippled, missing the HDMI output that allows high-def Blu-Ray movies, and cannot be upgraded to fix this flaw.
  • Blu-Ray looks substantially worse than HD-DVD.
  • The PS3 memory architecture is such that only half can be read by the main CPU.
  • The cell's core processor (PPC) and its sub-processors (SPEs) use different architectures, requiring two different tool sets to properly use the PS3's CPU.
  • The PS3's controller removes support for force feedback, removing support that has existed since the original PlayStation and meaning that the PS3 cannot be completely backwards compatible with the previous PlayStation generations.

And now for some fun with Sony representatives explaining why the PS3 doesn't really suck.

  • "It's cheap if you don't think of it as a console!" According to Sony, we should either think of it as a cheap Blu-Ray player or a computer.
  • "It's actually too cheap!" - As reported in GameDaily

Plus, rumors (which I've previously mentioned) suggest that the PS3 will likely be downgraded further before it is released. Yes, that's right: the $600 pricetag will remain, but the specs are almost certainly going to be cut.

I'm sure I've got more to add to this list, but this is what I've got so far. Why anyone would want this console is beyond me.