PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[Alestes]

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lozzap wrote:

I can't see a playstation 4 coming out for a long while yet. Seeing as microsoft stated the other day that the xbox 360 will be around for a long time yet and they have no plans to make a new machine anytime soon.

Its all about the updates.

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Yeah. I think the 360 and PS3 will have a longer active life than the previous consoles thanks to the firmware updates and motion controllers.

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sasrob wrote:
ps2 was giving sony a clear profit per console sold from the very start.

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No it didn't. Sony sold the PS1 and PS2 at loss too. Just not as much as the PS3.

[ytevo79]

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sasrob wrote:
I think the next gen (3 years may be) will just use a super computer that stream gaming though the internet to the ps3 system with a up-to-date FW . xmas 2010 i can see sony release a new ps3 model with bigger hdd and no blue ray drive the development cost of the ps3 was massive i cant see any firm investing millions in a new console as the banking crash has hit all companys hard.

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Hmm your just making this up as you go along aren't you?

It won't make that much of a leap in such a short time.

And the biggy is that they're only just tapping into the console now so why they would release a new one this Christmas is just plain silly.

The PS3 already is a super computer any way

But my take on this is things are going to start slowing down a hell of a lot so updates are the way forwards for now and also because of development costs. If we do get a new PS3 any time soon we will not see much of an improvement anyway it terms of graphics.

[DrPwnage_PhD]

E3 2012 is 2.5 years away, I would anticipate seeing new platform announcements then, by Nov 2012 the 360 will have been out for 7 years.

Using the delay on Fermi to try and argue that PC tech development has slowed down is not valid as there have always been product delays. If Fermi is on the market by June 2010 it would be in line with Moore's law, showing this is as applicable as ever, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count#Microprocessors.

[joff81]

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DrPwnage_PhD wrote:

E3 2012 is 2.5 years away, I would anticipate seeing new platform announcements then, by Nov 2012 the 360 will have been out for 7 years.

Using the delay on Fermi to try and argue that PC tech development has slowed down is not valid as there have always been product delays. If Fermi is on the market by June 2010 it would be in line with Moore's law, showing this is as applicable as ever, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count#Microprocessors.

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seriously mate quoting "Moore`s law" does not make you right. im a PC technician and probably forgotten more than you have read about on the internet. i can rip apart your moore`s law arguement if i really want to especially as all moores law applies to is "trasnsistor count" and the number of transistors in a CPU die do not indicate its total throughput power (although it is related its less so due to parallel processors and muticore CPU`s and GPU`s).

regardless of what you say PC technology can not break the magical 4GHZ barrier (on a consumer level with standard active cooling) hence the reason for multicore CPU`s and its been this way for the last 4 - 5 years.

i love PC techonlogy ***** i work with it everyday its my trade but when it comes to gaming there is no better investment than a 360 or PS3. yes PC are faster but the gaming gains are very small over the PS3/360 especially to the casual gamer and even i as a pc technician cant justifty paying £800 + for a top end gaming rig anymore.

these current gen consoles are here to stay for a while yet that is something MS has admitted and Sony will take note off and even though E3 2012 is over 2 years away i highly doubt there will be nothing other than a mention of next gen consoles. we were talking about the PS3 for over years before we even got a release date so that would take us to 2015 even if the PS4 was mentioned in 2012.

Handheld consoles are the next to get the next gen treatment as a new handheld is long overdue and the rumours are already doing the rounds espeically of a Nintendo DS HD or a PSP2, these will be the big announcements of E3 in the coming years until release. 

[DrPwnage_PhD]

It is not the technology that has slowed down, it is as I mentioned above the PC is not used anymore as the lead platform for the next graphical showcase games that would drive the PC hardware upgrade cycle, and that is just not the case now with the switch to the consoles. Understandable with the revenues that can be extracted from the console market. For myself the gains of running a capable PC are large enough to justify.

