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For some rather bizarre reason, SONY seems to want us to
keep rather quiet about the PlayStation3. Having announced the
system at the pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press
conference and then showing E3 attendees only a brief video version
of a tech demo – with a perpetual three hour line – I managed
to drag enough information out of a SONY PR manager (who insisted
he remain nameless) to realize that not even SONY themselves knew
quite how they were going to demonstrate the system until
their arrival at E3.
So for SONY, E3 seemed to run spectacularly well. They not
only managed to convince the media that the  PlayStation3 will blow
away the Xbox360 – although many developers were warning me of
their inability to keep up with such high demands for product
development and complexity of developing for the system – but
also proved there’s still plenty of life left in its PlayStation2
system. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) had a fair showing to… but
that’s not really why you’re here.
The PlayStation3 is currently touted as the most powerful of
the next generation systems by far. With IBM PowerPC based
architecture running at 3.2GHz 256MB XDR RAM running at a similar
pace, the basic structure of the PlayStation3 is equivalent to that
DreamWorks are currently using to produce their CGI motion
pictures. What this means in reality is far greater depth and
graphical capabilities than are currently being seen with the
Xbox360 demos available at the show. While many websites will be
showing you “examples” of the PlayStation3’s power, I’m
going to state the truth here right now – we have not seen any
PlayStation3 materials. Everything that has been shown has been
tech-demos of what the system is capable of running on
high-end PCs and not actual PlayStation3 hardware. Though
this may disappoint many SONY fans I don’t see it as too
redundant – the titles shown are obviously examples of what’s
in development and are a great teaser towards what developers are
hoping to achieve with the system.
The facts we have are merely the tech specs  for the system
– which shall be posted in full detail soon here at the Electronic
Theatre - and the proposed casing and controller which may yet
be changed before release. We also know that system will feature
six USB2.0 ports (four front, two rear), Wi-Fi capabilities, acting
as a Router – allowing the PSP to be used as an additional
controller – and BlueTooth for the systems wireless controllers.
Personally, I think that the PlayStation3 is the most
stylish of the systems shown. Disregarding that awful
boomerang-esque controller for the moment (which I’m sure won’t
be the final release model) the casing is sleek and silver with the
PlayStation3 logo emblazed across the curved surface on the system
in a font ripped straight from Spider-Man 2. The disc-tray
loading mechanism has, thankfully, been removed entirely and
instead a slot-loader appears in its place. To the left of the disc
slot appears to be a unit which will conceal additional ports
including the four front USB2.0 ports and, presumably, the media
bay for the proposed Compact Flash and Memory Stick/Memory
Stick Pro Duo compatibility.
The controller, however, is something of a misdemeanour
within the media present at the event. Discussions with other
journalists present ranged from “what the f**k is that thing
supposed to be” to “at least they’re finally doing something
original”. In the opinion of those here at the Electronic
Theatre, it’s blatantly obvious how this controller may be
more comfortable to use than the current Dual Shock and Dual Shock2
pads, however, with SONY’s all-dominating policy of style
over reinvention, I can see many PlayStation fans feeling
dismayed at the new approach, and the last thing SONY want to do is
turn-off their current fanbase.
Many developers announced their support for the system,
including NAMCO, SquareEnix, Konami and, of course, the almighty
EA. Of the videos shown so far, I don’t think any moved fans as
much as the Tekken and Final Fantasy demos –
however, whether any of these titles actually materialise into
games is yet to be seen.
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