20-3-2006

Confirmed: HDD to ship with every PS3

Sony has confirmed to a number of gaming websites that the 60GB hard drive will ship with every PlayStation 3.

After Wednesday's conference, where Ken Kutaragi confirmed a worldwide PS3 launch in November, there was some ambiguity over whether the hard drive would be included as standard.

Kutaragi did say that the hard drive would be required, since Sony has told developers to assume the hard drive is present in every PS3.

But he also said that whether the hard drive would be included or not would depend on the market environment. Now, however, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has ensured gamers that the hard drive will definitely be included.

This is of course relieving news. Not only would it be frustrating to purchase a required hard drive separately, it could also alienate a lot of consumers.

As reported last week, the PlayStation 3 has been delayed until November because of Blu-ray copyright protection issues. Sony's next generation console will now launch in Japan/Asia, USA/Canada and Europe simultaneously.

By Bhavin Shah

15-3-2006

Sony: Worldwide launch, 6 million units, hard drive and more...

Ken Kutaragi has officially confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will have a worldwide launch in November.

Sony will unleash one million units per month with a total of six million units by the end of the fiscal year (March 2007).

They have also announced that the PS3's online service will feature community tools including lobby matching and voice chat. Software can be purchased as well, and booted via the hard drive.

All PS3 games will be on the Blu-ray format, in an attempt to reduce piracy.

Kutaragi confirmed that a 60GB hard drive, which will support Linux, will ship with the system out of the box.

The PS3 will be 100% backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games. Furthermore, it will upscale old games into high defintion.

The final PS3 dev kits will ship in June, with 15 different companies making tools and middleware for the SDK.

So finally we have been given a fantastic amount of information, hopefully silencing some concerns brought about by analysts. It is true that the PS3 has been delayed, but thankfully '2007' is not a part of Sony's plans.

By Bhavin Shah