Brian's Brain

Greetings from Dallas, Texas. Robert Cravotta and I are here at TI's Developer Conference, so I'll unfortunately miss Phil Harrison's (President, Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment) Game Developer Conference keynote tomorrow morning in San Francisco (Friday afternoon I head from here to Las Vegas to attend PMA through Sunday). As promised both in my two-weeks-back introductory comments and in last week's Linux-on-PS3 development platform multi-part writeup, I'm going to focus this part of the review on the Sony PlayStation 3 as a consumer electronics device.

I'm intentionally publishing this writeup prior to Harrison's keynote because I suspect his speech tomorrow morning, like innumerable ones of conferences past, will be heavy with future promises but light on present-day deliverables. Maybe I'll be surprised a day from now, but I doubt it. This review won't give a nod to future prognostications; it's a reflection of what PS3 owners have cumulatively experienced over the past four months, since the console's launch in early November, and through multiple firmware upgrades.

Sony regularly touts (and prices) the PS3 as a long-term investment, but consumers flat out don't buy gear now based on a promise of what it might be someday....particularly gear that costs $500 or more. Perhaps that's why the retail channel inventory of unsold consoles is ballooning, even though the company claims otherwise. Had Sony started shipping the PS3 prior to the Xbox 360, as was the case in the PS2-versus-Xbox past, I'd likely be telling you a very different story. Heck, had the PS3 launched coincident with the Xbox 360, but at the same price tag, I'd be feeling more optimistic about its chances. But the reality of the situation is that the PS3 is a year late, and $200 (plus video cabling and, perhaps, external switching) more expensive, than the Xbox 360. In coming paragraphs, I'll explore the impact of those fiscal and schedule discrepancies.

Given the comments I've already made in this writeup, along with my pre-hands-on thoughts of times past, you might be surprised at the C- rating I assigned the PS3 in the title above. There's actually a fair bit to like about the console....and my hands-on inspection hints at a tremendous amount of additional yet-unrealized potential. That's perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the PS3; assume that development began a few months prior to the March 2000 PS2 launch in Japan (say, for purposes of this exercise, six months beforehand). That would mean that Sony and its partners have had seven and a half years to get their collective PS3 act together. Read on to determine for yourself if they have, particularly to the degree that it justifies a $500 or $600 console price tag.

For my testing (to date), I've watched two Blu-ray movies; Kung Fu Hustle (which I never grow tired of) and Lady In The Water (which I thought was much better than its lack of commercial success would have otherwise suggested), along with several DVDs. I've played the demos for Grand Turismo HD, MotorStorm and Formula One Championship Edition, along with full versions of Resistance: Fall of Man and Blazing Angels (the latter courtesy of a 10-day free trial of GameFly's rental service). And I'll remind you that I'm testing the $599 high-end version of the PS3, and that my test setup tethers the console to my Princeton Graphics AF3.0HD 30" widescreen CRT, whose analog component video inputs accept 480p, 720p and 1080i signals.

First impressions; this console is quiet. My Xbox 360, in comparison, sometimes (depending on what it's doing at the time) sounds like a F/A-18 Hornet taking off. Big-time kudos to Sony's engineers for the passive heat dissipation technology lurking inside the unit's glossy black chassis. The PS3 makes a top-notch Blu-ray player, especially when you pair it with the optional $25 remote control. Since the wireless link between the remote and console employs Bluetooth technology, you have to first pair the two, a task that inevitably requires perusal of the instruction manual. The remote control isn't required; it's possible to fully manage optical disc playback using only the game controller, but the remote makes it much easier (although I do wish it had backlit buttons).

Frankly, I'm still not convinced that blue laser discs are a compelling-enough upgrade to conventional DVD to ensure their long-term success. If you are, though, I'd definitely recommend a PS3 over an equivalent-priced-to-more expensive Blu-ray player, The dedicated player is more expensive because, unlike the console, its cost isn't subsidized to the same degree by future game title sales; not only is it also lesser-featured but it's also more difficult to firmware-upgrade and ultimately more prone to rapid obsolescence. It's nice to see that the PS3 will (someday, maybe) be able to upscale DVDs, a feature which the Xbox 360 has (over VGA connections) already supported for nine months.

Continue reading with 'Sony's PS3: Streaming, Browsing and Gaming Stumbles'....