Joseph George
June 26th, 2003, 02:28 PM
A lot of things about the PSP remain unclear, though. The exact specifications of the system with regard to gaming haven't been revealed yet, although it's obvious from Kutaragi's statements both yesterday and at E3 that the console has been designed to provide high quality 3D graphics, easily surpassing the performance of the PSone.
Whether the system will play PSone games in some form remains open to speculation, though. Some have suggested that it may be possible to upload your PSone titles to the system, either using Memory Sticks or rewritable UMD discs (the 1.8GB Minidisc style storage media used by the device); however, sadly for the consumer, it's much more likely that Sony will opt to repackage select parts of the PSone back catalogue and sell them as PSP titles, in much the same way as Nintendo has done with SNES titles and the GBA.
What little we know about the design so far is promising, however, and shows how much Sony have learned about portable device design since the introduction of the original Walkman. The system will have a USB 2.0 port as standard, presumably enabling connection to your PC (or PS2/PSX/PS3...) so that you can upload ATRAC music files sourced from your own CD collection or from an online digital music store. A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) is sure to be a popular move, as is the inclusion of Memory Stick solid state storage as well as UMD optical discs.
The Memory Stick slot is made particularly interesting by the fact that the PSX also boasts one, and we expect the PS3 to replace proprietary memory cards entirely in favour of Memory Stick. Indeed, it's expected that Sony will shortly bring out an adapter enabling Memory Sticks to be used as memory devices on the PS2 (similar to Nintendo's forthcoming SD Card adapter for the Cube) - a logical move, since both devices use the MagicGate security and encryption system. The gameplay potential for moving data files between PSP and living room PlayStation devices is huge, and we'll be interested to see what developers come up with given this new ability.
Perhaps wisely, Sony have chosen not to follow down Nokia's path of integrating a mobile phone into the mix. Fundamentally, mobile phones and media players lie at opposite ends of the portable device spectrum in terms of design and ergonomics, and some of the criticism of the design of Nokia's N-Gage is entirely on the money - it's very hard to make a good game console that is also a good phone, so you generally end up with a product that is only average in both departments.
However, would anyone be surprised if the generation of Sony Ericsson phones which appears around the same time as the PSP supports a range of link-up functionality with the device? An end-to-end chain of connectivity, from Sony's online media servers to the media centre in your living room to the media player in your bag to the phone in your pocket - it's a wet dream for technologists, media companies and consumers alike, and Sony may be closer to realising it than anyone imagines.
The real loser here, it seems, is Nintendo - whose share price fell over 10 per cent in the hours after Sony announced the PSP at its press conference the day before E3, despite the fact that the Japanese launch of the device is over 18 months off and the specifications are entirely up in the air. "Sony only needs to clear its throat and Nintendo shakes in its boots these days," one analyst commented to us in Los Angeles - but despite the utter dominance of the Japanese sales charts enjoyed by GBA software and the massive unit sales of the console, given the option of a well designed and powerful music, movie and game player in your pocket, who will really have space for a GBA SP in their daily load-out?
PlayStation 3 - The Next Really Big Thing
As interesting as the PSX and PSP announcements and the thinking behind them may be, the real meat of Sony's plans is still a relatively well-kept secret. We know what will power the PlayStation 3, and we have a rough idea of just how powerful the system will be - but the release date, design and functionality of the device remain matters of pure speculation.
One thing that is clear is that PlayStation 3 is going to be the culmination of Sony's plans in this space to date. PSone was a stellar debut in the games market, PS2 built on that success and experimented with new technologies, PSX and PSP will expand the market into new spaces - but PlayStation 3 will be the real deal, standing on the shoulders of those giants and making a serious bid to own the space underneath the world's televisions.
So, what do we know about PS3 from a technical perspective? Well, for a start, it will be based on the Cell microprocessor, which is described as a "supercomputer on a chip" and has been co-developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony as a next-generation chip for consumer devices. Manufacturing of Cell processors is expected to start seriously over the coming 18 months, although Sony's new fabrication plant for the chip, located in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan, probably won't come online until 2006 at the earliest.
Cell is expected to power a range of devices, from mobile devices (PSP 2?) to home entertainment systems and set-top boxes. Although the hyperbole which SCE is wont to spin around all of its new technologies has led to a certain level of suspicion about Cell (and occasionally, cynical if somewhat unfounded accusations that the "mythical" processor is a red herring), the fact is that it's a fairly well understood piece of technology - no more mysterious than the PS2's "Emotion Engine" core, which for all the marketing spin surrounding it pre-launch, was little more than a relatively normal MIPS CPU with some extra instructions tacked on.
Cell, similarly, is a speedy piece of silicon which marks not so much a revolution as an evolution from the types of chip that the companies involved in its development have previously created. The really interesting thing about the chip is that it's been designed to operate in a cluster of similar devices, with an architecture that scales up to accomodate multiple Cell CPUs working in tandem. Of course, you can do that with standard PC chips - many large servers have multiple CPUs, and dual-processor PCs are becoming more popular in the enthusiast market (having been a core part of Apple's line-up for some time), but all the evidence suggests that Cell is uniquely capable in this respect.