In terms of new hardware release dates, 'speculation' of the last 6 months varies from 2012-2013. At this stage in their products life cycle no company would be foolish enough to do anything other than talk about the positive future of their current machines. Even the smallest hint of new technology in the works (even if it is 3 years away) could harm future sales. We'll see though, I do hope we're not waiting till 2015!.

Handhelds will probably be the focus of this years E3, be interesting to hear thoughts on the threat to dedicated gaming handhelds wth mobile phone converging to cover much of what a dedicated device could offer in the past.

[sasrob]

pc gaming is not cheap but if you got a top spec pc then the games looks better in my view but the value for money has to go to consoles. I agree that the ps3 is a mini super computer and the power inside will be used up in time with more FW update. IF online stream gaming takes off i cant see a new home console being release. will just be hand held consoles. just compare a old ps1 game to a ps3 game and you will see the jump forward for your self. 16 years between them!!!

[joff81]

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DrPwnage_PhD wrote:

Handhelds will probably be the focus of this years E3, be interesting to hear thoughts on the threat to dedicated gaming handhelds wth mobile phone converging to cover much of what a dedicated device could offer in the past.

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my thoughts on that are pretty simple other than the IPhone and top end smart phones there is nothing on mobile phone games that comes close to a dedicated handheld gaming device.

the PSP is an awesome bit of kit and the graphics are about on par with PS2 games especially with the latest round of games (GT PSP, Motorstorm AE, AC bloodlines,LBP PSP, GTA CTW). the Nintendo DS is a little dodgy graphically but games like New Super Mario Bros, and Mario kart show truly what the DS is capable of.  all these Smart phones and the IPhone all have the touch screen element and i admit the games look great for a mobile game but put the same title side by side with the PSP and DS version and the dedicated handheld wins outright. this is mainly down to compromised control methods (lack of any dedicated buttons especially on the i phone) and the fact the graphics, although good are still a decent shade away from dedicated handhelds just look here at the GTA CTW comparison.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Various/GTA%3A+Chinatown+Wars+%28iPhone%29/feature.asp?c=17839

the only advantage to mobile phone games/apps is that mobile version is usually cheaper than the dedicated handheld version.

then we come to the fact that dedicated handheld games can be almost as good at the home console verisons especially with established exclusive franchises. take LBP PSP for example it did what a handheld game should do which is it gave us an almost home console version of a game that that was just as fun to play.

as long as dedicated handhelds have strong exclusive franchises, are technically superior and give us a better graphical gaming experience i cant see dedicated handhelds loosing the battle to the compromised smartphone or I Phone but to keeps its advantge there needs to be some evolution in the techonlogy we have now and sometime soon.

[DrPwnage_PhD]

I think the challenge for the next round of handhelds is convincing people they need a second (for some pople third! )mobile device, along side their phone and mp3 player. Exclusive games and better gfx may not be enough to convince people to purchase, should be very interesting to see what the value proposition for the new Sony / Nintendo devices is.

I do like my PSP but overall it has not been a huge success for Sony with software sales typically lower than expected (bar Monster Hunter and a few others)! The PSP Go seems like an experiment for Sony to dip their toe into the DL only market, with UMD dead.

[joff81]

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DrPwnage_PhD wrote:

I think the challenge for the next round of handhelds is convincing people they need a second (for some pople third! )mobile device, along side their phone and mp3 player. Exclusive games and better gfx may not be enough to convince people to purchase, should be very interesting to see what the value proposition for the new Sony / Nintendo devices is.

I do like my PSP but overall it has not been a huge success for Sony with software sales typically lower than expected (bar Monster Hunter and a few others)! The PSP Go seems like an experiment for Sony to dip their toe into the DL only market, with UMD dead.

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UMD is not dead, not quite anyway especially with rumours of a PSP 4000 version which is supposed to be a PSP go with the flash drive replaced with a UMD drive. also with Sony charging far too much for DLC games i find it hard to stop buying UMD based software for my PSP 2000.

i agree that its all about justifying to the consumer the need for a 3rd mobile device but if the handheld does the what the PSP does now there is no need for the MP3 player and a gamer would choose a dedicated handheld that does the job of an MP3 player rather than an ipod.