PlayStation 3 won't ship with a hard drive?
By Peter Rojas 
posted Jun 2nd 2005 9:42AM
posted Jun 2nd 2005 9:42AM
It's probably a little early to be freaking out over what might and might not be bundled with a game console that
won't be launched for another year or so, but Sony Computer Entertainment chief technology officer Masayuki Chatani
indicated in a recent interview with a Japanese magazine that Sony may be leaning away from bundling a hard drive
attachment with the PlayStation
3 and instead might sell them separately so that users could buy a larger (or smaller) drive if they wanted to. Not
including a hard drive would certainly help keep the MSRP down, but it also might frustrate gamers who feel like
they're getting nickel and dimed with all the extra stuff they have to buy.
[Via Joystiq]
Not including a HDD would ruin any chance of PS3 games using a HDD, hands down.
I think thats a good plan so the bace price of PS3 will be lower. I hope they dont make it so you have to buy there harddrive and can just use any harddrive even though I'm guessing its a notebook drive.
its gonna be the ps2 all over again. promise tons of stuff if you buy the hard drive, then nothing will support it. if they dont include it from day one, they might as well not bother
PlayStation 3 won’t ship "hard drive" duh! but neway finally now the 360 might have a chance..
I think thats a good plan so the bace price of PS3 will be lower. I hope they dont make it so you have to buy there harddrive and can just use any harddrive even though I'm guessing its a notebook drive.
Eh, a hard disk shouldn't optional, Sony. You're already going to lose a ton of money on each system, what's another 50 bucks?
Mom and dad going to their local Best Buy to grab a new toy for Billy might be swayed to the other side once they hear that the Xbox 360 has one, but the PS3 doesn't. Silly hypothetical, but it's not that far removed from reality.
I don't recall MS specifically saying the 360 will ship with a hard drive in the base package either. In fact, I specifically recalling them announcing that they have made no decisions on whether there will even be only one package or more than one package, and what will be included in it.
Don't assume anything about any of these systems.
It better drastically reduce the retail price (which is unlikely) or they may lose an edge against xbox360, which seems to provide so much and will ship for, supposedly, $300.
hmm, was it not nintendo revolution that was to ship with 512MB of falsh buildt into the device?
maybe sony can pull a similar move?
I don't know about you guys, but I think today's video games have taken a step backwards in terms of game memory. My old Legend of Zelda cartridges would recall my progress instantly. No searching the memory card, or having to put a different memory card in. You'd think a harddrive--at least a small one--would be an absolute necessity for the "next generation" of game consoles. (Or at least a small amount of flash memory like Nintendo's next console will have.)
#6,
Nothing official has been said, but from what various sites are hinting at, it sounds like game developers have begged Microsoft for a HD and standard, and that they gave in.
20 Gig removable will come with the box.
40 Gig will be an add-on.
Deja Vu
I agree with Sony. The first thing you do when you buy a gadget with memory is to to throw away the X megabyte card away! When I got the PSP I upgraded the memory, same for digital camera, and I'm sure you guys (and gals) have done the same.
That way, you decide according to your needs.
Nas
Anytime an accessory doesn't come with a console, that accessory will be virtually useless. Most game manufacturers arent going to make games that will use the hard drive now. Big mistake imho.
Problem with not including HD, Nas et. al, is that the game developers will develop for the lowest common denominator, which is no HD. Then adding HD becomes a moot point, and games don't live up to their full potential.
Big mistake, Sony.
The smart thing to do would be to make different packages, as has been contemplated on with the xbox360.
That way, everyone has a HDD of some kind, though one system may come with an 8-10GB and, for another $50, the other 20GB or so. I don't see the PS3 offering as large a HDD as the new xbox, which, like #11 said, could be up to 40GB.
If they could somehow not include the harddrive but still require it, I'd be all for it. I'd much rather pay $300 for the PS3 and $50 for a 120GB hard drive than pay $465 for a PS3 with a 40GB drive.
