"Ps3 Launch will not fail"

[ElRazur]

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Sony has been on the backend of a lot of criticism surrounding the impending launch of the long-awaited PlayStation 3. From the less than impressive number of consoles going to retail on day one (only 400,000 in the USA on recent estimates) to the alleged 'Betamax 2.0' Blu-ray format, many are predicting that the PS3 will be the banana skin that will cause Sony to slip up after dominating the games industry for the last ten years.

However, in an interview with our friends over at Next-Gen.biz, Jack Tretton (executive VP in charge of making the US PS3 launch as smooth as possible) candidly reveals that he too is as concerned with the slow production of the all-important Blu-ray laser diode, the potential Achilles' heel of the PS3. "I'm like everybody else. I'm saying 'come on! Just build 'em, man! What's so complicated?' But think about what that blue laser diode has to do. It has to read audio CDs, standard DVDs, Blu-ray DVDs, PlayStation 1 games, PlayStation 2 games, and PlayStation 3 games. Six completely different formats that have nothing to do with each other and you're going to have one device that's going to read all those".

So should we be cutting Sony some slack? Tretton thinks so, stating that "We've had three very successful platform launches. We've dominated for well over a decade. It's a fair question to ask 'can Sony do it again?' but I'd love to get a little bit more benefit of the doubt". Unsurprisingly he denies that the Japanese giant will fall from grace with consumers. "Obvious!" we hear you cry, but the facts are hard to ignore: even now the PS2 is outselling the Xbox 360, five years after it was outselling its predecessor.

Next-Gen conclude the interview by cheekily asking when does Tretton think the PlayStation 3 will overtake the Xbox 360 in North America.

"The honest answer is we can't overtake them until we ship more units than they've sold. But we will ultimately accomplish our goals. Our goals aren't necessarily about overtaking Xbox 360 or overtaking Wii. It's our goal to maintain our leadership position. If there are 125 million television households in North America, we'd like to be in all of them. Right now we've made it into about one out of three so there's two out of three households that we're not in".

November 17 is crunch time for Sony: sales figures for the Holiday season will give an early indication of whether Tretton's optimism is justified or whether Sony will have to resign itself to third place behind Nintendo and Microsoft. Let battle commence!

 

[ElRazur]

Tell that to the fanboys or those who make such comments in here.

Right here


Also more interesting snippets

Harrison also addressed the last-minute inclusion of HDMI on the 20GB version of the PS3. He admitted that "the reason for the change was in reaction to a market trend, which is that much more displays are being sold with HDMI, earlier, than had been previously forecast."

Even though we're basically on the eve of Sony's big launch of the PlayStation 3, we still had a few outstanding questions about some of the minutiae of the console. Yeah, we're dorky sticklers for detail like that. So here are a few interesting facts about the PlayStation 3 you may (or may not) be interested in knowing:

After plenty of gameplay the console is cool -- or at worst warm -- to the touch on every surface. In a side by side test with the Xbox 360, the console is comparably virtually silent, and the Blu-ray drive is significantly quieter than the 360's DVD drive.

USB keyboards and mice will be plug-n-play, no fuss at all. Who really wants to browse the web with a PlayStation controller anyway?

Bluetooth mice and keyboards will not work with the system at launch.
Any (A2DP) Bluetooth headset should theoretically work with the system, though Sony will have a recommended hardware list.
The EyeToy is the only USB webcam that will work with the system. The original PS2 EyeToy should still work with the PS3.

There are currently no plans for VGA out on the PlayStation3.
The system will not support more than seven controllers.
There are currently no plans for a cheaper, wired version of the SIXAXIS.
With its media playback software one can have in-game custom soundtracks, as with the Xbox 360, Wii, etc.
Despite rumor, Sony insists the US is still officially targeted for a 400k unit launch; Japan is still set for a mere 80k. Sony execs are actually expecting an upturn in unit production before launch, so those numbers may actually go up.
Some titles have an option to install some amount of game data (in addition to saved data) to the drive. Genji can install 4GB worth of data to decrease load times (quoted to drop from 12-15 seconds down to 3-4); this game data can be removed at any time without affecting your saved games.
The drive can be upgraded, although not on any official basis (read: YMMV, do so at your own risk, you may void warranty, etc.).
You cannot leave voice or picture messages for other users on the PlayStation Network, only text.....

 

[ElRazur]

Given you are the self proclaimed No. 1 PS3 fanboy here, don't you find that statement just a tad hypocritical?

No... I was making that point without my fanboy hat on.