Playstation Meeting Discussion Thread

So the cat is out of the bag.  Use this thread to share your thoughts on the new PS3 and PSP related announcements from Sony today.

I never expected the PS3 to launch in Spring, there was just too many unknowns and people hadn't seen the hardware yet.  Still it's pretty big news to see them confirm a 6-month delay.  I also knew that they would HAVE to launch the PS3 before the end of the year because giving MS 2 holiday seasons alone would have been disastrous.  Worldwide launch it is then.  Can they pull it off where MS had great difficulty?  Even if they do pull it off with exactly the numbers they're talking about (3 million at launch, so 1 million for each of US, Europe and Japan) there's going to be some massive massive shortages.  And from what we witnessed with the 360 launch some people are going to make tons of money off of eBay with these things.

For the other announcements especially with the online network I'm still taking a wait and see approach.  Sony has talked about online features before especially before the launch of the PS2 but those never materialized.  Of course with Xbox Live and all of that they have to take the online space far more serious, and they are putting some money where their mouth is by setting up data centers in the US, Europe and Japan.  The bullet-point list of online features matches exactly with what Xbox Live had when it first launched in 2002.  Since then MS has come a long way, especially with the PS3 how it's been so well integrated with the machine.  It remains to be seen if Sony can match the sophistication and polish as the 360 version of Live, I do think there's a good chance though since the PSP software is pretty well designed and undergoes constant updates.

The last big piece of PS3 news is the hard drive.  There's definitely some new information regarding the Hard drive because Sony is now saying it is mandatory/required for proper functionality of the machine.  But we still don't know for sure if a hard drive is going to be included or not.  It could just be required in a similar way that a memory card is required with the PS2 and Gamecube, but have to be purchased separately. 

Either way, included or not, the machine with the hard drive is most likely going to be one expensive piece of equipment when all is said and done.  More expensive than the premium version of the 360 + the announced HD-DVD drive?  Probably not.  And the PS3 will definitely be cheaper than most of the other Blu-Ray players out on the market at the same time, so that's saying something as well.  We probably won't find out what's going to be included in the box, how many versions of the system we'll see, and the final launch price until a month or so to release.

As for the PSP announcements, I'm not really sure what to make of them.  I'm not a handheld gamer by any means, the last time I played one was when I owned the original gameboy 15 years ago.  I do think the whole PSP webbrowser is really cool though, and the GPS unit should come in handy for people that go on road trips and that kind of thing, especially if they can integrate the GPS with some kind of mapping system.

The new camera is pretty cool, I don't really see how it'd be useful from a gaming perspective as more than a simple gimmick, especially since it's on the go.  But it could be cool to convert the PSP into a digital camera.  If you already have a PSP and carry it around with you, you just have to purchase some $50 add-on and you have a decent, if funny looking, camera as well.  You already have the screen, memory, connection to the computer, etc, so it works ok in that aspect.

As for the PS1 emulation, I don't see the big deal.  In fact I never really saw the attraction of old classic games being played on new systems.  Even with Xbox Live Arcade I always just download/buy/play the original new games that developers have created and not the old ones.  I guess it's cool if there are some childhood games you missed, but really, the games that you wanted to play back then you probably already have.  And the PSP is already considered by some as a house of PS2 ports, so this is kind of a step backwards in that sense!  Still it's pretty cool, as there are some sweet 2D fighters for the PSOne, and those don't really ever get old.

Is the PS3 curved? That seems like a misstep to me. I think it's cool that the xbox 360 allows you to have the console standing vertically or horizontally. With the PS3, you'll only have one option and I find that a lot of people prefer to have the console sitting with the rest of their boxes (read: horizontal).

The PS3 can be set in both orientations.  Vertical and horizontal.  While shaped somewhat like a cylinder the one side of the curved part has a boxy part and that's what it rests on in the horizontal position.  Like this..