We're still digging through gigs of CES photographs when we happened upon one rather juicy bit we
thought we might share. We found this little number over at the Blu-ray booth -- which, given the circumstances, we can
only assume was paid for and set up at least in large part by Sony. Yes, you're reading that placard right (we had to
zoom in from another angle since the lighting made it hard to catch a decent shot). Is it true? Is the
Sony PlayStation
3 that we've all
now come to know and love
(or not) merely a "conceptual design?" Because if it is they must be further behind than we originally
anticipated.
P.S. -As our boy Vlad
pointed out over at Joystiq, this
is apparently the same sign posted on the PS3 at the Tokyo Game Show in September. Curiouser and curiouser.
posted Jan 16th 2006 3:33PM
It's conceptual until it's released
figures, at this rate its gonna a complete disappointment
How can so many people across so many sites not catch that sooner?
smart sony.
promote that they are making a console that does EVERYTHING, and uses a shitty controller.
then one week before release, reveal what it ACTUALLY is, an awesome system.
all in the name of preventing microsoft copying them.
Just another way of saying it's gonna be delayed till who knows when.
Wow, if the plastic molded around the actual console isn't finalized yet, they must surely be screwed!
I agree with #1. The Playstation 3 looks worse and worse as time goes by. There was a point where I really wanted one of these. Sony needs to release some info already like.
-US Release date
-Any sort of price details
-Launch titles
-some real ingame footage (not on devkits)
welcome to e3 2005 where the same exact sign was displayed next to the ps3's.
Yep, and that's exactly the same sign they had at E3 as well (Except it was with the controller). It's a bit like an 'All items subject to change' disclaimer. I'm guessing the in built PSU may make way for a 'brick' like the x360 to help keep size/heat down - as well as some more air vents. And maybe also a tidying up of the ports at the rear. Still looking forward to it though!
Honestly, who cares? The controller is a conceptual design as well. Cases and housings are easy to whip up. Don't forget that Nintendo completely redesigned the DS, began production, and had a worldwide launch all within 6 months. The fact that Sony is simply marking their product as a conceptual design means... what? That's right, nothing.
Slow news day, Engadget?
That machine is currently so damn ugly that when I buy one it is going behind a Crayola sketch of a PS2 on the inside of a corn-flake box.
Seriously though, as long as it has Metal Gear Solid I could care less if it looked like Margaret Thatcher having a dump. (Imagine THAT on your media shelf.)
I doubt this means anything except that they reserve the right to change the console design at any time before production. To me the sign just says, "final product may differ from what you see here," not "OMG, WE ARE SO SCREWED - we don't even know what to make it look like!"
i doubt that the box design would have a lot of impact on the initial design of the system. it's quite possible that they simply have several designs that they need to weed through and then slap the system inside it.
It's also quite possible that this is a photoshopped image. Wouldn't SOMEBODY have noticed that tag at the booth last week?
Why do you post things like this that just spread rumors? what happened to the solid facts? Sure, it says conceptual design, but do we have an actual statement from Sony saying that the PS3 is being redesigned? no, we have absolutely nothing. So pointing out things like this only tempts people to think the worse. Stop being pessimistic, Engadget!
You know what I figure, the design for the PS3 is conceptual until it comes into production, and besides you found it at a BlueRay booth, the conceptual placard is probably talking about the BlueRay drive inside the PS3
As for the release date of the PS3, they say it will be released it spring, but then there will be a production 'delay' and then they will release it holiday 2006.
Most people will shove it under their entertainment centers so who cares what it looks like...
Surely the final design wouldn't be completed until closer the release date...I'm not a die hard sony fan but I'd rather they wait and give us a good console than release something like the 360.
I most certainly hope so. I have always loved Sony designing but I simply disgust the current PS3 design and that is not only the controller.
Design doesn't matter in the end but it will hurt every day when I look at it sitting in my livingroom, when I ask myself ... wtf is that ?
I could only suspect that might not have been the final design. Was I the only one who noticed a lack of ventilation holes on the console. How could the Cell processor be cooled without air holes? Oh, it couldn't Sony just brought this out at the last E3 to try and show everyone that they had a nice design already so they could mask the fact that PS3 won't launch until the '06 holiday season. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to get the PS3, but I know it won't be a spring of '06 launch.
I just think they need to use a font that wasn't made famous by the 'Spiderman' movies.
:x Ironic that it ends up only being a conceptual design. I thought that was the real deal. To be honest, I'm dissapointed with that design, regardless of it being the real deal or only a concept. I personally dislike the PS2 design as well, the PSX really won me over, though.
Let's hope they don't stick to multitapping and actually have at least 4 controller ports.
I guess it needs to be a bit thicker to get proper cooling in (air around the processor), the graphics and processor will need PC like cooling like the 360 does Sony wont be able to magic it away.
I also believe it'll need more ventalition a few holes on the side will no way cut it.
Here's another "rumor"
Sony plans on using a proprietary (surprise, surprise) owner verfication system that will prevent it's games from being played on any other PS3 than the one that first ran it.
If true, it means:
No game rentals for the PS3,
No game swapping between friends,
No buying or selling used PS3 games,
And no sale for me. Hope it really is just a rumor.
Isn't it ironic that, while PCs try to get smaller, quieter and more efficient, consoles become the hot, bloated, unfinished power hogs, the very thing console makers were making fun of a couple of years ago...
#2 are you an infant.
For sonys sake I hope they do change the design. I think they designed the controller to be in the shape of a boomerang because they already anticipated that people were going to want to throw it out the window and hoped that the consumer would give it a second chance.
#20: With wireless controllers, I can't see how they would need a multitap OR ports. Except maybe to recharge with, and that's not nearly as big an issue.
they had an article about release date and price on techtimesdaily.com earlier this week. It is getting out of hand with this system.
