mrpayroll

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...playstation_dc

Fri Sep 6, 2:59 AM ET
By Eriko Amaha

TOKYO (Reuters) - While Sony Corp ( news - web sites) basks in the success of its PlayStation 2 ( news - web sites) in the $30 billion-plus-a-year videogame market, expectations are rising that its successor will be out of the box by 2005, in an entirely different form.

Sony remains tight-lipped about the timing of the next generation's debut, but it is dropping some hints about the product's likely shape -- or more accurately, lack of shape.

"We're not thinking about hardware," said Kenichi Fukunaga, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), the Sony subsidiary that develops and makes the PlayStation.

"The ideal solution would be having an operating system installed in various home appliances that could run game programs," he said.

Fueling expectations of a 2005 target date is a microchip project among SCE, Toshiba Corp, Japan's largest chipmaker and co-producer of the PlayStation 2's complex microprocessor, and International Business Machines Corp.

The four-year project, codenamed "cell" and due for completion in spring 2005, aims to create a powerful processor for home electronics with ultra-fast Internet connections that could, for example, transmit high-resolution moving pictures.

"It's possible PlayStation 3 would come out in 2005, since that's when Sony's cell project will yield something," said Kazuharu Miura, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd.

BROADBAND, BOX-FREE

He added that, by 2005, Japan's broadband infrastructure for high-speed Internet service would be largely complete and Sony would likely have a clearer idea of what kind of online games people want to play.

SCE said it had not decided how to integrate the cell processor into its next game console, but the general idea was to use the chip in Internet servers and home electronics to divide computing tasks among networked machines.

This would give the devices as much processing power as a supercomputer, such as IBM's "Deep Blue" machine that defeated Gary Kasparov at chess, and enable them to handle everything from games to video recording to downloading data from the Internet.

"We've started with boxes -- making boxes to do specific things, but if you have a chip this powerful you can add functions to any box. It's reverse thinking," said SCE's Fukunaga.

PlayStation 2, with more than 33 million machines sold since its launch in March 2000, has dwarfed sales of rival consoles released last year: Microsoft Corp's Xbox ( news - web sites) and Nintendo ( news - web sites) Ltd's GameCube.

But the competition looks unlikely to let Sony have the next generation all to itself.

In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was considering launching a new game machine in 2003 or 2004 that would cost about $500 and be able to pause live TV and record programs onto a hard drive.

Sony earlier this week launched a home video recorder with just those functions, the first product in its Cocoon line of home electronics that will hook up to the Internet.

Sony's shares slipped on Friday, in line with weakness in the broader market. The stock closed down 0.61 percent at 4,910 yen, while the Tokyo Stock Exchange's electrical machinery index was down 1.33 percent. (Additional reporting by Edmund Klamann)


Chris

Aghama

Blah blah blah

It'll be a box.

Groucho

I don't fully understand. Does this mean that to play Final Fantasy XVI I'll have to put the disc into my toaster? How about GTA6? Will that be played on my rotary nose hair clippers?

Stoolie

Sweet! A Playstation Bass-O-Matic!

stoolie

goLUCKY

I'm still waiting for Playstation 9!

TheMadMonk

I agree.

enthused

all they have to do is fix the ****** analog sticks and i'll be happy.

joshd2012

Why is this even a news article? The majority of the article is just a combination of what has already been said. Of course it will be out sometime 2005, that is the end of the PS2's 5 year cycle. I wish they would find some real news, rather than regurgitate what we already know.

mmconhea

Great, I can't wait to play PS3 on my toaster!
Sony, already with the hype?

darkside

Great, now I have to buy a new ******* toaster just to play video games.

s}{ammer

I can't beleive how many of you are so quick to jump on this. We all know it will be a box with the "cell" chip in it. It will probably play ps2 games and even ps1 since they combined the chips on one board. Now I think what will happen next is they develope a linux OS that is very user friendly and since this chip is supposed to be so powerful you could run a very good x interface and make it so everyone could use the PS3 for playing games, writing a thesis, and programming your own games. I bet this is where the linux ps2 kit came into the plan. Get people ready for it now, and in 2005 we already have a userbase. This could be very exciting.

filmcritic

And also completely take out that annoying red led light.
Just bothersome man, bothersome.

