PS3 Speculation Aplenty News

In contrast to what appears to be a relatively steady and calm progress towards the launch of Xbox 360 at the end of 2005, speculation surrounding Sonyâ??s PlayStation3 console continues to build.

After SCEI boss Ken Kutaragi announced that people will feel the need to work longer hours to afford the next-gen console, speculation that the price of the PS3 will be relatively higher than previous console launches have been strengthened by comment from NVIDIA CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang. Speaking to Beyond3D at his companyâ??s â??Editor Dayâ??, Mr Huang made comparisons between the $499 plus price tag of the GeForce 7800 GPU and PlayStation3, commenting that:

â??We need to price it at a level the enthusiasts will buy it at, that's the way that we think about pricing. We think about the pricing of this in the same way that Sony thinks about PlayStation 3's - its not about how much is costs, its about what is the price it needs to sell at, and we need to figure out how to make money underneath that.â?

Meanwhile the US edition of PlayStation Magazine has reported that the PS3 will not be supporting PSone and PS2 memory cards, instead it will solely rely on the HDD and Sonyâ??s Memory Stick Duo cards, currently used on PSP. The magazine also states that third-party peripherals for the two older platforms will not be supported either, although the PSP will be used as a Wi-Fi remote control unit that could be used to organise and manage various media stored on the next-gen machine. With various suggestions going around as to what media types would be supported by PlayStation3, PSM is keen to stress that at the moment the final specification of the machine is yet to be set â?“ although the option to play games in 480p and 480i (current non-HDTV standards) will be available to players without high-def equipment.

Having said that if some reports are true, then gamers may have some time to save for HDTV sets â?“ analysts at Wedbush Morgan Securities are commenting that PlayStation3 may be delayed until 2007, with Sony keeping their options open. WMS report that Sony may be about the drop the price of their current generation console to $99 around the time of the Xbox 360 launch, matching an expected Xbox price drop. But whereas Microsoftâ??s first foray in to the console world would continue to make a loss at that price, the lower development costs of PS2 would mean that Sony would continue to make a profit on the hardware. WMS analysts have also stated that if Microsoftâ??s next-gen machine failed to get a good start at launch, the possibly of a 2007 launch for PS3 could become stronger.

At the moment Sony havenâ??t commented officially on the various reports (of course), but you can rest assured that weâ??ll have the latest news on the development and launch build-up of PlayStation3 in the coming weeks and monthsâ?¦