Playstation 3 launch date announced !!

entropi

It's in this press release by sony folks, go on, have a read

PS3 Press Release

Mossy Monk

hurrah

now we know. pity there was no mention of pricing

Captain Trips

this is sweet. better start a preorder and save up for an lcd tv!!!!

Retr0gamer

Welcome to tuesday morning!

madrab

Retr0gamer wrote:

Welcome to tuesday morning!

wow i think i drank too much

AnCapaillMor

worldwide release, about bloody time, sick of the japs and yanks getting it waaay before us, we'll still be a year or 2 behind in waiting for FF titles tho.

Laguna

It's good that Sony/MS realise that getting worldwide releases for their hardware is imperative to success, what still remains (unfortunately) is the fact that we in the UK & Ireland are still lumped into the European game release schedules even though the US versions of games are ready for us (being in English), which is a shame as no further work needs to be done to them i.e. Pal conversions don't need to be performed anymore as most T.V's display in NTSC (60Hz) format.

As games need to be localised into German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, we get our release date in line with mainlaind Europe, I would much rather have it that we were realigned as part of the US market so as soon as the games are released there, we'd get them too.. Ah, it's all down to bureaucracy I suppose, it'll never happen...

da4i's

hmmmmm PS3 or XBOX 360??? :rolleyes: lol

Laguna

da4i's wrote:

hmmmmm PS3 or XBOX 360??? :rolleyes: lol

Depends if you're a graphics whore or not to be honest..

CivilServant

Laguna wrote:

It's good that Sony/MS realise that getting worldwide releases for their hardware is imperative to success, what still remains (unfortunately) is the fact that we in the UK & Ireland are still lumped into the European game release schedules even though the US versions of games are ready for us (being in English), which is a shame as no further work needs to be done to them i.e. Pal conversions don't need to be performed anymore as most T.V's display in NTSC (60Hz) format.

As games need to be localised into German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, we get our release date in line with mainlaind Europe, I would much rather have it that we were realigned as part of the US market so as soon as the games are released there, we'd get them too.. Ah, it's all down to bureaucracy I suppose, it'll never happen...

True that. DOA4 for the xbox360 required a pal60 hertz tv for it to work. We missed the boat with 60hz HD as well but that's another thread

Belle Ende

Laguna wrote:

which is a shame as no further work needs to be done to them i.e. Pal conversions don't need to be performed anymore as most T.V's display in NTSC (60Hz) format.

So you're happy to lose one fifth of PAL screen resolution in the process? No thanks.

Proper 50Hz full 625 line (simultaneous-with-America/Japan) European releases is what we should have always had (though hardly ever did).

Laguna

Yeah but the PAL conversion process also loses about 20% of the speed of the 60Hz versions, most noticeable in beat-em ups. I'd rather not have the black borders that are imposed on us by PAL conversions anyway and to be honest, losing a few lines of resolution as you imply wouldn't bother me in the slightest if we got our games in line with America.

One example of delayed releases is on the Nintendo DS, Mario & Luigi:Partners in Time was out last November in the U.S. yet only came out in February over here due to the hold up with the localisation, now as DS games are multi region, there was no PAL conversion to be done anyway, the only thing holding it up was the language issue... it's just short sighted by games companies in my opinion, by the time, for example, Nintendo of Europe have released Mario & Luigi in Europe, most people in the UK and Ireland have imported their copies and the newly released EU versions sit on the shelf..

Ciaran500

Laguna wrote:

Yeah but the PAL conversion process also loses about 20% of the speed of the 60Hz versions, most noticeable in beat-em ups. I'd rather not have the black borders that are imposed on us by PAL conversions anyway and to be honest, losing a few lines of resolution as you imply wouldn't bother me in the slightest if we got our games in line with America.

I'm 99% sure that all 360 games can run at PAL 60hz. So you don't lose any speed and left with no borders.

GrumPy

^^tbh.

GrumPy

Laguna wrote:

Depends if you're a graphics whore or not to be honest..

Dunno what your getting at here? both consoles will have a comparable level of graphics, and when ps3 launches, 360 will be prettier, because developers will have had to time to use the consoles power to more advantage.

projectmayhem

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Dunno what your getting at here? both consoles will have a comparable level of graphics, and when ps3 launches, 360 will be prettier, because developers will have had to time to use the consoles power to more advantage.

agree with the tone that 360 vs ps3 graphics-wise will be a very tight race. but devs had 360 devkits for about 5 months before launch. devkits for ps3 have been out nearly a year. final editions are shipping in april. so devs for ps3 have had plenty of time to learn the system, plus, after they have final devkits, they have about 6 months of work before launch even creeps into the horizon.

i.e. expect some jazzy titles at launch

Retr0gamer

Like what killzone 2? It better be better than the first one, although that wouldn't be hard.

I'd say the PS3 will get some pretty abysmal launch games which will be mostly xbox360 ports from the likes of EA and Ubisoft while the big titles are being worked on. i don't expect a Mario 64 on it. Anyway E3 can still prove me wrong.

Dooom

Retr0gamer wrote:

Like what killzone 2? It better be better than the first one, although that wouldn't be hard.

I'd say the PS3 will get some pretty abysmal launch games which will be mostly xbox360 ports from the likes of EA and Ubisoft while the big titles are being worked on. i don't expect a Mario 64 on it. Anyway E3 can still prove me wrong.

Bit pessimistic there.
Anyway, I've gotten word from someone in the industry who knows the majority of devs personally, and apparently there are a good lot of high-quality games on the launch list.

shabbyroad

Laguna wrote:

Yeah but the PAL conversion process also loses about 20% of the speed of the 60Hz versions, most noticeable in beat-em ups. I'd rather not have the black borders that are imposed on us by PAL conversions anyway and to be honest, losing a few lines of resolution as you imply wouldn't bother me in the slightest if we got our games in line with America.