Aghama

But seriously, I already have a device for playing games, writing papers, and programming. I'll give you three guesses.

Gallant Pig

maybe they will ship it with Star Office?

s}{ammer

Do you not see how this is a game plan that would not only attack the xbox the the windows os itself? People would get a very good/cheap home computer that they wouldn't have to worry about loading new drivers and this and that. Can you honestly give a better reason for Sony releasing the linux kit for PS2? M$ wants to have the all in one box, so why not go right at that and beat them to the punch?

DJ_Spyder

Of course it will be a box silly the question we should be asking ourselves how much will it cost? Does anyone care to take a guess?

joshd2012

PSX = $300
PS2 = $300

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess $300. Actually, I'm quite possitive it will be $300.

WOWZY

A friend of mine that works as a rep for Toshiba America told me not to believe the hype that Sony is dishing out. He said that Toshiba and IBM are ready to tie Sony execs up and kick them in the Ding-Dings for running their mouths about something as experimental as this new technology is. He said that they've only been successful in a little less than half of there "Communication" tests with this technology and it has been only good for communication streams, not data transfers. And that with the test results they've had, that the only thing Sony will have out with this technology in 2005 will be the Playstation Telefax!!

You all know how Sony hypes allota things that never come true.

spacecowboy1

Thanks WOWZY. It's way too early for Sony to start up the hype machine.

s}{ammer

Well, let's see, it is 2002 and the technology isn't due out till 2005. Yep I would say there is plenty of time to get the technology working. How many people actually believe that someone who "works as a rep for Toshiba America" would have any kind of info on what upper management thinks of the other companies that it has partnered with? How many people here believe that this "rep" would be dumb enough to tell a friend who is going to post it on the net what the upper management of these two huge companies that have these millions of dollars invested in this agreement would think of the third party running its mouth? Please, give us the persons name so we can contact Toshiba, Sony, and IBM and ask them what they think of this "rep" running their mouth and spreading internet rumors.

Why not just start another rumor about a price drop? Oh wait that one might actual be true by the end of the year, whereas this one is not true.

Trigger

Sony's PS4:



Sony's PS5:



and

Gallant Pig

Wait though, based on what Sony did with the PS2, it isn't difficult to see them hyping things up again like they did before is it? 2005 is a little more than 3 years away. There's no way you'll see some sort of insane quantum leap in processor speed by then. I can't believe people are creaming their pants over Sony's hypings already when the PS2 is the console holding graphics back in this generation. Yeah it could be different next time, but I wouldn't count on it.

Sony = absolutely wonderful at marketing, hardware not so good.

My disclaimer is I do enjoy the PS2, but still the graphics are weaker than they should be at this point in the game.

Trigger

Technically - 2005 is less than 3 years away (about 28 months away give or take some days). December 2005 is a little more than 3 years away though.

My thoughts are that Sony does this. It's just hype. They recently announced that the PS9 will be organic or use telepathy or something dumb. PS3 will be a PS2 with better graphics and better sound and built-in networking and 4 controller ports and better DVD playback and probably some sort of tivo or webtv functions - whatever the most fancy thing is at the time. It will be backwards compatible with PS2 and PS1 games (they've already got that down to one chip) and it'll cost 300 bucks... next.

Deftones

That was such a great flick!

Anyways, like someone said above this is a regurgitation of previous news. There's nothing to see here, people. Move along!

s}{ammer

First off, you may not like the graphics on the PS2 but Sony makes damn good hardware. They make hands down the best TVs, they make great computers, and they make awsome audio equipment. Sony as a whole is the best electronics company in the world.

As for the graphics being the weakest, why does everyone forget that Sony came out a year before the other 2? Of course the xbox and gamecube will have better graphics because the hardware is different a year later. If the PS2 came out at the same time the graphics would have been better also.

The ps9 thing was recent, that was one of their hyped up commercials for the PS2 before it came out. They showed this game being plugged into this kid and then said ps9.