About Game Consoles

The PlayStation 3 is the third installment of Video gaming consoles manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment, and is the successor of the PlayStation2. Major competitors for the PS3 in the market are the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as the seventh generation of gaming consoles.

One of the major features distinguishing the PlayStation 3 from earlier version and predecessors is its unique online gaming through the PlayStation Network, rather than relying on game developers for providing online game play in their games. The other major features which this consoles offers are use of the high optical Blu-ray disc format as its primary medium, connectivity with the PlayStation portable along with excellent multimedia capabilities.

The PS3 was launched in Japan in November 11, 2006, followed by launch in North America on November 17, 2006 and March 2007 in Europe and Oceania. Two versions of the PS3 were available at the time of launch i.e. a basic 20GB hard drive model and another 60GB hard drive model with some additional features. The 20 GB model was not launched in Europe and Oceania. The launch of the PS3 led to various cases of violence among the buyers due to low availability on its opening.

Today there are five versions of the PS3 available today which are referred to by the sizes of their hard disk drives i.e. the 20GB version, 40GB version, 60GB version, 80 GB version and 160GB version. All packages include one Dualshock 3 controller or one or two sixaxis controllers, a mini USB and USB cable, video/audio output, one Ethernet cable and one power cable. The models support the formats for the earlier versions of PlayStation like the PS and the PS2, but this has diminished with launch of newer versions.

“Anyone making a game, if you’re going to make it for both, just lead on the PS3 because if it works on the PS3, it’ll work on 360,” he said. A slew of well-known developers have spoken out against Sony’s high-power console.

Valve’s Gabe Newell said in 2007–long before Sony’s decline started–that the PlayStation 3 is a “waste of everyone’s time.” A report in the Dr. Dobb’s Journal tested the development process of the PlayStation 3 and found that Sony’s console is “difficult to program for.” I looked for some Sony supporters and found the best source of them all: Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. Huh? Developers are looking at the installed bases of consoles. Developers want to make their games as appealing as possible to those extra 8 million people. So spending extra time (a luxury most developers don’t have) on PS3 development just plain doesn’t make sense.

I don’t think developers are taking the Sony bait and working harder at harnessing the power of Sony’s console. I’m all for powerful consoles and getting the most out of gaming machines, but I don’t understand Sony’s strategy. Third-party developers are key to a successful gaming generation, and Sony makes it hard on them. And in Hirai’s own words, people (ostensibly, developers) are seeing “negatives in it.”
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Sony announced that the Playstation 3 will be released in two configurations. The first one is the premium version. Units with this configuration come with Blu-ray disc drive, USB ports, Wi-Fi connectivity, memory card readers, and an internal 60-Gb hard drive. The alternate version, on the other hand, has only a 20-GB internal hard drive and does not come with Wi-Fi features and memory card readers. However, the user has the option to upgrade the hard drive and connect memory card readers via adapters. The Wi-Fi feature, however, cannot be installed.

With the blu-ray drive, PS3 users can play movies and game discs. Because a blu-ray disc has a capacity of holding up 54 GB of data, users will not have to want for additional media space.

The portable hard disks provide the system with the required storage space needed for Playstation Network applications, downloads, and other files. For the games, the hard drive will also be used for saving game points.

Sony Playstation expected price

In the United States, the expected pricing release of the 20-GB is $499 and $599 for the 60-GB. In Japan, the price lists about $430 for the 20-GB. Meanwhile, for the European release, the 20-GB and the 60-GB versions cost $550 ad $660, respectively. The PS3 console is elegantly designed to feature pleasing lines and curves. Moreover, the PS3 case is outlined with a highly developed cooling system to deal with the heat output released from the system power supply and the Cell processor. Early models of the Playstation 3 consoles were in silver, white, and black.