According to In-Stat, the year-long head start the 360 will have on the PS3 will not change the fact that the PS3 will be the leader in the next gen console wars. By 2010 they predict that the PS3 will have a 50.2% market share, the 360 will have a 28.6% market share, and the Revolution will have 21.2% share.

Makes me wonder about their forcasting methods. They can actually forcast these things down to one decimal place. The wasi-hoosy stick they use to predict the future must be highly polished for something like that.

Take it with a grain of salt, folks, I’m just reporting the news.

BetaNews - Despite Delay, the PS3 Still Wins

I’ve mentioned the PS3’s inclusion of a 60GB HDD, but I haven’t made any comments of my own on the fact. First, let’s recap, from the slide at the business briefing.

• 60GB 2.5″ HDD
• Upgradeable
• Enhance Game Play
• Network Game/Application
• Powerful Network Platform
• Full Internet Access
• Home Server
• LINUX OS

First off, I’m worried about how much disk space the Linux OS will take up. I hope it’s not too much - I’ll be wanting to store lots of game demos and HD trailers on this thing. But since my Windows XP installation is about 5GB, I’m not too worried. I doubt that a version of Linux targetted specifically to the PS3 will take up more space than the general purpose Windows XP. I’ve heard that for games the PS3 will use its own proprietary OS. Now that I know that Linux will be included in the system, I have to wonder about that. But either way, the inclusion of Linux is cool. Lots of people out there know how to program in the Linux environment, and that can only help the PS3.

Second, I just think this is pretty cool. Playing Xbox games at my friend’s place was nice for two reasons: Project Gotham Racing and quick game saves. The memory card has always been a pain in the butt and it will be nice to be able to save games on the HDD for its speed and its spaciousness. At one point I was worried that any HDD for the PS3 wouldn’t be used for games but rather for movie clips and the like. But one point on the slide clearly says “Enhance Game Play”, so it’s good to know the HDD can be used by games.

And third, it’s great that developers can count on its existence. Sony and Microsoft has traded this advantage with this generation of consoles. Last time around developers could count on the HDD in the Xbox, now they’ll be able to know it’s in the PS3. This is a great gift to developers and I’m sure that every singly one of them were happy to find out that the PS3 will include an HDD. (Well, they would be happy from a development viewpoint. They’re probably also hoping it doesn’t price the PS3 into the stratosphere.)

I’m sure some people will spin the HDD inclusion as being a bad move on Sony’s part. But I think they’ll be grasphing at straws. The HDD inclusion is a good thing all around, and I’ll willingly pay for its existence in the PS3 I buy.

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said the following in an interview:

Any announcement about PS3 will affect Nintendo. But we don’t see it as a competition between the two consoles, although the customers always do.

I think that maybe he should change his viewpoint a little, because this dude is gonna get smoked otherwise. I think he’s confusing the fact that the PS3 and Revolution will have different kinds of games with the fact that consumers only have so many dollars to spend on video gaming entertainment.

I and several friends of mine each have just one console from the current generation. Now I don’t know their reasons, but I know mine. It’s because I can’t afford to buy more than one consoles and its controllers and its games. Nor do I have the room next to my television for all that clutter. And while many people will buy more than one system, there will be many many people who will buy only one.

Sony wants it to be the PS3, and Nintendo better realize that.

Audioholics - No competition, says Miyamoto

Just to avoid any confusion, Sony has cleared up what’s going on with the 60GB HDD. Mr. Ken on Wednesday said that the HDD would be required, but did not say whether or not it would be included.

Sony has now said that yes, the 60GB HDD will come with each PS3 sold. And that it’s upgradable.

Yahoo! - PS3 will have hard drive as standard [PS3]

Taking a look at the HDMI slide shown at the PS3 business briefing, something pops out at me.

The HDMI specification that the PS3 will be using won’t be released until June 2006. Maybe all this talk of BD (Blu-ray Disc) being the reason for the PS3’s delay is just part of the story. (Or, to be more accurate, it’s the AACS system BD and HD DVD will use that’s the problem.)

