Ugly Baby Studios » PS3

E3 2009: Rise of the Mo-Cons

Jason Ward — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:45:47 +0000

I’ll be updating the site with impressions of what I’ve seen today, but one thing is crystal clear: motion controls are in: WAY in. Both Microsoft and Sony showed off new motion controllers, with MS by far taking the lead in a “next gen” motion control system. Sony’s by comparison is more of a “wiimote evolved” scenario, which is all well and good. I’m a fan of the wiimote, after all, so Sony’s approach feels like a natural extension of that, at least from what we’ve seen.

Beyond that, we also have the new Tony Hawk skateboard controller, which from what I saw is very impressive. Not to be forgotten, of course, is Nintendo’s own Wii motion plus, which finally brings true 1:1 control to that platform.

For me, this sudden flood of motion controllers is in many ways Nintendo’s vindication; yes, they shipped a system with less horsepower than Sony or MS, but they took a gamble with motion control that paid off so well that they have now redirected the efforts of Microsoft, Sony and the entire games industry. Love or hate the Wii, there’s no longer any way to deny it: Nintendo was right.

E3 2009: we’re here!

Jason Ward — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:12:49 +0000

So we got here and got checked in, but what have we learned? That the press room is hotter than hell (games journalists don’t need air conditioning!), the show floor is eerily closed until noon and the wifi sucks so bad that I’m actually better off posting from my iPhone.

PS3 loses feature after feature

Jason Ward — Tue, 09 May 2006 13:13:05 +0000

In addition to Sony’s previously reported theft of Nintendo’s Wii controller idea (specifically the gyroscopic sensor system), we’ve learned some interesting additional information concerning Sony’s Dual SKU sales model (attentive gamers will recall Sony’s criticism of Microsoft’s dual-SKU model, on which Sony President Phil Harrison said “it just confuses the audience…They don’t know which one to buy, developers don’t know
which one to create for, and retailers don’t know which one to stock” and will scoff at said hypocrisy accordingly). If all you heard was Harrison, Kutaragi and Hirai talking up the two PS3 versions in the press conference, you’d think that the only difference between the PS3 Core and PS3 premium was the size of the
hard drive. Turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s take a look at the facts, and we’ll use Sony’s press release to do it.

Let’s start with the obligatory table to help highlight differences between the two systems. In fact, let’s go one better and also compare the specs against the PS3 of yesteryear, circa E3 2005. The E3 2005
edition of PS3’s specs is taken from Sony’s E3 2005 press announcement, the specs for the actual PS3’s are taken from Sony’s E3 2006 press announcement (located here) and from their post-Press Conference announcement (located here), released surreptitiously hours after the press event itself.

Playstation 3’s assorted flavors
E3 2005 Version	2006 Core Pack	2006 Premium Pack	CHANGE
Cell CPU 3.2Ghz	Cell CPU, speeds omitted	Cell CPU, speeds omitted	Speeds curiously no longer listed
RSX GPU 550Mhz	RSX GPU, speeds omitted	RSX GPU, speeds omitted	Speeds curiously no longer listed
BluRay drive	Bluray drive (listed as 2X yet conflictingly stated to read at 48Mbps, which is actually 1.33X BluRay)	Bluray drive (listed as 2X yet conflictingly stated to read at 48Mbps, which is actually 1.33X BluRay)	Bluray drive claims contradicted within Sony’s own documentation. E3 2005 unspecified, so no change is registered.
256MB XDR System memory	256MB XDR System memory	256MB XDR System memory	No change.
256MB DDR3 GPU memory	256MB DDR3 GPU memory	256MB DDR3 GPU memory	No change.
3x GB Ethernet	1x GB Ethernet	1x GB Ethernet	Lost 2 ethernet ports
802.11b/g Wifi	No Wifi	802.11b/g Wifi	No Wifi for Core PS3
1x integrated Wifi Router	No router	No router	Lost router
6x USB 2.0 Ports	4x USB 2.0 Ports	4x USB 2.0 ports	Lost 2 USB 2.0 ports
Memory stick/Compact Flash/ SD Readers	No readers	Memory stick/Compact Flash/ SD Readers	Only $600 Premium pack comes with the card readers
2.5” upgradeable Hard Drive Slot	20GB Drive	60GB Drive	Hard drives now standard but different sized. Also, it’s unclear if the drive can be upgraded.
2X HDMI 1080p output	NO HDMI output, NO 1080p movie playback	1X HDMI output	Loss of both HDMI ports on Core model resulting in NO 1080p movie output. Premium lost 1 HDMI output. Loss of HDMI port MAY mean no BluRay movie playback for HDCP protected movies on Core System.
Controller unannounced except as Bluetooth mockup	Bluetooth Controller with tilt sensitivity announced in Dual Shock form factor	Bluetooth Controller with tilt sensitivity announced in Dual Shock form factor	Dual shock styled controller with tilt sensitivity reminiscent of Nintendo’s Wii system, though not nearly as robust. The new controller also does NOT have rumble functionality.

