Playstation 3 has, like Wii will later today, been disclosed already before the actual E3 event. Sony released some very interesting information and has among others chosen to go the same path as Microsoft did and will launch two units; one cheaper version that comes with a 20GB harddrive and a more expensive version with a 60GB harddrive. The first will cost $499/€499 and the latter $599/€599. The first seems to be limited in more ways than the storage though; no card reader or WiFi. There might be more, but we will have to await more detailed information.
Something that comes as quite a surprise is the fact that Sony seems to have dumped the whole dual-HDMI story completely. Very surprising, but to begin with it seemed like just the cheaper version would lack ths HDMI support, but according to IGN this applies to both units.
On the other hand the new controller comes as a positive spin on the whole thing. Sony has namely chosen to go back to the old PS2 design, but made it cordless and lighter. The possibility to connect it via USB is there you want the feel of a cord and when connected it will be recharged for future cordless use.
It has also chosen to add a tilt feature to the controller, which makes it possibe to lean and move the controller up and down and make the thing on the screen move accordingly. Hardly something new or even original, but it’s always interesting to see more possibilities for the developers to work with, even though similar controllers have been around for the PC for years and without ever really catching on. The rumble function has been removed as it interfered with the tilt.
Sony will have consoles ready play during E3, which contradicts earlier rumors. The first launch date has been set to November 11 in Japan and the 17th in the rest of the world. Sony is counting on shipping 6 million units before the end of March 2007 and two thirds should’ve arrived before the end of 2006. We sincerely hope it will be able to keep this as no one wants another “Xbox 360-launch”, Sony the least to say.