So we have both HDMI and AACS slowing down the PS3’s release. Ah well, at least it gives Sony some time to polish the heck out of the thing.

Image Shack - PlayStation Briefing Slide on HDMI

Gavin has released PS3 Countdown podcast #14, probably because of yesterday’s big announcement! Check it out.

PS3 Countdown 14

The PS3 will be released simultaneously in Asia, North America, and Europe, early this November. Link. North Americans and Europeans were worried that we might not see the PS3 until next year, but that’s not going to happen. I wonder how bad the shortages will be…

Here are the PS3 (and some PSP) updates from the press conference.

PS3 Update: Sony will release “one million units per month with a total of six million units in 2006 alone. Production numbers are higher for PS1 and PS2 in their initial years.”

PSP Update: ‘Starting this fall, the PSP will use RSS channel features. Video and voice-over-IP will release in October in “motion jpg” format. The PSP’s own version of the EyeToy will launch a month earlier in September and the peripheral will feature EyeToy Play and video chat. The camera is sliver and it attaches to the USB port.’

PSP Update: ‘The PSP will also include a GPS receiver with an update rate of once every second with a 40-second fix time from a cold start. Minna no Golf (Hot Shots Golf) will be a GPS launch title.’

PSP Update: ‘Macromedia Flash will be included with a spring Network update.’

PSP Update: ‘ …the PSP will see “E-Distrubution” features added sometime in the future. Users will be able to boot software directly from their Memory Stick, all official-like this time around (you know what I mean). The first major announcement for use of this will be a series of PSOne games - yes, you will be able to download classic PlayStation titles and play them on your PSP.’

PS3 Update: ‘Sony today announced that not only is the PlayStation 3 to be 100% backwards compatible, but all legacy titles played on the system will be displayed at high-definition resolutions. The Xbox 360 currently does the same thing and the result on that end is much sharper image quality for older games.’ Link

PS3 Update: All PlayStation 3 games will ship on Blu-ray to help prevent piracy. In other words, no “cheap” DVD releases; Blu-ray only. Of course, it’ll still play PS2 and movies on DVD, but all PS3 releases will be on Blu-ray. The company expects initial BD-ROM production to reach 2.5 million in Japan and Europe and 5 million in the US. Link

PS3 Update: As part of the PlayStation Business Brief today in Tokyo, Ken Kutaragi confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will require the hard drive peripheral. In total, it will be 60GB big, be completely upgradeable, and support Linux OS. Additionally, the peripheral will act as a home server and allow users to store various forms of media to be pulled up elsewhere. Interestingly, Kutaragi didn’t confirm if the system will actually ship with a hard drive or not — just that it’s required. It’s semantics, we know, but we thought that it was worth pointing out. Link

PS3 Update: SCE president Ken Kutaragi confirmed that the final PS3 development kits will be shipping out to production houses in June. Additionally, there are 15 different companies making tools and middleware for the SDK. For frequent readers of this site, you may be interested to know that the technology folks in IGN.com’s parent company IGN Entertainment (aka GameSpy Technologies) are contributing to the network solution. Link

PS3 Update: Beginning at the system’s launch, currently scheduled for sometime this November, the system will feature community tools including lobby matching and voice chat, commerce features that includes bootable software via the hard drive. The service was created with the help of Sony Online Entertainment. Best of all, the “basic” service will be free of charge. Link The online environment will be called “PlayStation Network Platfrom”.

PS3 Update: Ken Kutaragi has just added another infamous quote to his belt, this time stating that PS3 games are “live” and that the PS3 concept is “4D”. He claims that games have gone from 8-bit to 16-bit planes, to the “space” that you saw on the PS1/PS2, and now PS3 will be “live”. Link

That’s it! No news on games. No news on price. But a lot of news on everything else.

Are you happy with the amount of new news? Answer in the online poll in the sidebar.

From 1up.com:

Today, Sony officially conceded defeat to the recent flurry of rumors and speculation, with Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reporting the company has confirmed the machine has been pushed back until November.

