IGN got their grubby little hands on a Revolution controller development kit that plugs into a GameCube. I guess they’re still working on that Revolution hardware! Anyway, IGN gives their impressions, and one of the ones that really stand out is how small the controller is. Its length is no wider than the width of a GameCube controller, which is pretty small. I thought it would be at least half-again as big.

The IGN has more details, but it really doesn’t amount to much. Take a peek if you’re interested anyway.

IGN: Hands-on: Revolution Dev Kit

That March 15th event I mentioned yesterday? It turns out that this will be a publishers-only event, kind of like Destination PlayStation. Which, if you’ll all remember with me, gave us no PS3 information whatsover.

But, even if Sony does reveal anything to publishers, I don’t hold up any hope that there will be leaks for us to mull over.

GameSpot - New PS3 details next week?

Sony has clarified that in no way have they commited to a 3-way Japanese, North American, and European simultaneous release. This clarification comes after some hints from David Reeves that this may indeed be in the offing. Reeves had said that “it is my job to match day and date with the US launch; I am doing my best to make that happen.” But Sony man Nick Sharples quickly cleared up the confusion, saying “He was referring to the fact that as boss of the European organisation, it’s his job and his responsibility to try and get PlayStation 3 into Europe as quickly as he possibly can. That’s what he’s trying to achieve.” But just because that’s Reeves’ job, that doesn’t mean that it’ll happen, most probably just due to logistics.

GamesIndustry.biz - Sony “definitely not” committing to simultaneous US, Euro launch for PS3

Okay folks. Want some PlayStation 3 news when GDC arrives? My friend Joshua is actually going to be at the Phil Harrison keynote at GDC. If the theater supports wireless and if all the stars line up properly, he’ll be instant messaging me what Phil Harrison says as he says it, and I’ll post about it right away, right here. You’ll know as I know, right after Phil says it.

Now let’s hope the batteries are charged, that the connection doesn’t get lost, that I don’t have to be in a meeting, that my server doesn’t fail, and all those other things that might go wrong don’t actually happen. I’ve never done anything like this before, so hopefully everything will work out.

Oh, and I didn’t ask Joshua permission to tell all of you this, so I hope he doesn’t kill me if for some reason this doesn’t work out… He’s such a nice guy!

Be here! March 22nd.

Ever watch Charlie Brown? Ever see Lucy hold the football nicely on the ground, telling poor old Chucky that yes, this time she would indeed hold the ball still? And every time, every single time, that frickin Lucy pulls the ball anyway, gifting Chuck with a trip, flip, and smack on the back? With that big head and small little feat, you know that poor abused kid will be stuck there like a turtle, flailing away as Lucy points and laughs.

I feel like Charlie Brown sometimes. And this time Lucy is Kotaku. Kotaku is reporting that someone said something about some possible PlayStation 3 announcement next week.

Do we believe it? No!
Do we believe it? No!
Do we believe it? Crap…

Kotaku - PS3 Unveiling on March 15th?

So this keynote by Phil Harrison. You know the one. At the upcoming GDC conference? Yeah, that’s the one. Everyone’s thinking that Sony’s had so many opportunities recently to give up some goods on the PS3 and they haven’t done it. Why should the GDC be any different?

Why?

Because GDC Director Jamil Moledina says so!! That’s why!

BIZ: What can you tell us about Phil Harrison’s keynote? Will we finally get some new information on the PlayStation 3?

JM: The answer is yes. In general, platform providers have a unique opportunity at the GDC to share knowledge with and inspire the people who will make or break their consoles, namely the game developers themselves. With that in mind, this GDC keynote, along with the Nintendo keynote by Satoru Iwata, have both been in development for several months, and contain significant editorial value and developer takeaway. I strongly encourage you to attend both platform keynotes.

Let’s just hope it’s real news like release dates, games, price, controller. And not things like how many transistors the RSX will have.

GameDaily.biz - Talkin’ GDC with Jamil Moledina

Funny that I complain about all the press about a PS3 delay, then the next post I have is about just that. But this rumour sounds interesting, so I thought I’d mention it. Taiwanese manufacturer COMPEQ will supposedly be manufacturing boards for the PS3. And according to a Chinese website, Mydrivers, a deep throat at the company said that they would begin production by June or July.

