Exactly. And Nintendo has already said the graphics of the Revolution won't match the PS3 and 360. Plus, when you factor in the Nintendo controller, you'll see almost no ports for the Revolution. There will be some games that come out on both the 360 and the PS3, but I think the days of almost every third party title appearing on multiple platforms is coming to an end.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/10502/...line-Gameplay/

Considering the rising development costs of games, I think we'll be seeing less exclusives.

Sounds good to me, free play on xbox live would be awsome.

You'll actually see the most exclusives on the Revolution due to the controller.

Well the Revolution is the outsider this gen, so to speak. Between PS3 and 360, I expect fewer exclusives than last gen.

Every developer under the sun has already said they want to make at least one exclusive game for the Revolution just because of the controller. It's less of an outsider than you think.

I meant that it's not very similar to the other consoles, I guess I worded it poorly.

I think there will be less exclusives on PS3 and 360.

More exclusives on Rev because of lower development cost and the controller.

Ah, gotcha. Exactly!

I think this generation will play out a lot like the PS1 vs. N64 generation. Great games on both systems without any one being a super-clear winner.

Didn't the PS1 absolutely dominate that generation??? In hindsight, I think Mario 64, Zelda OoT, and Goldeneye were better than Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, Tekken, and Final Fantasy...but at the time, Sony seemed pretty firmly on top in terms of sales.

It feels more like the last generation to me, with MS playing the role of Sega (Shooting their wad early and a bit underwhelming) and Sony/Nintendo filling roles similar to their current ones.

I looked back and the PS1 did dominate that generation about 3:1. I didn't see a breakdown per year --- I know PS1 didn't sell the most units the first two years.

Didn't the PS1 come out almost a full year BEFORE the N64? I may be having a memory lapse, but I thought I remembered some delays. I also remember the PS1 selling extremely well that first year with their ultra-clever ad campaign (u r not e). Then after a few killer aps (Tomb Raider, FF7, Gran Turismo...) the PS1 pretty much took it in a walk.

I only remember because I was pretty much a lemming that generation and bought a PS but not a N64. I picked up a N64 later and now believe that the cream of the crop on the N64 was superior to anything on the PS (the PS had some great exclusives too), but at the time, the PS was pretty dominant as I recall.

An actual PS3 dev kit from GDC running, uh, Windows XP it looks like.

Seriously... I thought the PS3 was to be my next Linux dev kit. Weird seeing Xp running for the show.

That looks like the Alpha box, which doesn't even have a Cell processor in it, just a beefed up OTS CPU. Its pretty much just a beefed up PC at that point. I'm not even sure why they are showing the Alpha, when Betas have been out forever.

Demand for the beta models must be so high Sony can't hold on to one themselves huh?

Yep 9/9/95 I think the N64 was about a year later.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060322/...sony_online_dc

Sony to launch online service with PlayStation 3
Wed Mar 22, 4:04 PM ET


SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news).'s top video game studio executive said on Wednesday that a new online service debuting with its PlayStation 3 console in early November will open up a world of new content for gamers.

The service will let users buy game downloads and communicate and compete with other players via the Web.

Sony, one of the world's leading technology manufacturers and entertainment companies, aims to retain dominance over video game market with the PS3.

The basic level of new online service, known internally as PlayStation Network Platform, will be free, Phil Harrison, president of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment, said during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose.

Users will pay for subscriptions to game services and premium game content, he said.

Among other things, Harrison said the network creates an avenue for selling episodic content, such as game updates and add-ons, directly to consumers via the service's online marketplace.

"I believe that games can have the same social currency of a great television program," he said.

Microsoft Corp. introduced its competing Xbox 360 game console in November of last year. Its Xbox Live subscription service, which offers game downloads and online play, has been a hit on the new machine.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that Xbox Live has logged more than 10 million downloads, which it said was "faster than iTunes did when it launched."

More than 85 percent of Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the Internet have downloaded games, trailers and videos from the subscription service, Microsoft said.


Chris

I swear people will twist anything to appear better than apple.

1. iTunes only sold music
2. First service of its kind
3. This was at a time when d/l free was still hip and readily available(i.e. there was no previous or currently existing free alternative for Live content)
4. if I remember correctly, iTunes first year was only on a Mac limiting the potential user base to 4% of the PC market
5. Do they include patches in that 10 million figure? Half of the 360 library required d/ls for shoddy rushed into production games, including the very basic Arcade games
6. Does that figure include BC patches? I'm sure nearly every 360 owner popped in Halo 2 which requires a d/l

So I call bullshit on the faster sales than apple argument. There are too many factors to even compare them as equals.

