Remember that scan with the online information about the PlayStation 3? Well, more information has come out as this
board posting on Sony's forums shows. There are two scans of the article but here's the rundown of the info as well (taken straight from the posting):
- PS3 will have online service that goes beyond Xbox Live
- PS3 will be a DVR
- It will connect with PSP
- There are alot of games being worked on for it right now in the US (alot more then what people know about)
- The final PS3 dev kit is alot faster than they thought (according to the developer)
- The PS3 will have an ITunes type service to let you download HI DEF movies, music, etc
- The PS3 will take the media center functionality the 360 has even further
- PS3
will serve as a location free player for the PSP, means you can watch
the dvd's that you have in your PSP on your PSP (from anywhere in the
world), or any other video files you have on your PS3, though this is
still only being planned.
- PSP will be able to send its
files straight to the PSP from anywhere in the world, and it can also
control its DVR functionalities
- Firmware updates will add more functionality, much like with the PSP
- The
Blu Ray Player functionality doesnt cost as much as a stand alone
player because the Cell and RSX can take care of alot of the stuff the PS3 will need to do to be able to read the disks
- Fall release date for PS3, no release date for online service, but expected to launch w/ the system
Mulling over the details, let's break it down a little. The first bullet point is pure hype right now. Without a true central online service for the PS2, Sony doesn't have anything to really back that up. If they had a Live like service for a while I can maybe give them some points on that one. The other hype points to me are that the devkits are faster than they thought. For the point about there being a lot more US games being worked on than lead to believe, that's not at all unbelievable as many games aren't mentioned until they are a good amount into their development cycle.
Saying that it WILL act as a DVR means that it will definitely come with some storage. If the point was it CAN act as a DVR, it would imply that like the 360, there will be an add-on HDD. After reading the article, I don't see the point where it is going to be a DVR right off the bat so I'm going to predict a bare machine with no large HDD for the package. With an add-on HDD that Sony will produce, then DVR functionality will be released either at launch or through a firmware update down the road.
With the article saying that it will surpass the 360 in MCE functionality, that's not that hard. I've been fidding around with Xbox 360 and as as stand alone DVD and media player it's very lacking. Only when paired with an MCE machine does it actually have the functions needed to be a really good media center product. Since there is no MCE type product from Sony, I can see the functions of the PS3's media center like capabilities surpassing the 360s just on the fact you don't need a MCE server alone.
Connecting to a PSP's a given as well but serving up location free videos is another matter. I mean we are talking about rootkit Sony here. I have a hard time buying that one. All the PSP related points all seem pretty valid to me.
Blu-Ray drives are only half the equation when serving up video as you'll need a good processor and hardware to decode that video. Off loading to the Cell and NVIDIA card makes absolute sense and does follow the logic of why it doesn't cost as much as a stand-alone player.
As for the fall release, that's still hard to fathom right now. Everything else I skipped over I can see Sony implement without any problems. From a hardware standpoint, I find the PlayStation 3 a lot more facinating machine than the Xbox 360 but it's not all about hardware in a console world. The games are what defines a product and without good games the console is pretty much a paperweight. Well, with the PS3's case I could always use it as a Blu-Ray player if there aren't good games for it. :)
Thanks
Digg.
