The Playstation 3 and the Launch Delay

It probably hit most Sony fans like a brick to the face. Sony- delaying the Playstation 3, what we have all been grabbing at, till November of this year. That means we have to wait somewhere along the lines of 7 to 8 months to even see the system being stocked, let alone get our hands on the shiny goodness that Sony wants to sell us for huge amounts of cash.

But, there's something that a lot of Gaming sites are running over, and it's time to explain it- WHY Sony is pushing back the release date. Why Sony can't pump out three billion PS3s all over the world in April or May, and why you're essentially going to benifit from this. Leave all your assumptions about why Sony likes to torture you and read this- hopefully, you will understand not only why Sony is doing this push, but also why it's gonna benifit all of us in the long run.



The PS3, the Playstation Three- the third rendition of the massively popular Playstation game console by Sony. The Playstation started off as almost somewhat of an accident- Sony originally worked with Nintendo on a CD Drive based system for the SNES. However, things didn't work out right, and as Nintendo slowly geared toward the production of the Nintendo 64, Sony was left going "Huh?". So, being somewhat entrepreneurial at the time, Sony decided to go ahead and make a gaming system. Something new, original, and completely CD based, as the market was just now getting adjusted to the concept of CDs. So the Playstation One, or the PSX was made- a small, grey system with a powerful 3D engine in it and the ability to play CDs.

Needless to say this sold like hotcakes, getting so popular so quickly it ended up being a close competitor to the Nintendo 64, at that time somewhat dominant in the industry. After hooking with Squaresoft and the majority of Konami and Capcom, Sony was hitting all the right buttons for gamers, and made tons of money. But, it was becoming increasingly obvious the PS1 was aging. As newer games came out, it was more and more obvious both the Playstation and the Nintendo 64 were old- it was time for a new contender. So, behind closed doors for a seemingly endless amount of time, they created the Playstation Two- the PS2. The PS2 had everything at the time- a DVD player cheaper than any other DVD player on the market, the ability to play older games, beautiful graphics without the "Fuzzy" look of the PS1, and best of all, it was going to feature new renditions of everyone's favorite games. Of course, when the PS2 launched, it hit the world like wildfire, selling so many consoles Sony could barely make them fast enough, sometimes creating massive shortages, to many gamer's dismay.

Of course, the PS2 is still around, and it holds basically unrivaled ownership of a huge percent of the gamer population. When it comes down to it, the big competitors now are Sony and Nintendo- and they know it- and this whole population fight has been going on since the systems were around.



But now we have the Playstation 3, and a whole new war over dominance. You see, the XBOX 360 is already out, which means that the market has already seen what could be considered Next Generation. So now, the big two companies who own the world's gaming industry for all intents and purposes are going to pull out their big guns this year. But, Sony, for no real reason, announces they're going to pull this at a later-than-speculated date- November- to launch the PS3. Why?

Easy. There are three big reasons why Sony is hiding away till November. I'll go through each of them as breifly as I can, but these still are very important reasons to remember as you look at that empty spot in your entertainment center for that PS3:

1. November is Christmas, which means big sales.

Let's face it, we all know what Christmas is- buying season. Try going to Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve if you don't believe me. The whole place is packed, nasty, and only entertaining for those who aren't looking for something to buy. It's when all of America, and almost all of the world, get together and buy stuff for each other, which so obviously means that Video Games sell like mad. It's a great time to launch any game- and in general, any game that has launched during Christmas makes money faster than any other time of the year. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sold en masse during the holidays, not only because it was a great new Zelda game, but because it was Christmas, and everyone wanted it anyway.

Another great thing about Christmas is that you can overhype things and it directly affects your purchases. It doesn't matter WHAT you do in advertising, if you can convince a bunch of parents all over the world that this is the hot new system/game, they will most likely buy it for their son/daughter. It's kinda low, but one has to remember that even if a game is rated Mature, the majority of gamers are still under 18, and that leads most to have to market where parents are willing to purchase it. For example, showing kids in a room enjoying your game (Or, in the case of something like DDR, getting exercise), parents are led to believe "Oh, my Son/Daughter/Pet would love that game for Christmas" and run off to the store.