There aren’t many details out right now, but Sony says copy protection technology related to their Blu-ray disc drive is the cause of the delay.

As the news is coming out of Japan, that creates a worrisome scenario for America and Europe. There was already rumblings Sony wouldn’t be able to launch in all territories before the end of the year, but missing out on the Christmas season over here could prove a deadly blow to Sony’s next-generation plans.

Not an official source. But maybe it’s true. In which case we’ll probably find out for sure tomorrow.

But it does seem fishy. If they can release BD players on May 23rd, why can’t they release the PS3?

1UP.com - Sony Delays PlayStation 3

Ever notice that people are complaining that Sony is diluting the PS3 with extra stuff that’s not gaming related? Things like several memory card readers, a Blu-ray drive, Bluetooth, and stuff like that. What is Sony thinking with all that home media center stuff? Just stick to gaming man!

Personally I don’t care if Sony puts all that stuff in there. It could be fun to use! And adding a DVD player to the PS2 didn’t hurt any. The strange thing is that people seem to suggest that Microsoft is sticking to the core theme of gaming with the 360 while it’s Sony that’s going off the deep end.

I was reminded of how wrong this viewpoint is by this Next Generation article about Microsoft’s Xbox 360 positioning. Microsoft stated that 360 was designed “to create a living entertainment experience powered by human energy.” How’s that for straying away from the core theme of gaming?

The fact is, both Sony and Microsoft are trying to dominate both the family room and the gaming room with their new consoles. And personally I don’t have a problem with that. I plan to use my PS3 as a BD player, a game machine, and a media center. So there, I said it, and I’m proud of it.

So the poll basically asks if you plan to use the PS3’s media center capabilities. It’s in the sidebar, please vote.

Next Generation - The Weekly Marketing Column: Xbox 360

I previously said that the March 15th event was for PS3 developers only. Now Sony has changed their mind.

Sony has now said that they will allow media and analysts to attend the meeting tomorrow. The famous Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi will be there, but we don’t know the details of what will be discussed.

With all the speculation about the launch of the PS3, people are hoping that Sony will give away some details at this meeting tomorrow. Three of the biggest unknowns everyone is waiting for are the console price, the release date, and the release territory or territories.

We’ve all been so let down in the past, and this event seems like such a last-minute thing, that I’m not getting my hopes up too much. I don’t think we’ll get the big three questions answered, though we might find out other interesting things.

This meeting will be in Tokyo at 3:00pm Japanese time on Wednesday, March 15, 2006. That’s 1am EST, using this little timezone calculator.

CNET News - PS3 details eyed as Sony opens meeting

How do you want to get your stuff? Would you differentiate between your cheaper stuff and more expensive stuff? And by “stuff” I means things like music, videos, movies, and games. So far I’ve resisted buying music online, preferring instead to buy the physical CD and burning it. It just feels so much more safe and satisfying to me.

So to answer my own question, I like to physically buy my stuff. At least, the stuff I plan to keep. The stuff I plan to use and throw away (like a movie rental) I don’t have any problems with getting online. But what about cheapo games? Xbox Live users can currently download cheaper, smaller games for their Xbox 360 to their HDD and play them from there. I don’t know how comfortable I’d be with that, but I might give it a try on the PS3. What’s that? Yup, Sony’s planning something like that for the PS3 too.

Several senior developers have confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that they have spoken informally with Sony about the question of digital distribution on consoles, although these discussions were described as being “purely about technology, not business models” by one source.

However, even the technology discussed could be very revealing regarding the Japanese giant’s plans for the coming years - with one source from the development arm of a major third-party publisher claiming that Sony has been discussing the technical feasibility of providing PSone and PS2 titles over digital distribution with them.

This could indicate that Sony is hoping to provide a service for the PS3 similar to Nintendo’s Revolution digital download system, which will allow users to access a back catalogue of Nintendo titles through the next-generation console.

I think that my reticence towards buying stuff online may be age related. How do you younger folk out there view this debate?

GamesIndustry.biz - Sony planning major move into digital distribution