Sony Playstation3 News

  Playstation 3 News, Facts and Rumors!

We are continuing our Playstation 3 news coverage on a dedicated site that focuses exclusively on Playstation 3 news, facts and rumours:

PS3Focus.com!

"PS3 News that matters" is our motto. From press releases to pictures, we've got it all!

Playstation 3 release date confirmed!

We've recently found out that Sony’s next-generation Playstation 3 console will be released in Spring 2006 - it was confirmed by Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer at a recent SCE business strategy meeting. No word yet on whether the PS3 release will be staggered or simultaneous worldwide, but Sony looks set to continue its dominance of the Japanese market: a recent survey revealed that 72.3% of current-generation Japanese console owners said they would be buying the PS3 when it comes out.

PS3 news from the Tokyo Game Show 2005

Speaking of all things Japanese, the recent Tokyo Game Show revealed an impressive lineup of game titles under development for the PS3, such as Devil May Cry 4, Mobile Suit Gundam and Sonic the Hedgehog. Konami's "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" trailer and real-time demonstration were particularly impressive, showcasing the PS3's incredible graphical abilities. Unfortunately for fans of the MGS series, director Hideo Kojima has announced that MGS 4 will be the last in the series for himself and artist Yoji Shinkawa, both preferring to move onto other projects.

PS3 to support USB keyboard, mouse and PSP

PS3 gaming was also given another boost with the announcement that the Sony Playstation 3 will support keyboard and mouse gameplay - something that rival console manufacturer Microsoft has announced it will not be supporting. PC gamers looking to make the shift to console gaming will no doubt welcome Sony's move to support keyboard and mouse gameplay. The keyboard and mouse will connect to the console via USB, and it is currently unclear whether the console will allow the connection of any USB keyboard or mouse, or whether it will be restricted to authorised peripherals. Sony has also announced that its Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming device will connect to the PS3 via Bluetooth. The PSP will function as a remote control for the next-generation console, allowing PS3 users to browse files and folders without leaving the sofa. It will also be possible to transfer photos and films between the two devices. The PSP will not, however, function as a controller for the PS3.

Playstation 3 supported by Foxconn

According to the Taiwan Economic News on 6 July 2002, the Taiwanese electronics giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (FoxConn) is aiming at joint development with Sony for the Playstation 3 console. Foxconn president Terry Guo announced that Foxconn, which is the largest privately held company in Taiwan for its turnover, has formed a Research & Development team for PlayStation 3 with Sony. [Taipei, July 6 2002]

PS3 console to be released in 2006

Japanese media reported in May 2002 that the PS3 console is in development. The goal is to make new processor technology, called "grid" about 200x faster than current console technology. This is almost achieving their original goal of making the PS3 1000(!) times faster than the PS2. This goal was publically set by Mr Okamoto, the Senior VP and Chief Technical Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, at the 2002 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.

The heart of the Playstation3 will be a new chip (or rather chip set) developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The companies will collectively invest more than $400 million in the next five years to design a "supercomputer-on-a-chip" for the PS3. The name for this technology is "grid" (formerly called "cell") and appears to be targeted squarely at the possibilities of parallel and distributed computing over the internet. Grid computing is a variation of distributed computing, and presumably involves networked game machines sharing software, processing power and data. Okamoto also said that networking applications including downloadable software would be integral to Sony's Playstation3 console. A report from the Japanese News Agency Kyodo said that the Playstation 3 would work over superfast fiber optics connections and would be Sony's first console to run games without a digital video disc. Sony also is considering offering the new chip to other companies for use in televisions and electronics equipment, Kyodo said.

Kenshi Manabe, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Semiconductor division, said the Playstation3 will need memory with incredibly high speed and tens-of-gigahertz bandwidth. "I'm not sure that even what we have seen for DDR-II on the present (industry) memory roadmaps will be high enough performance for us."


"It's graphics, Jim... but not as we know it"

Richard Doherty, an analyst for Envisioneering, Seaford, N.Y., said that PS3 will not have a graphics engine as we know it. Instead, the Cell's architecture is likely to replace the traditional game console graphics processor model on which the Xbox and Gamecube are based, that use NVidia and ATI GPUs, respectively. The Playstation 3, as well as other applications that will use the Cell, will take advantage of the CPU's "self healing" capability. "Self-healing computers will be programmed not to go down," Doherty said. "Bus and processor areas are automatically corrected using a new meshed era redundancy technology." The Cell's compression engine, for example, will use a multi-processor engine to reconstruct missing pixels or other missing features due to glitches in a streaming PS3 game or video.

Sony's vision: PS3 as the all-encompassing home system?

If Sony's aspirations succeed, then the Playstation 3 will not be a pure video game console, but rather measure the amount of milk left in the fridge, record TV programs to hard-disk, automatically download new software, perform Tera-flop operations and a variety of other things. In short, if one can automate, computerize, network or electrify a process, then the PS3 should be able to take on the task.


"Playstation 3 Diet", anyone?

Today, a system like this sounds futuristic. A super-console, replacing TV, computer, game console and complete home electronics system in one wont be cheap. Rumors are making rounds that the PS3 will be sold in two versions, one that is the do-all Playstation 3 version with all the bells and whistles (perhaps including laying golden eggs as well?) and one that is, yikes(!), just a pure video game console.

Either way, the Playstation3 is still long away, and it may well be possible that the "super-do-it-all" version is eventually marketed under a different name. May we suggest Superstation? Or... Homestation? Here at psreporter.com, while not technophobic or fearing the future, we would feel more comfortable with a PS3 that does only one thing, but very well... to provide us with great video game experiences.

©2002 psreporter.com, The Playstation Reporter