But as the other were saying, game makers aren't going to make games that take advantage of it if it's not almost universal.
excellent move by sony. The memory card is an extra revenue stream. I'm sure that even though the games are backwards compatible the memory cards will not be. Every person who buys a PS3 will have to at least buy a memory card for $24 or more. Multiply that buy the number of consoles and you never buy just one. Over the lifetime of the console that is a huge revenue source that consumers can be forced to pay. Not great for consumers but great for the bottom line and I don't think it will disuade any sony fans anyway.
load times...
since the data on the bluray is much more condensed then the dvd. meaning faster read times/data xfer. so the load times on the ps3 are going to be a lot less then the xbox3 without harddrive utilization.
and if i am not mistaken, not to many games even supported the hd on the xbox anyway? i dont mind load times, as long as the content is there. if i am playing mario 1 nes version and i have to wait 2 minutes for it to load, then i will be frustrated, but, if it is a game like gturismo 5 with all the eyecandy and physics, then it is alllll good.
Hebert,
That's the lamest thing I've ever heard. You honestly are that much of a Sony fan that you're willing to defend a decision that would be bad for guys like yourself? (Or maybe you're a Sony executive posting as a regular Joe?)
This is an unbelievably bad idea. As many many other people pointed out, developers won't develop for an accessory unless it's included with the base system.
This is another example of Sony shooting itself in the foot (MemoryStick, MiniDisc, Atrac3 vs mp3, etc.)
Sony used to be challenging and cool, now they're just tired and useless.
The dude that said 360 will include no hard drive is absolutely wrong. MS announced at E3 Xbox 360 will include HD at launch 20Gb in size. Every Xbox 360 will have a hard drive. What Sony needs to do is ditch the Blue Ray and put in a Hard Drive!
HD is absolutely necessary, Blue Ray is not. End of Discussion
Look back at the launch of the PS2. Only a select few games were released on DVD discs: most were still on CDs. Now, near the end of the system, nearly all games are DVD.
I see the same happening with the PS3, except now we have DVD and Blu-ray.
But it can be argued that, since optical discs are hot-swapable, the money saved by staying only DVD and just making games that span several discs is worth not including a next-gen optical laser.
Sony said that They are "leaning" towards the notion that they are not including the HD at launch. Even if this is true, everyone will still want a PS3 because we are the hos to Sony 4 life.
I agree with #22 | Jon Morales
Blu-Ray is kind of ridiculous. I read somewhere that it probably wont even be the standard for a future DVD format. HD-DVD is supposedly cheaper and what Hollywood's eyes are on.
Sony should be able to drop their price to compete with Xbox 360 easily...if they take #22's advice.
#20
I wouldnt be surprised if Herb was majoring in business, cuz I am and it makes sense for Sony, a business trying to make a profit, to do this.
Ok here it is.... it really doesnt matter if the new PS3 comes with an HDD or not.... weve managed without it before.... But it would definately make thigs alot easier instead of having piles of memory cards laying around you just tap into the HDD and grab your info.... Personally I think that it should have a USB port on there where you can Hook up an external HDD of anykind.... I just hope that SONY doesnt Nickle and dime us to death with there own HDD that you have to buy seperately....
This is slightly off-topic, but why is everyone saying that Blu-Ray is so expensive? Isn't it Sony's OWN? I'm pretty sure they could manufacture drives without much expense. Just because it's a new technology, don't assume it's going to cost a fortune to manufacture (especially if it's in-house).
Back to the topic at hand... I really don't think the lack of a hard drive will hurt Sony too much. The main (legal) purpose the Xbox HDD is used for that Sony would be missing out on is custom mp3 playlists. But then again, the PS3 has a MemoryStick, SD, and CF slot, and chances are most people that purchase a PS3 will have one of those types of cards, which could be used for song storage. Post #19 made a good point with the Blu-Ray load times, so that won't be too big of an issue either.
Maybe I'm just not thinking correctly. What else do developers use console hard drives for?
I don't think it will happen, though, after MS has confirmed that it will ship the X360 with 20GB HDD. But if this news is true, then it will only further my belief that Sony has their thinking heads deep up thier asses.
Who the heck needs support for 2 HD monitors, or 7 Bluetooth controllers, or even Blu-Ray DVDs don't make practical sense. Even if games come out on Blu-Ray DVDs, expect to see less than half of the disc space utilized while costing the gamer $10-15 more per game.