Not correct. If the developer clocks the game to the video refresh then yes it'll be a problem. But that would be a very very dumb thing to do.
... and it wouldn't be 20% anyway... do the math.

Retr0gamer

Most lazy developers do clock the game to the refresh rate since it is the easy way around it. This way it requires absolutely no programming optimisation and yep muppets like Squaresoft still delay PAL releases by over 6 months. Some like Konami and Capcom put effort into their PAL conversions but play any squaresoft PAL conversion or older Capcom (pre Maximo) and you can see how badly this affects the game.

The slow down is around 20% (16.7% irc) so stop being so anally retentive!

projectmayhem

Retr0gamer wrote:

Like what killzone 2? It better be better than the first one, although that wouldn't be hard.

I'd say the PS3 will get some pretty abysmal launch games which will be mostly xbox360 ports from the likes of EA and Ubisoft while the big titles are being worked on. i don't expect a Mario 64 on it. Anyway E3 can still prove me wrong.

kz2 wont be a launch title. first fps on ps3 will be I-8, due at launch.

Laguna

Ciaran500 wrote:

I'm 99% sure that all 360 games can run at PAL 60hz. So you don't lose any speed and left with no borders.

I'm not disputing that, I'm commenting on the fact there's still a delay in the games being released here as we're in the EU market and for the games to be released in the EU they need to be localised hence a dirty great big Squaresoft-esque 6 month delay.

shabbyroad wrote:

... and it wouldn't be 20% anyway... do the math.

Note my active use of the word

Laguna wrote:

about 20%

To be absolutely pedantic it's about 16.7% slowdown, does that mean my statements about lazy PAL conversions are now defunct?..

Ravage1616

I prefer the xbox myself but looking forward to the PS3 hopefully it won't be to pricey!

MontgomeryClift

Anybody who buys a 50Hz only game these days is the enemy. Please don't buy garbage because it affects us all.

LookingFor

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Dunno what your getting at here? both consoles will have a comparable level of graphics, and when ps3 launches, 360 will be prettier, because developers will have had to time to use the consoles power to more advantage.

It's questionable how comparable the systems will be technically in the longer term once games really get an awful lot more sophisticated..

It might surprise you, but some developers had Cell and comparable graphics chips (at least in terms of architecture) to RSX some time before they had anything even remotely resembling Xenon or Xenos in 360.

Devs will have had nearly 12 months with final Cell and final RSX by the time launch rolls around.

As for launch titles, I've just one word: WARHAWK!!!

Ahem On a more general note, in a comparison between 360 and PS3, it certainly doesn't come down to 'just' graphics. That isn't PS3's only advantage, not even technically (in fact, I'd expect its defining technical advantage to be more related to physics..though that can help with the visuals also, in fairness). Look at PS2: it certainly didn't have the power advantage at all, but it held most of the cards. Now PS3 looks to share all the same strengths PS2 had PLUS most of Xbox's strengths last time around. No more wondering what this game or that game might have been like if it had been made from scratch for the more powerful hardware, no more wishing it had more PC ports. Smells like an irresistable combination.

Anyway, I posted about this in the Playstation forum. There's more info, including stuff on the online service, HDD, backwards compatability etc. here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054902966

GrumPy

I look forward to it, and metal gear (drools) but 360 ftw, in terms of games, and online multi.

Dont be at yourself

What games are these? Looking at your Gamer Tag, I dont think the likes of Fight Night, Project Gotham, Perfect Dark or Call Of Duty are anything worth buying a console for.

Unless of course, you're talking of games that haven't been released yet. In which case, we're not going to know until these games hit the shelves how good they are.

Looking at the past generation though, the two consoles, by their very nature, played host to very different line-ups. XBox, strongly supported by US developers, and PC developers, played host to plenty of FPS, running and gunning games. It's catalogue was pretty narrow compared to that of the PS2. Which was fine if you enjoyed playing your by-the-numbers action or racing game, but a little frustrating if you were looking for something a little more adventurous.

PS2, on the other hand, was the follow-up to what was the most successful console in history, and Sony had built quite a strong, often exclusive, relationship with developers all over the world. And, by virtue of having by far the largest market share, they were not only able to offer run-of-the-mill racers and shooters, but also the more niche titles (and what I feel to be among the best games of the last generation), like ICO, Rez, Killer 7 and so on and so on.

But it's gonna be another year before we can call which way it's gonna go. We'll have to wait and see how Microsoft's relationship with Japanese developers changes with the 360's flop in Japan, and we'll have to see if Sony are able to reign in Microsoft in terms of market-share. However, on either of those points, it doesn't look particularly good for Microsoft.

[I'm not bashing the 360 at all, by the way - just trying to give a bit of balance. All consoles are going to play host to a clutch of games that will make buying them worthwhile, but I think it's far too early to say that one is going to have a better games line-up than the other]

patsyh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4807858.stm

delayed AGAIN till nov, they will be hard to get before christmas

stevenmu

patsyh wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4807858.stm

delayed AGAIN till nov, they will be hard to get before christmas

That isn't another delay, it's the same one.

projectmayhem

confirmed tomorrow (yes, tomorrow): all ps3's will ship with 60GB hdd's. online will be free initially bar some MMO games and certain subscription services, it will also support online for ps2 network-enabled games.

LookingFor

projectmayhem wrote:

confirmed tomorrow (yes, tomorrow): all ps3's will ship with 60GB hdd's. online will be free initially bar some MMO games and certain subscription services, it will also support online for ps2 network-enabled games.

Where did you hear all this?

There are a couple of different reports going around "confirming" that every PS3 will come with a 60GB HDD, but I'm not inclined to believe any of them yet..