CONSOLE NEWS: Sony PS3 News

[TechZ]

Sony has confirmed that its next generation Playstation three will be region free, at least for gaming.

The move was not unexpected, as SCE had previously mentioned considering the possibility of opening up the region structure for PS3 games recently (the newly-released PSP system has but does not use a region code system for games, but that's more a standard for portable games than a new development for region-free gaming.) The system is, amongst other things, hoped to help combat piracy - many import fans "chip" their consoles with region-free mod chips to play import games, and while that desire has some legitimacy, it also opens the doors for pirates to release illegal copies of games. (Funnily enough, it's most often easier to run illegal games on a console than it is to run legit games from other countries due to the way most mod chips work, leading to a slippery slope for importers hoping to stay legit but finding the road difficult to maneuver.) Region-free gaming also allows game publishers to release games across the globe simultaneously, either through e-distribution or on disc. The capacity of Blu-Ray had previously been mentioned to allow for multiple languages of a game to be encoded onto the same massive-capacity disc.

The one caveat of this new region-free structure is that games made for specific regions' electrical and TV standards may have problems on your TV set. A PAL PS3 game, for instance, will have difficulty running on an NTSC TV, unless the developers have thought ahead and planned for that issue. It is currently unknown how the PS3 will cope with this problem (whether there will be a warning when you run an import about possible TV incompatibility, or if possibly there might be a no-play screen for incompatible games depending on your PS3's TV settings.) Luckily, modern HDTV standards go a long way towards making that problem moot. Also, games made in other countries will naturally only have the text and dialog it is programmed with, so don't put your pre-orders down so fast on all of those Japanese RPGs and Dragon Ball if you don't know a lick of kanji, because English will only be in if the developers have planned for it. (It's unknown if there will be any type of "patching" system for multi-language releases, although that might be possible on supported games post-release now that the PS3 is carrying its massive HDD and flash memory support.)

[TechZ]

The word is out. Yesterday, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe George Fornay let the PS3's European price slip. According to Fornay, the PS3 will cost between 499 and 599 euros. That translates to between $613 and $736 for us in the States.

Sony has been saying that the PS3 will be expensive for months now, and Fornay followed up his blunder by insisting that these price points are a quality deal for a Blu-ray player. Nevertheless, all previous attempts at selling videogame consoles at this price point have been rather dramatic failures, even when the systems incorporated 'new' multimedia features.

Full story: gear.ign.com

[TechZ]

In a press conference at E3 on Monday, Sony Computer Entertainment finally announced the launch date and pricing for its upcoming PlayStation 3 console. SCE America President and CEO Kazuo Hirai said the console would launch in two flavors on November 11 in Japan and on November 17 in North America and Europe. The cheapest version of the console will feature a 20GB hard drive and will retail for $499 in the U.S., €499 in Europe, and $549 in Canada. A variant with a 60GB hard drive will also ship for $599 in the U.S., €599 in Europe, and $659 in Canada. Hirai did not mention any differences other than the extra storage space between the $499 and $599 flavors.


In addition to the launch and pricing information, Sony also revealed the PlayStation 3's new "redesigned" controller.While the controller looks virtually identical to the current PS2 controller, user wrist movements can also be translated into onscreen movement. In a demonstration, a virtual duck was made to jump out of the water by moving the controller upwards. Sony is following in the footsteps of Nintendo, which has opted for a one-handed motion sensitive controller for its Wii console.

IGN just posted this comparison detailing the differences between the two controllers