Son says Its PS3 Still for 'Early Adopters'

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NuclearShadow

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I think Sony made some large mistakes with the PS3 as well as event beyond their control. If we look at the hardware market we know that mid grade hardware is what sells the most and is what most likely caused the downfall of 3DFX simply because they focused on the high end. This seems to hold true for consoles as well. There are of course other factors as well.
 

coldmast

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PS3: Jack of all trades, master of none

PS3, biggest mistake was not coming out at the same time the X360 did

as for the Wii if you asked anyone that Nintendo would be making the #1 console after N64 and Gamecube, I would have laughed.
 
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As far as a gaming system the biggest mistake Sony made was probably using the "cell" processor. Turns out that CPU performance doesn't matter near as much as GPU performance. You see this in PC gaming again and again. Since the GPU's on the 360 and PS3 are similar in performance they will never have a noticeable difference in graphical quality. Blu Ray in gaming isn't necessary at this point. (and I think we are a long way from it). I bought the PS3 when it first came out and I don't regret it. It has a great video processor. As a Blu-Ray and DVD player it's still the best. I think it's time for Sony to stop saying that the PS3 is still warming up. It's time to suck it in and admit that it's never going to sell as well as hoped.

Sony should be developing the PS4 at this point. In 3 years if Microsoft puts out a new Xbox with an updated GPU it will blow away the Ps3.
 

buzznut

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Not sure I agree with the jack of all trades comment. From my experience, the ps3 is an excellent blue ray player. It hasn't translated into sales figures vs the competition, but 20 million units sold doesn't sound like a failure to me.

PS3 has something the competition lacks, blue ray. I actually believe the early adopter stance, even after 3 years. I never expected to buy a 400 game machine, after owning every console under the sun since the pong machine. But the government stimulus provided an opportunity this last summer, and I love my ps3.

Looks even better since my niece's 360 went belly up after 6 months of ownership with the red ring of death.
 

DustyDinkelman

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Well, if the PS3 had come out the same time as the XBOX360, it probably would have cost $800+ instead of $600 (assuming the technology was ready at that point). Not very competitively priced. Not to mention, a SEVERE lack of games, quality games. So releasing the same year as XBOX360 may not have been feasible from a price standpoint or technological standpoint. Who knows, it could have brought about SONY's own RRoD-type debacle.
 

JeanLuc

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[citation][nom]Aethm[/nom]As far as a gaming system the biggest mistake Sony made was probably using the "cell" processor. Turns out that CPU performance doesn't matter near as much as GPU performance. You see this in PC gaming again and again. Since the GPU's on the 360 and PS3 are similar in performance they will never have a noticeable difference in graphical quality. [/citation]

The idea behind the Cell was that it would enable programmers to off load some of the graphical work of the GPU and onto the Cell. A goods idea in principle but the trouble is the Cell is very hard to code for (according to Valve and others) hence why 90% of PS3 title only use the PPU and none of the SPE's (excuse if I have the terminology wrong I'm no console fanboy.

The Cell from what I can recall has a computational output of around about 254 GFlops, now that's impressive compared to high end Intel chips which have about 70 Gflops. However even the power of the Cell pales in comparison to a GPU, I'm not sure what output the PS3/360 GPU's have buy the 4870X2 for example has it's computation measured in Tflops. I know the PS3 GPU is know where near anything like mainstream PC GPU's but still even a cell can't be expected to do the job a GPU.
 
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There is one trade that the ps3 lacks, and the other 2 consoles have absolutely no clue about, and that is linux. I for one am an all os man myself, but the ps3 would have sold like hot cakes IF linux would have been supported from the geko and when i say supported i mean having a RSX driver to work with .. that would have replaced a computer or at least a HTPC for most ppl. Having that option, to switch to a gaming console or an OS with full support of every movie format, e-mails, IM clients, office applications and other .. would have been great.
 
