Sony's PS3: Wrapup (For Now) Thoughts And Reader Invitations
Continued from 'Sony's PS3: Streaming, Browsing and Gaming Stumbles'
Compare the $599 PS3 against the $399 Xbox 360, and you'll encounter some big-picture advantages for Sony's contender:
- A 3x larger HDD
- An integrated high-definition optical disc player, which is a $200 add-on for the Microsoft competitor
- Motion-sensitive controllers
- Integrated Wi-Fi
- Integrated Bluetooth
- An integrated memory card reader, and
- The ability to boot alternative operating systems on the hardware
But you'll find an even more substantial list of shortcomings, beginning with the incremental price tag and the dearth of compelling PS3-unique content.
I'll continue using the console in the months ahead, through revisions and additions of both hardware and software, and will report back any additional findings (including inevitable "oh, I forgot to mention this" nearer-term addendums in coming days). I'll also share my thoughts, from afar, after I hear what Phil Harrison has to say at GDC in the morning. But I don't see any substantial evidence, after several weeks with the PS3, that Sony's going to be able to cut into Microsoft's shipment lead over the next several years, if ever.
If it weren't for Sony's Blu-ray aspirations, I'd be tempted to say "who cares"; after all, Sony's still selling profitable PS2's at a just-under-300,00-per-month clip in the U.S alone (begging the question of just why a seven year old console is still selling so well; are the rumours I've long been hearing from local retailers about PS2 unreliability, leading to premature but still out-of-warranty deaths and inevitable replacements, true?). But the PS3 is key to Sony's vision of not only Blu-ray dominance over HD DVD, but also its eventual ascendancy to the throne currently occupied by DVD. Blu-ray may indeed win the blue laser battle, but like SACD-versus-DVD Audio (which didn't even scratch CD sales), the ultimate winner of the war may still be today's current champion, DVD.
Last November, I claimed that Sony had overstepped sane design boundaries with the PS3, to its ultimate detriment. I guess I'm still singin' that tune. And now, I'll turn the microphone over to you; I welcome your comments.
Followup: Back in mid-December, fellow EDN blogger (and my boss) Maury Wright pointed out an article in IEEE Spectrum about Insomniac Games, the developers of Sony's to-date showcase PS3 title, Resistance: Fall of Man. I'd like to point you to another interesting article on Resistance, this one a postmortem written by project manager Marcus Smith in the February issue of Game Developer Magazine.
The article's not available for free download from the magazine website, but you can purchase a digital copy of the entire issue for $3.95. GD's Postmortem series has an engaging format that encompasses five 'What Went Right' and five 'What Went Wrong' sections. The magazine consistently succeeds in somehow convincing developers to be brutally honest with their project self-critiques; Postmortem reliably makes for engaging reading.
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