PS3 games will be region free! No more need to mod a system to import!

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/697/697656p1.html

In a QA session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.

The move was not unexpected, as SCE had previously mentioned considering the possibility of opening up the region structure for PS3 games recently (the newly-released PSP system has but does not use a region code system for games, but that's more a standard for portable games than a new development for region-free gaming.) The system is, amongst other things, hoped to help combat piracy - many import fans "chip" their consoles with region-free mod chips to play import games, and while that desire has some legitimacy, it also opens the doors for pirates to release illegal copies of games. (Funnily enough, it's most often easier to run illegal games on a console than it is to run legit games from other countries due to the way most mod chips work, leading to a slippery slope for importers hoping to stay legit but finding the road difficult to maneuver.) Region-free gaming also allows game publishers to release games across the globe simultaneously, either through e-distribution or on disc. The capacity of Blu-Ray had previously been mentioned to allow for multiple languages of a game to be encoded onto the same massive-capacity disc.

The one caveat of this new region-free structure is that games made for specific regions' electrical and TV standards may have problems on your TV set. A PAL PS3 game, for instance, will have difficulty running on an NTSC TV, unless the developers have thought ahead and planned for that issue. It is currently unknown how the PS3 will cope with this problem (whether there will be a warning when you run an import about possible TV incompatibility, or if possibly there might be a no-play screen for incompatible games depending on your PS3's TV settings.) Luckily, modern HDTV standards go a long way towards making that problem moot. Also, games made in other countries will naturally only have the text and dialog it is programmed with, so don't put your pre-orders down so fast on all of those Japanese RPGs and Dragon Ball if you don't know a lick of kanji, because English will only be in if the developers have planned for it. (It's unknown if there will be any type of "patching" system for multi-language releases, although that might be possible on supported games post-release now that the PS3 is carrying its massive HDD and flash memory support.)

We'll have more details on how this impacts publishers and importers as soon as we know more about SCE's plans for region-free PS3 gaming.

Well, here's the answer to that problem:

In his presentation, Harrison said that, due to the high-storage capacity of the PS3's Blu-ray Disc (BD) format, publishers would be able to release a single SKU worldwide with all localized versions on a single disc. At the Q&A, Harrison said a BD--which can hold up to 50GB--will also be able to store all various video formats (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) on one disc.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fact that the system will be region free, however there are still some serious considerations. For one, many developers rely on staggered launching to allow cash flows from one region to pay for the release in another. So simply going out and making one title "to rule them all" will require a much larger up front cost and risk for the firm. The bottom line is that this while this strategy is quite clever at minimizing some costs its also very impractical for medium to small publishers. Companies like EA will the ones truely benefiting from such an option in my opinion.

Thank God, the PS3 controller will be redesigned!

From Engadget.com:

>>>>>In an unfortunate turn of events for the legions of Australian video game fans, Sony's president of the Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios division Phil Harrison announced today that the upcoming PlayStation 3 controller will be unable to pull double duty as a precision kangaroo killer. Apparently the boomerang/banana shape that we've come to hate despise detest accept as the PS3's major drawback is being "tossed" in favor of an unspecified redesign (NOT the one pictured here) that will be unveiled at E3 in May, mentioned Harrison in a speech that was mainly about the Xbox Live-like PlayStation Network Platform. There's a lot of pressure on Sony here to unveil something appealing for several reasons: they need to placate the vocal minority of ravenous fanboys who publicly slammed the initial design, but more importantly, they need to prove they can outdesign a bunch of very talented gaming blog readers.

[QUOTE=gijon213]Thank God, the PS3 controller will be redesigned!

From Engadget.com:

>>>>>In an unfortunate turn of events for the legions of Australian video game fans, Sony's president of the Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios division Phil Harrison announced today that the upcoming PlayStation 3 controller will be unable to pull double duty as a precision kangaroo killer. Apparently the boomerang/banana shape that we've come to hate despise detest accept as the PS3's major drawback is being "tossed" in favor of an unspecified redesign (NOT the one pictured here) that will be unveiled at E3 in May, mentioned Harrison in a speech that was mainly about the Xbox Live-like PlayStation Network Platform. There's a lot of pressure on Sony here to unveil something appealing for several reasons: they need to placate the vocal minority of ravenous fanboys who publicly slammed the initial design, but more importantly, they need to prove they can outdesign a bunch of very talented gaming blog readers.