I am meeting Phil Harrison - Any questions you’d like answered?

[WelshBluebird]

Originally Posted by krismc

wil wireless controllers be standard? and how many will it support at once??

its already been said it will support up to 7 controllers at once.

[fingleburt]

Originally Posted by pez

"Its impractical to believe you can fulfill every single order. But we are going to do the best job we can." - Ray Maguire - SCE UK.

pez

*Spin* is all that is.

[televisionuser]

Tejstar: Can you ask when Sony will set a UK retail price for the PS3 so I can go ahead and pre order the PS3.

[Tejstar]

Originally Posted by fingleburt

Definately need to ask about the world wide launch and will there be enough produced to go round or will it be the fiasco that was the 360 launch.

I will be asking how they plan to launch in the UK and whether it will follow their PS2 format of ‘1 per customer’.

[Tejstar]

Originally Posted by bishman

Will you be posting all your answers back her Tejstar?

I will indeed. I won’t go through every question with an answer – more so I will let you know the most interesting findings from the meeting. Don’t get your hopes up too high though, Phil is a pro and he’s very good at saying a lot without actually giving anything away!

[Tejstar]

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

probably should have said in my post - i meant digital formats.
So will we be able to play wma or aac files on it (aswell as the obvious mp3 and atrac), and willl we be able to play AVI, MPEG 2 and 4 videos etc.

Ok. sorry for the misunderstanding. I'll add that to the list!

[Tejstar]

Originally Posted by televisionuser

Tejstar: Can you ask when Sony will set a UK retail price for the PS3 so I can go ahead and pre order the PS3.

I will ask the question, but I imagine they’ll vaguely tell me it’ll sometime later this year.

[bishman]

Originally Posted by Tejstar

I will indeed. I won’t go through every question with an answer – more so I will let you know the most interesting findings from the meeting. Don’t get your hopes up too high though, Phil is a pro and he’s very good at saying a lot without actually giving anything away!

Don't worry, I know the type. I'm fully expecting you to come back with very little solid info.

[Tejstar]

Just got back from my meeting with Sony, David and Phil basically went through a lot of the stuff they went through at GDC and also gave us a demonstration of some of the PS3 technical demos. These demo’s were extremely impressive, however I can’t say I was blown away. It wasn’t a real time demo, it was using a HD tape running on a Qualia 1080p LCD TV (boy was that TV nice!) The demo ran in full 1080p and what stuck for me is how much the PS3 will be able to process all at one time.

[Tejstar]

Anyway here’s a list of questions, with quick answers underneath each. They were vague as expected, and I got the impression that there’s still a long way to go. It will be interesting what they will announce at E3.

What his views are on the headstart MS have and how the delay for the PS3 will affect their strategy.

Not concerned about the competition, they are following their own strategy.

Launch date for UK.
Launch price for UK.

No comment

When will we see some games up an running?

E3

Is a hard drive going to be included in the box?

Yes

What other accessories are being planned to go in with the initial console. HD cables? Head sets? Wireless controllers?

Still to be decided.

Backwards compatibility w.r.t. peripherials. Are things like steering wheels or Guitar Hero controllers going to be usable with the PS3?

Still to be decided.

Given the PS3 is backwards compatible with PS1 & 2, how do gamers use their memory cards on PS3? Will there be a way to "copy" games saves from memory card onto a memory stick?

Still to be determined, it’s something they’re looking at.

Why is the controller being re-designed?

No comment, they just felt it needed adapting.

What video connection items will be supported?

Skirted the question, I think this is still work in progress.

[Tejstar]

What will differentiate a high end Sony Bluray player from the Bluray in the Playstation 3?

They used the analogy of the original PS2’s DVD feature set. Doesn’t bode well for the movies part.

Is the design of the PS3 final?

There will be minor tweaks – didn’t reveal whether there will be a design overhaul though.

Global online play?

Yes, however only for PAL regions, US and Japan (sorry Tetlee, Argentina is not supported right now).

What are the plans for PSP-PS3 wireless connectivity? Will you be able to select music to play on your PS3 by using the PSP as a remote control, for example?

Yes, you’ll be able to use the PSP to stream content that is stored on the PS3’s hard drive, whether that be game downloads, music or video.

Business model of Playstation Network Platform (PNP) service?

Pretty much as has been documented already, games are free but Sony will make money from additional content (extra maps for games or cars etc. plus music and video downloads).

[Tejstar]

Region-free intentions. Will region-free gaming really be that, or will devs still be allowed to put locks into a game when they press it? (even if officially the PS3 is region free).

Bit shady on this one, but from what I understood, it will indeed be region free.

Confirmation of a revision of the PSP itself? Will it have built in RAM, mic, HDD etc?

Sony admire what Ninty has done with the GBA and DS, it won’t be a surprise to know that something is in the works. And while nothing is confirmed, I got the feeling from the Sony guys that a HDD will definitely be included in the ‘PSP 2’. Also the size of the unit is likely to be readdressed.

Will Sony be putting any pressure on Developers to use the full 1080p resolution in their Games or whether this is going to be quite rare, with 720p being the norm.

They are still working out what the minimum requirements for PS3 games will be.

[Tejstar]

Additional content on Blu-ray disks to take advantage of content

Very coy about this, they did say that they need 50GB disks for launch titles, however wouldn’t comment how much of that will be used for games initially.

They made a point that Microsoft’s fundamental flaw with the 360, is to do with the disk storage/on board memory ratio is completely skewed.

What they were saying is that the PS3’s on board memory is 512mb, however it’s game disk storage space will be 50gb i.e. a ratio of 98x. However, with the 360, the on board memory is the same as PS3 (512MB) but the capacity of the optical disks is 9GB i.e. a ratio of 18x.

Sony argued that the right balance for a successful console is around 100x (which both the PS2 and Xbox had). The other console to ‘score’ as low as the 360 was the Dreamcast, Sony feel MS have made a big mistake by not uptaking the use of a HD format.

I’m not too sure about this argument, after all the DC is one of my favourite consoles ever!

What would we expect to see as additional content on the disk (the making of.., Interview with...How we done this...etc) - and will this be filmed in high definition?

Definitely part of the future, although it is publisher specific, so it depends how much effort a publisher is willing to put in.

Also, as the PNP service will be free, will we be bombarded with countless and relentless adverts (in game, network lobbies etc...)

No mention of lobby advertising was talked about, but they said in-game advertising will be a big part of their plan. Adverts will be directed in games depending on the profile Sony have of you. They think this could drive significant revenues for the group.

[Tetlee]

Originally Posted by Tejstar

Global online play?

Yes, however only for PAL regions, US and Japan (sorry Tetlee, Argentina is not supported right now).

What, noooo! Ah well, looks like there'll be no need for me to invest in the PS3 then Thanks for asking Tejstar, much appreciated!

Looks like I'm going to be just playing DS & PSP online then, unless I can get the 360 connected when I finally get the power pack.

I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the Revolution offering global online(including Argentina). Give me online MarioKart and I'll be satisfied

[drskhaled]

No real surpirses then, but great report nonetheless Tejstar. Well i'm glad the hdd is included (none of this premium/core nonsense).

ouch might not be the greatest bluray player then but i dont really care about that.

Unsurprisingly no scoops on the pricing, that is the million dollar question. Ahh well roll on e3 i say for a look at the games in action.