2. Sony can't afford doing anything else.

Let me put this as nicely as possible- Sony right now is on a knife's edge. With nothing other than some lackluster games and mediocre titles running out en masse for all gaming systems, the PS2 is taking a major hit. While they did sell new PS2s at a nice price over the last Holiday season, they are still not benifitting from the PS2 like they used to, primarily because all new gamers are going toward the XBOX 360 or some other high powered system. While the PSP has done well for them, even IT can't survive waning interest in the Playstation name.

Statistically, as I look at Reuters stock information, Sony also has had huge price raises, presumably to offset the costs of continuing the Playstation 2 as they develop 3. They are not in a good situation with this, because unless the PS3 is a major hit (Which, chances are, it is guaranteed to be), they will completely run out of available money for the project and have to do some quick snap decisions. Think of it this way- while Sony is rich and everything, they still are not invincible to market hits. If they stopped gaining money on the PS2 entirely, they would probably have to rush or completely cut the PS3, depending on their financial situation.



For the actual specs of the PS3, it's even worse. Sony's obsession with pulling a PS2 and getting a new format of DVD on the PS3 may be more expensive than it needs to be. Actually, with all the components included, the PS3 is somewhere along the lines of $900 to produce- EACH. This is obviously not feasible, and Sony is using their newfound free time to cut back on the price, but regardless, it shows how carefree and ambitious they are with this project, when they should honestly restrain themselves and attempt to concentrate on the important facets of the project, like getting it out for less than $500.

Does that mean the system will take a hit? Absolutely not. The Playstation 3 graphics demos (Allthough opposing forces call them generated) were real, but they barely used the power of the PS3. With that in mind, the games you saw at E3 last year will probably stay the same, but the parts that Sony will use will probably be different for price. This doesn't mean you won't have your Cell processor or your Blu-Ray DVD, it probably means you won't have a whopping 60 gig HDD in the thing, probably only 20 or so. It may mean that the system itself will come in different packages, ala the XBOX 360. It simply means that the system will be different- not bad, not good, just cut back.

3. The system needs fixes anyway.

Theres a lot that many people ignore when talking about the PS3- mainly, that the system needs work. We all know by now that the Playstation 3 controller is God's punishment to a sinning world. As well, the fact that the Gigabit Ethernet connection won't have any kind of proprietary internet system running it is kinda a problem. The system design itself will probably go over work to stop looking like a Spiderman 2 logo. Sony itself has adknoweldged it needs work, which is no surprise considering the ambitious plans they have for the system.

Again, this does not mean the system is bad or good. This is simply something that needs to be done. The system itself as the design goes is extremely bulky and somewhat ugly, as well as the fact that it has so many connectors in the back it looks like Swiss Cheese. The development environment is the part that needs to most work from the developer standpoint, being known as one of the most difficult to use (Though, to be fair, the people who complained about it always tend to complain about such things (Gabe Newell), so I ignore them). Sure, the Cell processor may be hard to use, and hopefully some sort of processor management/load allocator may be in order. I doubt at this stage Sony will completely rip apart their dev environment and start over, but who knows- it's over 6 months till release, it could very well happen.





In closing, I'd like to remind our readers that you can't be a fanboy about this system right now, no matter how attractive it is. Sure, I may be excited about it- but I'm also excited for the Nintendo Revolution and even the XBOX 360. You need to wait and see the console in action at the end of the year before you even think about starting huge debates about "Which is Better". Frankly, no-one knows, not even the system makers themselves. I guarantee you that it will take about a year's worth of life for each system to determine if it's worth it. Until then, hold your horses, keep your wallet in your pocket, and check our site from time to time as we contact various companies for information and news.