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There is one trade that the ps3 lacks, and the other 2 consoles have absolutely no clue about, and that is linux. I for one am an all os man myself, but the ps3 would have sold like hot cakes IF linux would have been supported from the geko and when i say supported i mean having a RSX driver to work with .. that would have replaced a computer or at least a HTPC for most ppl. Having that option, to switch to a gaming console or an OS with full support of every movie format, e-mails, IM clients, office applications and other .. would have been great.
 

jokemeister

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I cant help but think the PS3 was ambitious. The cell processor technology wise is way ahead but with that came the difficulties in programming. You've only got to look at some of the alternative uses the Cell has been put to such as BOINC to see just how powerful it is. For me though, it's not BOINC or left field implementations, it's not Linux or even the Blue Ray player, it's the next installment of GranTurismo.....and still waiting..!! Gran Turismo is the reason, other decent games would be the excuse.
 

pochacco007

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it's been two years. first they said they were the underdogs, which they weren't because the wii was and now they're saying that it's for early adopter.
 

teknomedic

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Removing PS2 backwards compatiblity and not having a good price drop by now certainly hasn't helped, but making excuses doesn't help either. I guess the Gamecube, N64, Dreamcast, 3DO, etc... are still in the early "adopter phases" as well.

Sony, you messed up and know it. Really, what good is a 10 year outlook and being it for the long hall if your brand is killed by year 4?
 
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Sony over the years has always been a little more "proud" of the their products when it comes to the retail price. The Walkman comes to mind. And it's more of the same with the PS3. What's more disturbing is Sony's stick their head in the sand mentality about their retail pricing. This early adopter phase is part denial and outright gibberish. The simple fact is: drop the price, and I'll coin this phrase, so the I-can-finally-afford-one adopters will buy a PS3. Why do I get it? I was only an English Major!
 

zodiacfml

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exactly, right from the start, i saw the cell processor will PS3's downfall. the cell cpu is the exact opposite of the xbox concept which uses PC architecture which allows cheaper and easier development of games.

[citation][nom]Aethm[/nom]As far as a gaming system the biggest mistake Sony made was probably using the "cell" processor. Turns out that CPU performance doesn't matter near as much as GPU performance. You see this in PC gaming again and again. Since the GPU's on the 360 and PS3 are similar in performance they will never have a noticeable difference in graphical quality. Blu Ray in gaming isn't necessary at this point. (and I think we are a long way from it). I bought the PS3 when it first came out and I don't regret it. It has a great video processor. As a Blu-Ray and DVD player it's still the best. I think it's time for Sony to stop saying that the PS3 is still warming up. It's time to suck it in and admit that it's never going to sell as well as hoped. Sony should be developing the PS4 at this point. In 3 years if Microsoft puts out a new Xbox with an updated GPU it will blow away the Ps3.[/citation]
 

Roland00

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The gpu in the ps3 is a nvidia gpu that is based off nvidia 7800 series of gpus. It is almost identical to the 7800 gtx 512mb edition (which is different clocks than the 256mb edition), except it only has 256mb of gddr3 instead of 512 and a much slower memory clock (700 mhz instead of 1.4 ghz)

The xenos gpu in xbox360 is a wierd gpu, it was the first real gpu that ati made with a unified shader model (which is in all the gpus of the 2000-3000 series.) check out the response on this anadtech discussion to get an idea of its speed. In sum it was between the x800 and the x1800 in speed.
http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472
 

falchard

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I think the problem lies more with the developers then with Sony. Sony brought out a system that should have developers salivating, but instead they keep churning out the same clones and attempt to adopt clones into the PS3.

If I was the developer I would try to think outside the box on how to get the PS3 to work for me and play to its strength, high computational output. You can do a lot with the game play with how much this thing can calculate. You can run entirely script based graphics, have realistic physics, you can use the controller to some effect, bla bla bla.

