EDI is not just a place for game developers to regurgitate old titles with slightly retooled graphics, nor just a dumping ground for casual games. It is a honest attempt at creating a space for indie games in the console world. EDI has been quietly working with a number of teams to come out with smaller scale games which would benefit from such an approach (“about 40” exclusive titles). One has to only look as far as David Jaffe’s latest offering to contemplate the possibilities of such a system. Yes, Sony still has a long way to go to fulfill the potential of EDI, but what we’ve seen so far is very promising.

The reality is that the friend’s list support that Sony have provided in their libraries is terrible. From within a game, you are notified when your friends sign on and sign off (with a nice translucent overlay)…and that’s about it. Developers have no way of interfacing with this list in any useful manner. You can’t find out if your friends are watching a movie, surfing the net or playing another game. If you send them an invite, you have to hope they sign on to the same game you’re playing before they’ll even see it. Furthermore, there is currently no functionality to even “accept” the invite. It’s just a message to come join a game; it won’t actually take you to the game. Developers have to deal with that problem themselves.

Currently, there is also no default headset support, no voice support on the PS3. This feature has been a TRC requirement for every online game for the Xbox. Let me rephrase that: since the launch of Xbox Live (over 4 years ago), every online game released had to support voice chat. And of course, Microsoft provided libraries. If developers want to support voice chat on the PS3 right now, they have to implement it themselves.

As a relevant example, SCEA had apparently developed a complete online solution for the PS3 (to put it on par with Xbox Live for multiplayer support, ranking, achievements, etc). Sony Japan reportedly came in and cancelled the whole thing, simply saying, “no, you have to use the libraries we’ve put together”.

The lack of a consistent system to offer multiplayer support will lead to vastly different levels of quality across different games. In comparison, Microsoft has only ever allowed one publisher to handle their own multiplayer service on Xbox Live: EA. And judging by how poorly consumers are responding to EA’s online support, EA is paying a steep price for its arrogant belief that they can always do better.

Sony sold 88,400 PS3s in Japan in 2 days: publisher
Mon Nov 13, 5:39 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). sold 88,400 units of its PlayStation 3 game console in the first two days after the launch in Japan, leaving most stores without any stock, video game magazine publisher Enterbrain said on Monday.

Sony started selling the latest version of its blockbuster game console in Japan on Saturday, and all indications point to a strong start. Sony plans to have the PS3 on shelves in North America on November 17, followed by a European launch in March.

According to Enterbrain, Sony sold 88,400 units combined on Saturday and Sunday, depleting stocks at most electronics retailers that were able to get their hands on a limited supply of the console.

Sony was able to ship only 100,000 units for the launch after a glitch in blue laser diode production disrupted its output plans.

An official at Enterbrain said the sales figure could be interpreted as a promising start for the PS3, with thousands of game fans queuing for hours at electronics stores in Tokyo over the weekend to be among the first to play PS3 games.

The PS3 is up against Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which has been on sale for the past year, and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s upcoming Wii game console, which is scheduled to go on sale on November 19 in the United States and December 2 in Japan.

Enterbrain said that Ridge Racer 7 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight, both from Namco Bandai Holdings, were the top two selling games at about 30,000 units each.

The basic model of the PS3, equipped with a 20-gigabyte hard disk drive, sells for 49,980 yen ($425), while a more advanced 60-gigabyte version is retailing for about 60,000 yen.

Of the total sold so far in Japan, Enterbrain said 54,600, or about 62 percent, were of the more advanced model.

November 10, 2006

Merrill Lynch Predicts Massive PS3 Losses, Downgrades Sony
The Japanese arm of analyst and financial firm Merrill Lynch has revised down Sony's forecast and cut its target share price, in anticipation of the launch of the company's PlayStation 3 next-gen console.

Japanese news service FISCO has reported that the company's target share prices of Sony has fallen from ¥4,700 to ¥4,000 (from $40.05 down to $34.09). In addition, Merrill Lynch is estimating a multi-billion dollar operating loss for Sony based on its PlayStation 3 launch.

The group has said it expects Sony to lose a total of ¥738.9 billion ($6.3 billion) over the next 5 years based on manufacturing and sales costs of the PlayStation 3, which includes complex elements in both its CPU and optical drive arenas.

It was Merrill Lynch estimates that earlier this year described the console as an “expensive and difficult-to-manufacture product” based on the “problem points” of the the Cell processor and Blu-ray disc drive, and put manufacturing costs of the console at around $800 at launch, falling to $320 over the following three years.

That followed more estimates from the company that suggested the PlayStation 3 would not be launched until late 2006 in Japan and early 2007 in North America. Sony refuted the comments at the time, as it was still aiming for a spring 2006 launch. Though both of these regions will be seeing the launch of the console over the coming week, the European PS3 launch has been delayed into early 2007.

POSTED: 03.17PM PST, 11/10/06 - Brandon Boyer