The chart above tells us a great deal about the Playstation 3 in its final configuration, but more importantly it tells us a great deal about Sony Computer Entertainment. A quick look over the specs tells us first and foremost that Sony has removed or reduced numerous of their previously claimed “standard” features, and in some cases has stripped them so thoroughly out of the system that they now offer a Core system and a Premium system. One notes the conspicuous absence of those details in the actual press conference, however, as Sony carefully omits the damning details of what should soon be lovingly referred to as “The PS3 ‘Tard pack” by gamers everywhere.

Unlike the Xbox 360 Core/Premium setup, in which the core is fully upgradeable to the capabilities of the Premium, the Core PS3 setup can never be the complete unit that the Premium PS3 is. To start with, the lack of HDMI ports on the Core system is something a user simply cannot update on their own. Additionally the internal Wifi capability cannot be added on, nor can the Memory Card readers that exist on the Premium system. While insufficient information is available at the time of this writing, it appears that the Core
system will not support any kind of writeable media for game saves, indicating either the capability to save to the internal hard drive or a complete inability to save (the former seems more likely than the latter).

Looking at the published specs, Sony’s press release itself contains a significant contradiction concerning their storage medium. In the release they list PS3 as containing a 2X Bluray drive, yet in the same release
they list PS3 repeatedly as being capable of streaming data at 48Mbps. For the uninitiated, 48Mbps isn’t 2X

Bluray, it’s 1.33x. According to the Bluray spec, 1x=36Mbps, therefore 2x=72Mbps. Movie playback requires 54Mbps—which is 1.5x Bluray, a small but significant amount faster than the PS3’s listed drive reading capabilities. Whether this is simply a typo or PS3 is unable to play Bluray movies isn’t at all obvious. It may be that the Core pack uses a slightly slower, cheaper Bluray drive than the Premium, but that simply isn’t clear. What IS clear is that the PS3 core system will never be able to output Bluray movies in 1080p, since that requires an HDMI output due to bandwidth needs, to say nothing of HDCP compliance. We’ll do some additional question-asking during E3, assuming we can find someone on theshow floor who’s willing to answer questions.

Another strange item on Sony’s PS3 list is that the new controller, while featuring tilt sensitivity, lacks any rumble functionality. This is undoubtedly a direct result of Sony’s loss to Immersion corporation for

$90,000,000+ for patent infringement with the Dual Shock 2 controller and likely has little or nothing to do with the controller’s tilt sensitivity, particularly given that Nintendo’s Wii controller includes the rumble feature (note that Nintendo owns stock in Immersion Corp and has never had legal troubles with the company) without mention of problems with the tilt sensors.

It’s perhaps not telling, but it is interesting to note that Sony’s specs no longer list CPU speeds for the Cell or RSX processors. While RSX’s speed was never unbelievable, Cell’s seemed suspect when one considers that IBM’s consistently shown off 2.4Ghz flavors of Cell in its blade server but never a 3.2Ghz flavor. Rumors of problems with Cell yields may eventually reveal a drop in the clock speed of PS3’s Cell, or perhaps even a PSP-like scenario in which the processor runs at a slower speed by default but can be overclocked 50% or so when needed by a specific piece of software (for reference, PSP runs at 222Mhz, not 333Mhz as the box states, unless specific games require the additional speed). While this is merely speculation on my part, Sony’s recent history should certainly give any potential PS3 customer pause before they lay down their money.

The first day of press releases for E3 2006 has turned out to be quite interesting indeed, with all indications being that Sony has seriously dropped the ball—and certainly the features—of Playstation 3 to a significant degree. How this will ultimately pan out is anyone’s guess, but if the forums across the ‘net are any indicator, gamers everywhere are fuming at the screwing Sony appears to be trying to pawn off on the market, and more than a little resentment over Sony’s insult to our intelligence is certainly brewing.

Sony STEALS Nintendo’s controller!

