Howard Stringer, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SCEA says the price of the PS3 is a high risk strategy but “if the PS3 lives up to its total potential, then I don’t think anyone will be worried about Nintendo or Xbox’s cheaper price.”

He also believes that movie makers are “beginning to sense, in Blu-ray, that the pendulum is swinging and swinging for a clear reason.” He also believes Blu-ray’s higher storage capacity could be the key in the next-gen war & went on to say “Do you go for a cheaper transitional [format], or do you take a chance on future-proof, higher technology which will keep you going for many, many years?”

I’ve said before that although the PS3 price is high I view it as being value for money with what you get in the box & I’m willing to pay the price. Whether I buy it at launch or some other time in the future remains to be seen.

With regards to BD & HD-DVD, I just wish they would join forces so non-PS3 owners know where they stood instead of worrying about buying a next-gen DVD player that could end up as being an expensive ornament.

As a future PS3 owner, the one thing that I don’t have to worry about with BD is it is being used for PS3 games so I don’t have to worry about it failing as the next-gen DVD format of choice as it will still be used for gaming regardless. If BD wins I will already have a BD player (a basic one but a BD player nonetheless) & if HD-DVD wins I can simply buy a HD-DVD player when I feel the time is right in the future.

C&VG - PS3 Price is a High-risk Strategy

SL33PY sent this little rumour in, and I found it quite interesting. And you may be wondering why you see an image of Minority Report to the right. Wait for it, the reason is coming!

Here it goes: it looks like Sony might be preparing a special weapon for the next-gen console war. It takes the form of an EyeToy like device (or maybe it uses the EyeToy?) to take a look at you and your surroundings, and create a 3D model in its “mind” about everything it sees. Then this information can be used for by a game to allow the gamer some interaction with game elements.

The way our, very reliable, source was reminded of Minority Report has to do with a scene in the movie in which a user manipulates a computer screen using special gloves; only with this tech you do not need the gloves. This reminds us of what Gesture Tek have hinted is possible with XBox 360 but taken one big step further.

It sounds a lot like what EyeToy does already, at first. But you have to remember that this new functionality is 3D, which should open up a whole new realm of ideas and possibilities. Where the EyeToy couldn’t really tell if you moved your arm towards your TV and back, this new device would be able to.

Thoughts?

MegaGames - PS3 Secret Hardware Revealed

HDMI 1.3 gives us several things that previous versions did not. First off, there’s advanced audio codec support for Dolby DD+, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD. These are all formats supported by BD (Blu-ray Disc) and HD DVD. As well, HDMI 1.3 also supports deeper colour depths, which the PlayStation 3 is rumoured to support. Single-link bandwidth increases from 4.95 Gb/s at 165 MHz to 10.2 Gb/s at 340 MHz.

The PS3 will be one of (if not the) first devices to support HDMI 1.3. This is probably one of the reasons the PS3 was delayed until November, because the HDMI 1.3 spec has only now been officially released.

What does that mean for us gamers? It means that the PS3 is ready for the future. HDMI 1.3 has everything you need for proper BD and 1080p support. Both of which are PS3 technologies. So the HDMI 1.3 connection standard gives you everything the PS3 is capable of, unlike previous versions of HDMI. The only problem, of course, is that if the PS3 is the first HDMI 1.3 device, then obviously you won’t yet have other HDMI 1.3 devices to work with it, like a receiver or display. But the PS3 will still work nicely with those things for now. The ultimate reality, though, is to have one HDMI 1.3 cable going from your PS3 to your receiver or pre/pro. And one HDMI 1.3 cable going from your receiver or pre/pro to your HDTV. No more messing around with component, optical, or RCA cables. Ah, that’ll be the day!

So when are HDMI 1.3 receivers and preamp/processors going to support HDMI 1.3? That’s a good question. I haven’t seen a single announcement in this regard. But I’ll keep my ears open and tell you when I see one.

TG Daily - HDMI 1.3 multimedia interface officially introduced

TheStreet.com has an interview with SCEA’s co-chief operating officer, Jack Tretton, & a few interesting comments were made by Mr Tretton.

When asked how Sony plans to catch up with the 360’s possible 6-10m units head start by the time the PS3 launches Jack Tretton replied with:

Well, we’ve never been first to market in any generation. It ultimately came down to the system and what consumers preferred. At the end of the day, what you do in the first year, and whether you do 6 or 10 million units does not determine whether you’re successful or not. We’re looking to sell 100 million-plus worldwide. We’re looking to sell 50 million plus in North America.