PlayStation 3 is expected to sport multiple Cell chips - at least four, and perhaps as many as eight of the devices, quite possibly all nestled on the same piece of silicon. From a development perspective, the transition to writing PS3 code from PS2 code will be a huge one; this isn't a continuation of the same sort of architecture that the PS2 used at all, but like PS2, is a completely new platform for developers to learn. However, it should be noted that parallel processing is a fairly well understood branch of computer science, so while developers may struggle to get to grips with the system initially, it is unlikely to continue the PS2's reputation for being an incredibly tricky machine to develop on.
In terms of the marketing of the device, two different approaches exist for Sony. The company must decide whether the platform is going to be a single integrated device, bringing together both the media centre capabilities of the PSX and the hardcore games console sensibilities of the PS2. This seems the most likely outcome - a single PlayStation media centre device which plays games, movies and music, accesses broadband content and interfaces with portable devices (like PSP), mobile phones and any other relevant gadgets.
However, the company could equally decide to produce a family of PlayStation products, all inter-compatible and based on the same Cell architecture. A stripped down console-only version, similar to the PS2, would appeal to hardcore gamers; a fully specced media centre version would appeal to the same market that PSX targets. Other versions of the console might offer different subsets of the available functionality, depending on where Sony recognises demand for specific types of PlayStation device. In an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want.
The question most people really want an answer to regards the launch date of the device, but this is one card Sony is playing very close to its chest indeed. A number of factors will affect this date, not least the availability of Cell - the processor is not expected to be manufactured in high volumes until 2006, although reasonable volumes (perhaps enough for a launch in Japan) may well be available in 2005.
Sony will almost certainly be beaten to market by Nintendo, but Nintendo has no aspirations to creating media centre devices, and as such can probably co-exist happily with its Japanese rival. Microsoft's position, on the other hand, is more difficult. Basing the Xbox on PC technology makes it very developer friendly, but it also cripples the company's options in terms of hardware and makes the manufacturing costs of the console extremely high throughout its lifespan. A difficult balancing act faces Microsoft with the Xbox 2. The PlayStation 3, like its predecessors, will inevitably be ahead of the PC hardware available at the time, so if Microsoft launches ahead of the PS3, it may well find itself underpowered compared with Sony's offering - but if it allows Sony to gain a headstart, then as with the current generation of console wars, more powerful hardware may not be enough to catch up.
Whether the system will play PSone games in some form remains open to speculation, though. Some have suggested that it may be possible to upload your PSone titles to the system, either using Memory Sticks or rewritable UMD discs (the 1.8GB Minidisc style storage media used by the device); however, sadly for the consumer, it's much more likely that Sony will opt to repackage select parts of the PSone back catalogue and sell them as PSP titles, in much the same way as Nintendo has done with SNES titles and the GBA.
What little we know about the design so far is promising, however, and shows how much Sony have learned about portable device design since the introduction of the original Walkman. The system will have a USB 2.0 port as standard, presumably enabling connection to your PC (or PS2/PSX/PS3...) so that you can upload ATRAC music files sourced from your own CD collection or from an online digital music store. A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) is sure to be a popular move, as is the inclusion of Memory Stick solid state storage as well as UMD optical discs.
The Memory Stick slot is made particularly interesting by the fact that the PSX also boasts one, and we expect the PS3 to replace proprietary memory cards entirely in favour of Memory Stick. Indeed, it's expected that Sony will shortly bring out an adapter enabling Memory Sticks to be used as memory devices on the PS2 (similar to Nintendo's forthcoming SD Card adapter for the Cube) - a logical move, since both devices use the MagicGate security and encryption system. The gameplay potential for moving data files between PSP and living room PlayStation devices is huge, and we'll be interested to see what developers come up with given this new ability.
Perhaps wisely, Sony have chosen not to follow down Nokia's path of integrating a mobile phone into the mix. Fundamentally, mobile phones and media players lie at opposite ends of the portable device spectrum in terms of design and ergonomics, and some of the criticism of the design of Nokia's N-Gage is entirely on the money - it's very hard to make a good game console that is also a good phone, so you generally end up with a product that is only average in both departments.
However, would anyone be surprised if the generation of Sony Ericsson phones which appears around the same time as the PSP supports a range of link-up functionality with the device? An end-to-end chain of connectivity, from Sony's online media servers to the media centre in your living room to the media player in your bag to the phone in your pocket - it's a wet dream for technologists, media companies and consumers alike, and Sony may be closer to realising it than anyone imagines.
