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Sony to have playable PS3 at E3 2005 (PS2)
Today Sony released an announcement they would have a playable PS3 ready for E3 2005
By Rainier Van Autrijve | July 12, 2004
At a press conference in Japan this morning, Sony came out of left field with an announcement about the unveiling of a playable version of the upcoming PlayStation 3 (PS3) console at next year's E3, the annual video game trade show scheduled to take place from May 18 to 20 in Los Angeles.
Up until now, it seemed that Microsoft has a considerable head start in regards to introducing the next-generation console … at least, until today.
During a meeting of developers, suppliers and media, Reuters quoted Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. CEO Ken Kutaragi, "There has been some talk that development is not going well, but we expect to have a playable version at E3. We are pushing ahead with that schedule in mind."
This is not to be construed as the console being "available in stores" in 2005, as it was not until a year after the PlayStation 2's initial unveiling that any retail versions were available in Japan. Rather the PS3 will be displayed and have playable material for the press (most likely behind closed doors) to give a glimpse of what is to come.
Either way, it looks like E3 2005 will be a hot spot for unwrapping next-gen consoles, as Nintendo has already confirmed that it will "take the wraps off" of its GameCube successor currently codenamed Revolution.
Obviously, this changes the playing field for immediate competitor Microsoft, as it's the only next-gen console developer that has not confirmed for E3 2005 yet. Microsoft has always claimed that it wanted to cross the next-gen console finish line first, so we tried to contact Microsoft to comment on the PS3 E3 announcement, but our efforts were in vain, as no calls were returned.
Recently, there has been an avalanche of Xbox Next rumors, specifications, and other leaked information, so we tried to contact Sony America's Kaz Hirai and Andrew House to ask if they felt any sort of pressure from Microsoft's Xbox successor, unfortunately our calls were not returned.
Some minor information about possible PS3 specs has trickled through, as it is generally known that Sony will go into full production on the Cell chip, which will power the PS3, made by IBM and Toshiba, some time in 2005. Japanese PC Watch seems to have word that Sony has changed the amount of XDR DRAM it would be using in the PS3, from the earlier announced 512MB to 256MB. This does not necessarily mean Sony has scaled back the amount but rather boosted the available bandwidth from 25.6GB/second up to 51.2GB/sec (ATI's Radeon X800 XT has a pipe of 35.8GB/sec).
This was a PSP conference, after all, where Kutaragi also announced the company was still on track for a late 2004 PSP release date in Japan, and early 2005 in Europe/North America. Even though industry analysts say that date is unrealistic due to development setbacks, Kutaragi claimed that there were 59 games for the Japanese market in the pipeline for PSP, including titles from Electronic Arts Inc., Square Enix Co. Ltd., and Konami Corp.
It seems the financial market welcomed the PS3 news, as Sony's shares jumped up $0.19 (20 yen) and closed today at $37.29 (4,020 yen). |
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发表于 2004-7-13 20:45:00