What gaming features are really necessary that couldn't be satisfied by a 1 GB USB flash drive? By the time the PS3 ships those things will be cheap enough to be the next memory card (you can get one today for 70 bucks, they will easily be below that magical $40 accessory price point by launch). Memory cards don't ship with the console, and that hasn't stopped developers from using them. I think the real issue here is that a HDD is overkill and there are other cheaper, better, portable ways to provide adequate functionality. So, what exactly would gamers be missing out on without a high capacity HDD in the case?
don't get too worked up about this news...there will be more "changes" and "deviations" from what was unveiled at E3.
to anyone that thinks sony will allow just any onld hd to be used is crazy. whatever they allow the consumer to be used as a hard drive will be sony approved, sony made, and more than likely sony priced...mo money...mo money.
we should all be happy that sony will include at least one controller and hook up cables, so we don't have to buy those as "accessories".
PS3 has like 20 memory slots, so if we just buy one stick/card for each slot we should be able to come up with at least a couple of gigs of memory to use right? i estimate parents will make at least 3 trips to bestbuy before they can actually game on the PS3.
btw does anyone wanna buy my kidney? i'm trying to save up for PS3 and all the accessories necessary to make it useful. thanks.
I guarantee PS3 games on Blu-Ray discs will be no more expensive than Xbox360 games on standard dual-layer DVD's.
Did anyone _read_ the article?
"Speaking in the pages of Japanese magazine Famitsu, Chatani said that a strategy had "yet to be decided", but added that he felt people would want to upgrade to higher capacity drives - the implication being that Sony would shy away from making the hard disk unit an obligatory part of the PlayStation 3 launch package."
Does anyone actually read that quote and come to the same conclusion the site did? He said they don't know what size drive they're going to include, and noted that it should be upgradable in any case. Not that there wouldn't be a drive.
Article's completely off base.
At #30:
I am not talking about the cost of the optical disk that the game is coming out on: which will still be almost double the cost of a standard dual-layer DVD during the first year of the console's lifespan.
But the real reason why game developers even need to go to Blu-Ray DVD is if the game content and extras won't fit on the 9GB dual-layer DVD. If you think logically, do you think all the extra game content that necessitates a 25-45GB Blu-Ray DVD will come cheap?? I bet you didn't consider that.
Correction, my previous post was in response to post #31, not #30.
What is Sony trying to prove? Hard drives have been the driving force on the PC market and the original Xbox, extra downloadable content for games, massive storage for save games, ability to rip music and play it in games, reduced load times on games. Like most of the people who posted here, very few designers will every design for optional accessories like a hard drive. But I can understand, Sony maybe concerned about the price point of the console and by removing the hard drive option would help considering the original PS and PS2 didn’t come with one out of the box so existing PS2 gamers would really see no problem with it. But it would be really cool if the Xbox360 and PS3 came with hard drives from a designer’s perspective.
#27: Maybe this is a little off topic too (I'll come back to it), but can you imagine the development time etc...to fill an entire Blu-Ray disc? I'm getting in line to submit some resum?to a few game companies...
#26: You wouldn't think that just because Sony's going to be manufacturing the Blu-Ray discs that they are going to be cheap. Cheaper than if someone else was manufactoring them, yes. Sony still has to pay for the costs of workers, technology and other equipment etc...So, it's not like Sony's going to create these things for nothing.
#29: Isn't a HDD a little more conveinent than buying all these seperate memory media devices (I sensed sarcasm)?
Someone asked why an HDD. What about DLC (downloadable content)? Customization of your own in-game player models? And as mentioned... music/customized soundtracks. I think a HDD makes things a bit more simple.
Like #29 said again...there's no reason to get all worked up because things are bound to change a million times before things are finally released.
p.s. What are Kidney's going for nowadays?
"What is Sony trying to prove? Hard drives have been the driving force on the PC market and the original Xbox, extra downloadable content for games, massive storage for save games, ability to rip music and play it in games, reduced load times on games."
I think by saying they're going to allow people to upgrade the internal hard drive (unlike the current Xbox), they're proving they understand that some people download more extras and/or have more music than others.
See my post above, #32. Don't be misled by third-hand accounts of statements.
I think the point is...I want a game machine not a media center. I already have 3 high end devices that will playback digital media (music, video, and etc...