The real loser here, it seems, is Nintendo - whose share price fell over 10 per cent in the hours after Sony announced the PSP at its press conference the day before E3, despite the fact that the Japanese launch of the device is over 18 months off and the specifications are entirely up in the air. "Sony only needs to clear its throat and Nintendo shakes in its boots these days," one analyst commented to us in Los Angeles - but despite the utter dominance of the Japanese sales charts enjoyed by GBA software and the massive unit sales of the console, given the option of a well designed and powerful music, movie and game player in your pocket, who will really have space for a GBA SP in their daily load-out?
PlayStation 3 - The Next Really Big Thing
As interesting as the PSX and PSP announcements and the thinking behind them may be, the real meat of Sony's plans is still a relatively well-kept secret. We know what will power the PlayStation 3, and we have a rough idea of just how powerful the system will be - but the release date, design and functionality of the device remain matters of pure speculation.
One thing that is clear is that PlayStation 3 is going to be the culmination of Sony's plans in this space to date. PSone was a stellar debut in the games market, PS2 built on that success and experimented with new technologies, PSX and PSP will expand the market into new spaces - but PlayStation 3 will be the real deal, standing on the shoulders of those giants and making a serious bid to own the space underneath the world's televisions.
So, what do we know about PS3 from a technical perspective? Well, for a start, it will be based on the Cell microprocessor, which is described as a "supercomputer on a chip" and has been co-developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony as a next-generation chip for consumer devices. Manufacturing of Cell processors is expected to start seriously over the coming 18 months, although Sony's new fabrication plant for the chip, located in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan, probably won't come online until 2006 at the earliest.
Cell is expected to power a range of devices, from mobile devices (PSP 2?) to home entertainment systems and set-top boxes. Although the hyperbole which SCE is wont to spin around all of its new technologies has led to a certain level of suspicion about Cell (and occasionally, cynical if somewhat unfounded accusations that the "mythical" processor is a red herring), the fact is that it's a fairly well understood piece of technology - no more mysterious than the PS2's "Emotion Engine" core, which for all the marketing spin surrounding it pre-launch, was little more than a relatively normal MIPS CPU with some extra instructions tacked on.
Cell, similarly, is a speedy piece of silicon which marks not so much a revolution as an evolution from the types of chip that the companies involved in its development have previously created. The really interesting thing about the chip is that it's been designed to operate in a cluster of similar devices, with an architecture that scales up to accomodate multiple Cell CPUs working in tandem. Of course, you can do that with standard PC chips - many large servers have multiple CPUs, and dual-processor PCs are becoming more popular in the enthusiast market (having been a core part of Apple's line-up for some time), but all the evidence suggests that Cell is uniquely capable in this respect.
PlayStation 3 is expected to sport multiple Cell chips - at least four, and perhaps as many as eight of the devices, quite possibly all nestled on the same piece of silicon. From a development perspective, the transition to writing PS3 code from PS2 code will be a huge one; this isn't a continuation of the same sort of architecture that the PS2 used at all, but like PS2, is a completely new platform for developers to learn. However, it should be noted that parallel processing is a fairly well understood branch of computer science, so while developers may struggle to get to grips with the system initially, it is unlikely to continue the PS2's reputation for being an incredibly tricky machine to develop on.
In terms of the marketing of the device, two different approaches exist for Sony. The company must decide whether the platform is going to be a single integrated device, bringing together both the media centre capabilities of the PSX and the hardcore games console sensibilities of the PS2. This seems the most likely outcome - a single PlayStation media centre device which plays games, movies and music, accesses broadband content and interfaces with portable devices (like PSP), mobile phones and any other relevant gadgets.
However, the company could equally decide to produce a family of PlayStation products, all inter-compatible and based on the same Cell architecture. A stripped down console-only version, similar to the PS2, would appeal to hardcore gamers; a fully specced media centre version would appeal to the same market that PSX targets. Other versions of the console might offer different subsets of the available functionality, depending on where Sony recognises demand for specific types of PlayStation device. In an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want.
The question most people really want an answer to regards the launch date of the device, but this is one card Sony is playing very close to its chest indeed. A number of factors will affect this date, not least the availability of Cell - the processor is not expected to be manufactured in high volumes until 2006, although reasonable volumes (perhaps enough for a launch in Japan) may well be available in 2005.
Sony will almost certainly be beaten to market by Nintendo, but Nintendo has no aspirations to creating media centre devices, and as such can probably co-exist happily with its Japanese rival. Microsoft's position, on the other hand, is more difficult. Basing the Xbox on PC technology makes it very developer friendly, but it also cripples the company's options in terms of hardware and makes the manufacturing costs of the console extremely high throughout its lifespan. A difficult balancing act faces Microsoft with the Xbox 2. The PlayStation 3, like its predecessors, will inevitably be ahead of the PC hardware available at the time, so if Microsoft launches ahead of the PS3, it may well find itself underpowered compared with Sony's offering - but if it allows Sony to gain a headstart, then as with the current generation of console wars, more powerful hardware may not be enough to catch up.