PlayStation 3 Update!

How long has it been since I’ve been waiting for the much anticipated PlayStation 3 (PS3)? I say too, too long, especially since it’s been in development for about three years now. Much to my disappointment Sony recently announced that the PS3 will be released in November 2006 instead of Spring of this year, as was previously announced. The PS3 will hit North American, European and Japanese markets simultaneously at this time.

The PS3 consoles will come standard with a 60GB hard drive out of the box. An essential use for the hard drive will be Sony’s online service, which will offer downloads similar to Microsoft Xbox Live. There will be about 30 game titles available upon the PS3’s launch, including the successful and popular Metal Gear Solid 4, Fight Night Round 3, Final Fantasy PS3, Devil May Cry 4 and Tekken PS3.

I suppose Sony is spending extra time perfecting its performance with that insane 3.2 GHz Cell super computer processor that will give it graphics capability. It is thought to be one of the most powerful among the next generation consoles and definitely the most expensive. It will have 256MB of XDR memory, 256MB of GDDR video memory, six USB ports, three Gigabit Ethernet ports and Bluetooth capability.

Most of the PS3’s delay is probably from the struggle of trying to perfect the Blu-ray component. Sony will incorporate the Blu-ray Disk (BD), which has a maximum capacity of 50 GB of space. To give you an idea, that’s about five times the space of today’s PlayStation 2 game on a DVD. BD is a highly anticipated storage medium that will deliver game and movie image quality at levels we’ve never seen before. Sony projects this leap in graphics will allow the PS3 help popularize the Blu-ray format. Currently Toshiba is Sony’s only competitor with the Blu-ray format.

Sony anticipates producing one million PS3 consoles per month by November, and plans to make six million by March 2007. With the PS3 launching in the Fall, and losing out on early 2006 sales, at least Sony can catch this year’s Christmas season.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is benefiting off this delay with its non-stop competitive Xbox 360 sales. In fact Microsoft expects to sell five million 360s by June. There is no official price set for the PlayStation 3, but expect to pay about $400-$500.