Sony releases Playstation 3 (PS3), after giving Microsoft Xbox360 a 12 month head start

January 18th 2006
By Nadeem Walayat

Sony finally releases Play Station 3 in the US and Japan, though other parts of the world will have to wait a while. This might sound like good news for US & Japanese game players, but Sony is not expected to be able to satisfy the demand until well into 2007, so most game players wanting the Sony 3 will still have to wait a while longer. The official price for the PS3's is between $549 and $659 (depending on extras), but some of the PS3s are being offered on eBay for up to five times their retail price i.e. $2,500.

How much will it cost and what do you get ?
There are two PS3 systems . The less expensive system retails at $549 and has a 20 gigabyte hard drive, a built in Blu-ray DVD player, no WiFi but Bluetooth for the PS3 controller, HDMI port and support of 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p 1080i, and 1080p video modes and features four USB ports to hookup USB devices.

The higher-end console retails at $659 and has a 60 gig hard drive, Blu-ray DVD player, WiFi, Bluetooth, memory card reader, HDMI and support of 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p video modes, USB Port.

Both feature 512meg ram, and the 3.2 gighz processor.

Why the delay ?
Originally the PS3 was due to be released in 2005 !, But continuing problems with the Blu-ray optical disc technology with regards copy protection, problems with the graphics chips, and the difficult to manufacture Sony Cell processor.

The costs of the delay to Sony
You may think that finally Sony will start to reap the rewards from the release of PS3, unfortunately that facts are that the PS3's are being sold at a loss, as Sony is expecting to make money from the games software that will be released. So far the few first generation games released are not much difference quality wise than Xbox. The delay is likely to have a big impact on profits on the back of costs of recalling millions of Sony-made lithium-ion batteries. Thus profits for 2006 are likely to be half the forecasts.

The stock price has also suffered, having fallen by nearly 30% from highs earlier in the year.

Who is the winner ? Microsoft XBOX360 or Sony PS3 ?
Microsoft, having had a 12 month head start over Sony, has had time to grab market share from Sony's delays which seemed to go on for an eternity. Worst still even now, today most customers will not be able to purchase the PS3 for Christmas's, with barely 200,000 units released to the US Market, with an estimated demand for over 1 million machines, which means many more gamers will give up and go with the XBOX360, especially since there is little difference in the quality of games, with the advantage to Microsoft in having many more games available, as Sony is expected to have available barely 20 PS3 games in the launch window. Important titles such as Sega's new Sonic the Hedgehog has not been completed whereas the XBOX360 versions will be released in time for Christmas.

Sony had previously stated that all PS2 games would work on the PS3, unfortunately this is no longer true !, now upto 20% of PS2 games will not work properly with the Sony playstation.

Also Sony has made a major strategic mistake in not developing an online gaming presence and pretty much left it to the game publishers to develop their own sites, whereas Microsoft has developed a central website for all gamers to use. As the future of gaming is for online multi-player action.

Another problem that Sony has is the difference in the DVD technologies adopted, Sony's Blue Ray is not compatible with Microsoft's HD-DVD, what this means is that one of these systems will become invalid as a DVD player within a year or two.

Clearly so far, Microsoft is winning the games console battle. With sony scoring many own goals.

Comparison of Specifications between Xbox360 and PS3

Conclusion
Sony has developed a potentially good gaming platform in the PS 3, BUT it has made far too many strategic mistakes, far too many, that have likely enabled Microsoft to benefit hugely, especially since the problems will continue well into 2007, namely the lack of supply, the lack of PS3 games, and relative price, means that XBOX will likely continue to benefit at Sony's expense well into 2007. We will have to see what the situation is in 6 months time, whether the DVD Player technology takes off, and what level of supplies hit the market as most importantly the number of games titles on release.

If you are looking to buy an PS3, then I would say buy a Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii. There is nothing in the new PS3 games is worth paying that much for it right now and the technology needs to be tested in the market place for compatability and durability issues..

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