You must have different Japanese games than I do because there isn't any Region 1 or Region 2 on the games I have. Okay then, maybe you can explain how PS2s in other parts of Asia (Movie Region 3) can play Japanese games and Japanese PS2s (Movie Region 2) can play games from Asia when a Japanese PS2 can't play Region 3 DVD movies and vice versa. I eagerly await your answer.

That I don't know. Let me see if I can find out.

Even if the PS3 will only be region-free for movies, that still means Japanese blu-ray disc movies!

Is anyone taking preorders for the ps3 yet? Thanks

If you go into EB Games or GameStop, they will gladly take your money for a pre order.

Since when? I tried a couple of weeks ago and it was a no-go.

Its really up the store manager. Usually, they will take your money and start a list before corporate issues direction to do so, then transfer the names.

Sony confirmed to GameShout a May 2006 release:

http://www.gameshout.com/news/012006/article2274.htm

Who's Gameshout?? Never heard of them before.....so i seriously doubt they have that buddy buddy relationship with Sony...

Spring 2006 for Japan, Fall 2006 for US.

In time to capitalize on the holiday shopping

Btw, for the pictures I've seen, PS3 seems to use a slot loading mechanism for loading disc (instead of top loading or tray loading), right?

Yes. It will be slot loading.

Anyone know if the PS3 will be at the CES this weekend? I'll be attending and I'll post impressions if it's available.

From what I can tell, all they're displaying is a conceptual model of what it'll most likely look like. They had a press conference last night and the only time the PS3 was mentioned was in passing while talking about Blu-Ray. Their CEO was going to give a keynote speech this morning that should include some PS3 talk, but no one's reported what he said yet and it's doubtful he got into anything specific.

From all the pictures I've seen, PS3 uses a slot loading mechanism to load disc, right? I wonder how prone to scratching slot loading is. The CD player in my car uses slot loading and sometimes I can see minor scratches on my CDs as a result.

I saw some CES pictures over at AVS forum and the HD movie demos using the Blu-ray enabled PS3 look gorgeous.

You don't think people that high up in companies have contacts? Inside sources? Come on. That is naive.

I read it the same way fumanstan did. A sort of "road to the final product" article. No where in there does anyone bash the PS3. I didn't view it as a threadcrap either.

Nintendo fans have had feedback on the Revolution from all kinds of developers, even those that don't develop for Nintendo. Same situation. It seems you only want praise in this thread, but you have to accept both sides.

Well, i made it to the CES. There wasn't a running PS3, just a video feed of some games. Oh, there were amazing. Every few seconds you could hear something along the lines of "This blows the 360 away!" or "Microsoft's gotta be shitting in their pants!". I don't know how the final product will turn out, but these demos on the giant screen were VERY impressive. They showed clips from Tekken 6, Unreal Championship 2007 (amazing stuff), The Getaway (just street shots and they looked very nice, but I've seen the same thing prior to the PS2 launch), some beautiful motocross game and a very long (and more than a little slow) clip from MGS4 that really showed some awesome detail levels. Nice stuff indeed.

They also had a demo of the PS3 running blu-ray discs, but it didn't look that good. It was showing a trailer of Da Vinci Code -- maybe it wasn't true HD quality feed. Either that or I wouldn't expect much from it's blu-ray ability.

Also had a few PS3's (or mock-ups) behind glass for the public to drool over. I did.

I'm still waiting to see something on the PS3 that can't be done on the 360.

Besides playing Blu-Ray discs or having complete backwards compatibility, I assume? Yeah, I don't know, but I assure you that most of the video feed of the PS3 gameplay was FAR more impressive than anything seen on the 360 (which was in almost EVERY other booth, it seemed). Take that at face value : it wasn't actually running, and it's hard to put too much faith in video footage. But what was up was REALLY impressive in a way that I just haven't seen with the 360 yet (though as I posted in the 360 thread, Burnout was quite gorgeous).

The most impressive game I've seen so far would be MGS 4 and Kojima has already said that it can be done on the 360.

I'm not trying to bash the PS3 at all, I'd just like to see REAL gameplay footage that the 360 can't do.

I still think it'll have the same graphics, maybe slightly better than 360, but will have more exclusives & better library. "Blows away" is radiculous hyperbole and what Sony wants you to think. Take this from someone who owns a 360 & is #1 on the PS3 preorder list.

I'm really curious to see what the PS3 is going to cost. With Samsung's upcoming Blu-Ray movie player costing $1,000 and upcoming blank Blu-Ray discs costing between $25 and $40+ a piece, The PS3 could price itself right out of the mainstream.

I know the initial prices are inflated and will drop with competition, but how much will they drop? I don't see how Blu-Ray is going to be a viable format for movies with disc prices like that, or even a fifth of that price.

We'll see I guess.

DW

It's impossible to say for sure (especially without real games up and running), but I suspect it'll be at least somewhat more powerful. Just like the Xbox is more powerful than the PS2 : sometimes it isn't much better, some PS2 games are amazing graphically and some games appear nearly identical on both systems, but certain games like Halo, Half Life 2 or Doom 3 just wouldn't be possible on the PS2. I think in the same way, some of these games just looked better than anything I've seen so far for the 360. The huge crowd there seemed to confirm my opinion.
There were several new 360 games at the DD and MS booths and while they were very pretty and drew a small crowd, nobody seemed awestruck. The graphics are very nice, but I wouldn't consider them revolutionary in the way the PS3 stuff appeared.

If the PS3 games are that revolution, my hats off to them. But I suspect it's more along the lines of Ubisoft showing "In-Game" video of Ghost Recon 3 earlier this year and it looking spectacular and then completely revising it later on.

Yeah, that's certainly possible.