#22, sony has already said that they aren't using that on PS3. nuff said, rumor over. period. and about what it's gonna look like, i don't care, it just needs to be able to do what it's supposed to do. PS2 looks like a BBQ grill and people bought it
#26 you must be really ugly. If you dont care about looks. Your girlfriend, must be ugly to if looks dont matter.
Its not only about looks its also about practicality. and the arched top does nor allow for stacking, and let me not even get into the controller
This is a great article for this site! *Thumbs up*
What articles like this do is bring the issue of Sony's PS3 secrecy to their own attention. Where as before we were just "nerds" posting on forums or talking with buddies, now we have main stream people pointing at Sony and saying.... "What is the deal?!?!"
Now there is people in the industry that are asking the questions that most of us have been asking, on top of that, this article has a hint of a hidden agenda...
...I would assume that this article is also being issued in hopes to "sway" Sony to putting out so info, and squash the rumors once and for all.
Good Job Engadget!!!!!!!
The 360 is out with 600,000 consoles sold to date. The Revolution is coming this year and Sony doesnt even have its system worked out. Put it this way, if Japan doesnt have a release date yet and you have to assume at this point the systems not coming out this Spring, Fall possibly. Were not gonna see this system in North America till early 2007. By then its gonna be a little to late to play the catch up game. Sonys overconfidence will screw them this generation.
Come on Engdget leave the Fanyboy shit up Joystiq... Please....
So try being objective and not post dung piles....
#27 How is any of that relevant to what he said? You flame him by saying looks are all that matters then you do a 180 and say its about practicality too?
You also shouldnt try to flame someone when you cant even speak the language you are typing in.
All that matters is that the games look good, play good, and are engrossing. P.S. in my opinion the Xbox 360 games don't look next gen. Does anybody else think that way. To me they look no better than PC games running on a good gaming setup.
#32 But if PC games have always looked better than console games, wouldnt that say that console games are looking better than before?
"Because if it is they must be further behind than we originally anticipated."
Yeah, they must be alright :rolleyes
Until the system is released, this is a nice way for them to tell you that everything is subject to change. It's not a big deal.
#26, not only did the psx look like a bbq grill...
so does the ps3!
Tell me I'm not the only one whose seen http://www.ps3grill.com/
conceptual = not production unit = not ready yet at mean time = back off! just chill and wait for the good stuff!
Guys, we are all looking forward to it, but some people are reading into a placecard too hard here.
You guys seem to forget that Sony makes electronics, thats thats what they do. if there were any company that could role out a game machine quickly its Sony.
Either it's a conceptual design, or some dumbass placed the placard in front of the wrong piece of hardware.
Does noone remember that when Nintendo showed of the new Rev controller sony said that it's control wasn't getting a revamp and that what was shown at E3 isn't what the controller looks like anymore? And after the 360 came out they said that the PS3 was still be designed and that the final look of the console has not been determined. The Dev kits just went out last week as well. The first blue ray dvd player is going to be 1800 dollars. Sony is shooting themselves in the foot. I say it launches 2007 at $750. Thats my best guess.
And BTW this wasn't missed if you look at the week when CES was showing and engadget did the sony booth tour, it shows the pic of the PS3 with the same conceptual sign.
uhm xbox360 is so better i havnt bought one yet because my mom has one and she lets me take hers apart to try to hack it and get it ready for a modchip
ps3 is ugly dull grey made by sony uses nasty blue ray that wont ever take over dvd and uses up to 7 controllers
and 360 games arent quite kicking in yet because the dev kits didnt have all the graphics goodies that the current 360 supports so give the game makers a year and well witness the real power when the developers put more use to the hardware
the end
and remember ps3 sucks you buy one and you suck to so wash out your mouth for mentioning it or thinking about it
ahh i need listerine now
let's see... blu-ray booth. PS3 with a blu-ray drive. Could it be that the conceptual design is not in fact the PS3 but the blu-ray drive in it? Maybe it was to show the kinds of devices that will use this technology?
I don't like to call people idiots but come on... put two and two together. And engadget needs to give more info than... we found this at the blu-ray booth. What was around it? Put it into context! Now we have a bunch of f*ing whinners... "oh PS3'... "it looks like a grill".... "we won't see it til 2007"
I am sure Sony wouldn't throw a PS3 concept in a booth that is not their own. Think people.
i think the ps3 looks pretty cool actually
im sure if apple released it you would be pissing your pants about how its an "amazing design" and "simplistic elegance".
all that sign means is that the design is not final yet.
and if they put it at 750 dollars im sure it will sell out anyway but more likely its gonna be 400-500 dollars.
compare that to xbox 360 premium package + hd dvd drive and you have the same price.
OMG, all you people who think the design is ugly are smoking pot. The design is sweet, certain angle of the Boomerang controller looks cool but at other angle it looks a bit funny.
Does anyone else notice that the "Playstation 3" Lettering on the PS3 looks like the same font that was used on the Cover of the Spiderman movies? I never really liked that font I don't know if I would really like it on the PS3.
The "conceptual design" label doesnt mean ne thing. All designs are conceptual and subject to change before their official release. All early images of the ps3 design have said that in in the corner of the pic.
This damn thing is still vapor?
sony will be bankrupt from the rootkit thing before this ever gets launched.
xbox 720 will be out before this thing gets launched.
If it does come out, will it be an Edesel? highly anticipated, but a total bloated overpriced flop?
It might be the final design actually. If I remember correctly, that sign was infront of the controller (when it was actually in the display) so it may just be about the controller. I cant remember where the pictures with the controller are, but if i can find them ill post it.