So, if a competitor gets to 6 to 10 million worldwide, I would not consider that to be a significant advantage or a significant disadvantage as far as we’re concerned.

I’m not bothered who sells the most units. I’m pretty sure the PS3 will outsell the 360 & Wii in the long run but that isn’t important to me. I haven’t got shares in Sony so I won’t get rewarded financially if Sony sells 100m PS3s. I know some people are bothered by who sells the most units though.

Then when asked if GTA IV being available for both the PS3 & 360 would harm sales of the PS3 Mr Tretton replied with:

There’s no question that having the GTA franchise helped us a lot and helped us sell some units, but I don’t think the battle would be any different with or without GTA.

If you look at our first-party library and the franchises that we’ve brought to market over the course of PlayStation 2, we have a very formidable first-party library of exclusive software that will help define us.

Hmm he has a point although GTA is a huge name & will sell millions of units on whichever console/s it’s on, I doubt any one game would win or lose a console war. I’m getting a PS3 because of a combination of games that are available for it (MGS4, FFXIII, DMC4 etc) & not for any one gaming franchise. If GTA IV was only available on the 360 it wouldn’t make me buy a 360 just to play that game. Plus Sony have done well with it’s first-party games in the past & I’m sure they will go from strength to strength on the PS3.

TheStreet.com - Sony’s Playing to Win

1up.com has yet another interview with Phil Harrison. This one is a bit old too, coming from between the Game Developer’s Conference and E3. But there was still some interesting tidbits in there. Like how the networking platform will play out. Phil says that the Sony model is more open than Microsoft’s.

On one side, you’ve got Microsoft or AOL, with their “walled garden” approach. And on the other extreme, you’ve got Google or the open Internet, with uncontrolled, unregulated access to all. And where do we sit on that continuum? Well, it’s definitely more the [Google] way than the [Microsoft] way.

This kind of open architecture could attract developers like Blizzard, who have said that they wouldn’t port World of Warcraft to Xbox Live because they couldn’t have control over their own servers.

There was also an interesting conversatioin about user-created content:

the next concentric ring out is user-created content, which might [entail] making tools available where the user can download them.

So imagine whole modding communities springing up around PS3 console games. Wouldn’t that be cool?

The Overlord: Phil Harrison Talks Sony, PS3 and the Future

I’ve been thinking about which 5 games I would most like to get my hands on when I finally get a PS3 & I have to admit it was a difficult choice to choose 5 but I managed in the end.

1. Assassin’s Creed. I haven’t seen any in-game footage of it yet but I really want this game. It looks fantastic from the images that I have seen in OPS2M & everything I hear about the game sounds great. Of course it could end up being a complete turkey & be the biggest disappointment since The Bouncer (I shudder at the mere mention of that name). Or it could be absolutely fantastic! Fingers crossed it’s the latter.

2. GTA IV. Yep you’re probably surprised it isn’t my no.1 choice but it’s only no.2 because I don’t know anything about it. Wherever it’s set & whatever new gameplay elements R* North have in-store for us I’m sure I will spend 100s of hours messing around listening to the in-game radios & causing mayhem & carnage with next-gen visuals to boot. 2007 can’t come soon enough!

3. DMC4. Words can’t express how much I loved DMC1. No game on PS2 has kept me going back for more, not even GTA:SA. If Capcom can combine the atmosphere, attitude of Dante & Boss characters from DMC1 with the combat styles of DMC3 I will be one very happy gamer!

4. Resi 5. Oh man how I loved Resi 4! It rejuvenated a stale series (which I loved & the original Resi 1 on PSone is still my favourite Resi game) with it’s over the shoulder targeting & action orientated gameplay & ever since the little trailer that was shown off last year I’ve been waiting patiently for some more footage or info. Apparently Resi 5 will be drastically different from Resi 4 so The Tokyo Game Show can’t come soon enough!

5. This one was a tough choice but in the end I plumped for Mercenaries 2. I loved the sandbox in a warzone gameplay of Mercs 1 & with the little clips of footage that I’ve seen on the Mercs 2 website I’m drooling at the prospect of having Mercs 2 to tide me over until GTA IV is released. To be fair to Mercs though the first game was the only GTA “clone” that was as much fun to play as the GTA games & I’m sure Mercs 2 will be of the same ilk.

Special mentions also go to THP8, FFXIII, next-gen Pro Evolution Soccer. Hmm I wonder if I’ve forgotten any games….

So what games are you most looking forward to on PS3?

The 5 games I’ve mentioned above are my “must haves” on PS3 I’m well aware of other possibly great games such as Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, GT5 etc but the 5 I’ve mentioned above are the games I REALLY want.