The new XBox being releasing in 2010 looks to be completely identical to a PC.
 

deltatux

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It's either an attempt at bad damage control or that "early" is really late for adopters. Face it, as great a machine as the PS3 is, it's marketing failed. The system works more like a Cell computer than a gaming system with a Cell processor. Hell, there are only 2 reasons why I want a PS3: Metal Gear Solid 4 and use it as a Cell computer.

 

megamanx00

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[citation][nom]Spade1984[/nom]There is one trade that the ps3 lacks, and the other 2 consoles have absolutely no clue about, and that is linux. I for one am an all os man myself, but the ps3 would have sold like hot cakes IF linux would have been supported from the geko and when i say supported i mean having a RSX driver to work with .. that would have replaced a computer or at least a HTPC for most ppl. Having that option, to switch to a gaming console or an OS with full support of every movie format, e-mails, IM clients, office applications and other .. would have been great.[/citation]

Linux is supported by the PS3 you dummy. The Cell is based on the power PC architecture and most major Distros have tools to develop programs specifically for the Cell. You may want to look up yellow dog linux. That's the only reason I even considered getting one, but it's high price has kept me away.

The problem with the PS3 is blu ray. The Blu Ray consortium got out of hand and adding the capability of blu ray to the PS3 was a big part of its price, and don't forget the added cost to the developers and publishers for the "privilege" of using blu ray disks. Of course, if the PS3 didn't have blu ray then we'd be talking about how HD DVD is struggling since blu ray would have died off long ago.

Having a lower price would have given the PS3 more momentum and even though it's often been compared to the Saturn as a programming nightmare, there would be more and better games for it simply because it had a larger market. Instead its high price didn't allow it to capitalize on the fan base they built up with the PS2, thus leading to fewer exclusive games, thus leading to lack of interest, thus leading it to it's current place as "that other" system.
 

pwjone1

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Don't get me wrong, I like the PS3, Sony got a lot right with it, and I suspect in terms of raw power, it's still heads and shoulders above the competition. The price, for what you get, is pretty reasonable. Sony, could probably go still lower, Blu-Ray disk drives are a lot cheaper, the Cell processors out of IBM probably could get still smaller (lower power or faster, pick some combination). But $/MIPS, it's a lot cheaper than Wii or XBox.

However, there are some things Sony, did not get right, at all, and these are hurting the potential of the PS3 as a platform, I think in a very serious way:

1. Noisy

The fan seems to like run on the things, and when watching a Blu-Ray movie, particularly something where everything is not blowing up all the time, the fan needs to be quieter. Think Theater PC.

2. Needs to Stream Movies

If I have a full blown PS3, why can't it stream Netflix over the network. Plenty of MIPS to do that? I suppose Sony will have its own, proprietary formats eventually, but I'm getting a little tired of waiting. I'd like to be able to buy-on-demand a Blu-Ray or DVD quality movie, have it download to the box, and play (for a day or if the downloads are too slow, a week).

3. It's a Networked Game box, so...

Sony needs to open up the PS3 more, work on its store, come up with models more like iTunes (download music/video), and then Games should follow the same model. Keep the game on the server, allow me to buy a digital license, download it to the PS3. Or follow the Netflix model, let me have 4 games at a time downloaded, but charging a monthly fee. Also let the 3rd parties make some money. Come up with a You-tube type connection.

It's not that the PS3 isn't a good hardware platform, it is, and was, in many ways, ahead of its time. And the application potential is still pretty open ended. Far more MIPS there than you average home PC. But if there's any company that is more NIH (Not Invented Here) than Sony, I'm not sure what it would be. The home space is going to be deeded over by default to Microsoft and the PC platform (and Wii, who seems to be the only game console manufacturer to get that aside from a few Jolt! caffeinated 15 year olds, the vast majority of game players would like something simpler), unless Sony figures this out soon. Open up the console, make it easier to use, let 3rd. parties help simplify and extend, and the PS3 would then do fine.
 
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