Just do whatever is in the interest of gamers aka your fans. They are trying to be the star of a party (living room media centers) that has been going on for a while. GAMES should be the focus not digital music and movies and internet browsing. I already have a computer, Tivo, and mp3 players out the yang.
Games...to be more on topic a storage method for game saves and content OUT OF THE BOX.
I think the point is...I want a game machine not a media center. I already have 3 high end devices that will playback digital media (music, video, and etc...
Just do whatever is in the interest of gamers aka your fans. They are trying to be the star of a party (living room media centers) that has been going on for a while. GAMES should be the focus not digital music and movies and internet browsing. I already have a computer, Tivo, and mp3 players out the yang.
Games...to be more on topic a storage method for game saves and content OUT OF THE BOX.
In related news, the Microsoft XBox team could be seen jumping up and down for joy in their Redmond headquarters.
#26 - It is not the manufacturing cost of the BlueRay drives that is more expensive, it is the cost of the licencing and content production. Apparently, HD-DVD disc can be made on a modified DVD production line. Producers like this. BD-DVD requires a completely new setup that will be more expensive to implement. If production and licencing costs are significantly higher for BD-DVD, then HD-DVD will win out despite BlueRay's technical superiority.
Over 1.5 billion DVDs and console games were sold last year. A price difference of only a few cents in production costs of the two formats would have a huge affect of industry profits.
VHS beat Beta because of licencing costs and restrictions (notably, Sony wouldn't licence Beta to the emerging porn video industry). I'd be very surprised if Sony repeats that mistake, so perhaps they will match or even beat HD-DVD's licencing costs.
Just because developers have a 45 GB disc doesn't mean they have to fill it. Blu-Ray gives them the oppportunity, if they need it, to get a few extras into a game. I think we'll see 10-20 GB games well before this next console generation is over, and we'll see the benefits of Sony including their high-capacity drive.
And to #36... Sony has been making Blu-Ray drives for awhile. They have the equipment and the labor needed. They're not going to have to build several factories to produce them. The actual process of manufacturing the drives and the discs is not going to be a huge factor in the final price of the console. I'd say the biggies are the RSX, and the Cell.
Is it just me, or is everyone here not capable of reading an article without automatically engaging in a pissing contest about who can speculate closest to the truth. There's a reason they included the empty drive bay, and the support for Blu-Ray, this way they can look down the road and make games cheaper in thw long run. One single layer BD-ROM at 25GB is cheaper than 2 dual layer DVD-9 discs. The fact they included the drive bay means they will support the HDD. I'm just waiting for Toshiba to come out with drives that feature perpendicular storage.
Sony did not wait long to start shying away ever so slowly from the "official" system specifications released at E3. This is just a baby step there will be many more announcements to come. I wish they would just have shot straight from the beginning.
#43, Sony made no mention of PS3 including a hard drive at E3. They said only that the unit will support a 2.5" removable hard drive. No specs have changed as a result of this rumor.
Natiahs
#42 "Blu-Ray gives them the oppportunity, if they need it, to get a few extras into a game."
Can't wait until EVERY FREAKIN game has a wonderful "behind the scenes" or "the making of Halo2" or "bloopers of Final Fantasy XX"...what crap.
Does anyone know the time it would take to develop a single QUALITY game that could fill up a blu ray disc? Will the majority of the space be taken up with the HD visuals, or due to its compressed format will the HD content be offset by the compressed format of HD?
I would love to have a 1000 hour RPG that filled a blu ray, but in reality how much would a beast like that cost in terms of development. Can you imagine making an epic game like that only to bomb?
54gig is alot of space to fill is my only point.
"54gig is alot of space to fill is my only point."
You only have to fill 9GB to make it worth the upgrade from DVD. If you have less, then use a DVD. Not all PS2 games were on DVDs, either.
High definition video takes up a lot of space. Your average Final Fantasy game probably has upwards of 2 hours of cutscenes. They're going to need all the space they can get.
I don't want more cutscenes in my games, I want more GAMES in my games!
Some extra FUN would also be nice.
What some ppl don't realize is that when Game developers are putting the material onto the disc, they many times cut down the texture resolutions and scale down the graphics to fit it. With blu-ray they won't have to sacrifice the quality of the graphics to compensate for space.