Jason Ward — Tue, 09 May 2006 05:43:21 +0000

In an act that should piss off gamers everywhere, Sony has OFFICIALLY stolen Nintendo’s controller idea. You read right, folks: PS3′s controller will duplicate the functionality of Nintendo’s Wii controller, sensing direction and position in 3D space. Howard Stringer even went so far as call it “Sony’s Innovation”.

This news is beyond pathetic.

Japan’s most wanted console is…

Jason Ward — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 11:22:06 +0000

Nintendo Revolution, according to readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu.

From NLGaming:

Nintendo’s Revolution is the most anticipated next-gen console, according to the collective voice of Famitsu’s readership. A survey conducted by the esteemed Japanese videogames magazine asked its readers which of the next-gen machines they were most looking forward to and why, with a majority of 42.2% voting Revolution.

Reasons given for voting Revolution were:

Its small, upright, and space-efficient design
The possibility of downloading NES and SNES games.
That it could possibly cause a revolution, as the name suggests
That it’s still a mystery, although shows hope.

Snapping at Revolution’s heels was PS3, with a not-too-shabby 39.8%. Reasons for voting Sony’s next-gen machine were its outstanding technical specifications, its backwards compatibility, its Cell chip and Blu Ray support, and the console and controller design. Unsurprisingly, Xbox 360 was sitting in third, although did manage 18% of the votes – which is quite impressive when you consider how little market share the current Xbox has in this region.

People voted Xbox 360 because of the new software developers working with Microsoft, Square Enix’s support and a liking of the console’s design, vertical setting and games line-up.

Sony loses mind, sues the hands that feed them

Jason Ward — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 01:30:18 +0000

According to an article at The Register, Sony has now decided to sue retailers in the UK who’ve been importing PSP handhelds to sell to eager customers.

Apparently Sony has decided that the best way to ensure a product’s success and build a loyal fanbase is to sue those who sell your products for you. As if they didn’t already piss off the European audience enough by pulling their PSP preorders and shipments in order to sell a million on day one of the US release (you know, that shipment that’s still trying to be sold out?), thereby pushing the European launch by 6 months due to their inability to supply an adequate quantity of the units.

The bright side of that news, of course, is that Europeans have been gobbling up the competition like crazy, with the Nintendo DS selling out 77% of its stock (over 500,000 units) within the first 2 weeks of its March launch. With clever decisions and ramifications like this, maybe Sony’s inevitable downhill slide in the Game Console market has finally begun. Personally, I hope it’s a spectacular fall.

PS3 looks Incredible! Yet, also, disappointing…

Jason Ward — Tue, 17 May 2005 18:58:53 +0000

I’m sure you’ve seen the PS3 launch info over at IGN and other places by now. Unfortunately we weren’t able to be at the launch because, well, we all have jobs Nevertheless, we’re interested: what do you think? So far I have to say it looks very impressive. The appearance of the console is, much more attractive than the Xbox 360, though I suspect that some of their performance estimates are a bit dubious given the specs of the machine itself (which is typical of Sony: they overstated performance on both previous Playstations purely in order to market against their competition, truth be damned), but on the whole it does look decent.

I am a bit disappointed that all of their games announcements are just sequels to already existing properties. Yes, they look incredible, but still it’s a bit depressing. I’m certain I’ll buy a PS3 (maybe at launch, maybe not, it depends what is available. The Metal Gear series has been console gaming’s best storytelling for a couple of years now, so if MGS4 is available at launch it could be a clincher for me).

I can’t say I’ve got any faith in their ability to deliver an online networking experience similar to Xbox live at launch. They’ve been promising such a thing since prior to the PS2 launch and haven’t even begun to deliver. However, I’m open to the idea that they COULD pull it off.

On the whole, PS3 and Xbox 360 seem very close in capability and even in specs (though Sony did not announce whether PS3 will have a hard drive. They specifically said a “Hard drive slot”, which is reminiscent of PS2), so I expect some good things from both. I have to admit I’m surprised that they’ve officially labeled the Cell as a PowerPC architecture piece, but at the least it does go to illustrate the underlying similarity of the XBox 360 and PS3 architecture.

Now all we need is to see what Nintendo has in store for us. As per usual, it looks like any innovation and new kinds of gaming will be coming primarily from their work.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the coming generation of consoles (I’m not going to call it a “Console War”. By now we’ve all realized that there’s no war of any kind going on, and the only real winners and losers are gamers), and invite you to visit the Forums to talk about the future of gaming!