PlayStation 3: Home for Christmas
LOS ANGELES รณ Sony said Monday that it will roll out the PlayStation 3, the long-awaited successor to the world’s most popular video-game system, in time for the holidays.
In a presentation in advance of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony announced it will ship the powerful new system to North America on Nov. 17.
The price will be $499 for a system with a detachable 20GB hard drive, and $599 for one with a 60GB hard drive. Sony plans to have 4 million available by year’s end worldwide. “PlayStation 3 is the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken,” says Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment.
The PS3 will play PS2 games, as well as titles from the original PlayStation, CDs, DVDs and new high-definition movie discs. The PS3 also will connect to Sony’s handheld PlayStation Portable (PSP) and will include a wireless, motion-sensing controller.
The wireless controller was demonstrated with a launch game called Warhawk, an aerial combat game with futuristic planes zipping through clouds and over water. Other games include Tekken 6, Stranglehold (a game by film director John Woo), Ridge Racer 7, Final Fantasy XIII, Virtua Fighter 5 and Call of Duty 3.
One racing game shown used the PSP as an “interactive wing mirror.”
“You can position this next to your TV screen and see what’s coming up behind you,” said Sony’s Phil Harrison.
An online game network also will allow voice and text messaging. “The goal is to create a virtual society or community,” says Hirai.
PlayStation 3 was originally due in stores in spring, but development delays forced Sony to push back the introduction. The delay gives a yearlong head start to Microsoft’s $300-and-up Xbox 360, which was introduced in November and is still in short supply. Microsoft has sold 3.2 million units worldwide, 1.8 million in the USA.
Nintendo’s Wii (pronounced “we”) system, which is expected to be less expensive than either the 360 or the PS3, and which comes with an innovative controller, is to be unveiled at a news conference today.
Complicating this next generation of consoles is an underlying battle over high-definition video-disc formats. PS3 games will be on the new Blu-ray Disc format, and the system will play Blu-ray high-definition movies. Microsoft plans to market an add-on drive that will play movies in the competing HD DVD format championed by Toshiba with supporting studios Warner, Universal and Paramount.
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