Hmmm….

the Inquirer - PS3 manufacturing to kick off in June

Every day I check the media outlets for news that I might find interesting. I am constantly being inundated with reports of the PS3’s delay, and it’s starting to get pretty tiring. If true, it means that Sony will delay the release of the PS3 by several months. Which is nothing compared to what many other products get delayed by.

So I’m getting just a little tired of hearing about this, and am wondering if you all feel the same. Vote in my new poll in the sidebar.

[Edit: and before you accuse me of feeding the frenzy, if you only knew how many articles there are out there about this, and how few of them I mention, you wouldn’t bring it up. I just try to mention the ones that (a) have facts or (b) are too proposterous not to respond to.]

[Edit: I’ve made some additions to my article about the lack of proof of a PS3 delay. Check it out.]

Dean Calver, a developer at Ninja Theory, makers of Heavenly Sword, has a nice post about memory management on the PlayStation 3. Nothing that says “holy duck-on-a-rope Batman!” or anything like that. Just a couple little thoughts that I personally found interesting. Like the fact that textures, geometry, animation, and sound data take up about 300MB of the available 512MB. And that he confirms a PS3 operating system (the PS2 didn’t really have one - you programmed to the metal, as it were). He also mentions how hard fitting all the stuff needed into 512MB will be.

Which makes me think that it would be a smart move on Sony’s part to increase the PS3’s RAM to 768MB. After all, it’s going to be an expensive system anyway, so what’s a couple extra bucks? Especially when it’ll make the developers so happy that you just increased the amount of memory they have by 50%. Plus it would be a nice strategic move against the Xbox 360, which has 512MB. I’m willing to pay an extra couple bucks for 768MB. Anyone else?

[Edit: c|net estimates that the cost of 512MB of RAM for the PS3 would cost $65. So to increase it to 768MB would cost an extra $32.50.]

Deano’s Home From Home - Memory Management

The link to the Destination PlayStation website is conveniently down, but I’m sure the itinerary for the event included discussions about the PS3. But according to Sony, no PS3 info was ever meant for the event:

For its part, Sony is saying that, contrary to popular perception, they never intended to show the PS3 at DPS. “DPS is actually over and we have made no new announcements concerning PS3,” a rep told GameSpot. “We never indicated that DPS was to be used as a forum to disclose new information or demonstrate PS3 content. DPS is designed as a forum to bring our retail and publishing partners together for new-year planning and this is the sixth conference we have hosted to do so.”

That’s just odd. Did anyone else visit the Destination PlayStation website and see an itinerary? Weren’t there things on it about the PS3? They were all very technical-sounding things, and maybe none of it would have been of interest to eventual PS3 gamers, but it was there nonetheless. And now Sony is saying it wasn’t. Which is just downright weird. Sony has to get their act together and start doing some damage control. Previously it was others causing all the problems, but now we’re getting conflicting info from Sony itself. Not a good thing.

GameSpot - PS3 a no-show at Destination PlayStation?

With all the headlines buzzing around the net today about Stringer confirming a delay, I thought I’d point out that Stringer has not confirmed anything about the PS3’s release date, except that it will be before the end of the year. Which we knew already. So move along, nothing to see.

[Edit: Here is the quote from the Variety article:

Now, electronics and games can take center stage, although major questions loom at those divisions as well.

Sony’s new PlayStation 3 was widely expected to be introduced this spring, but will be delayed as the company fine-tunes the chips that are crucial to the success of the console’s Blu-ray function.

The PlayStation 3 — which is being called “the poor man’s Blue-ray” — is vital to Sony’s plans because it plays Blu-ray discs as well as videogames.

Sony will roll out the PS3 by year end, in time for the holidays. If PS3 “delivers what everyone thinks it will, the game is up,” Stringer boasts.

Note that it’s the writer of the article that says the PS3 will be delayed. Stringer himself doesn’t say it. And as a pointer to how accurate this writer is in doing her research, here’s another quote from the article:

One strange twist in the battle is that Toshiba is working with Sony and IMB to produce the cell chip that’s the foundation of Blu-ray

Which is patently false. Cell is not the foundation of Blu-ray. So how much can you trust this lady? Not a lot.]

Computer And Video Games - STRINGER: “PS3 - THE GAME IS UP!”